The identity of Formula 1’s season-opening grand prix has long been relatively stable: the Australian Grand Prix monopolised it for the majority of the time since Melbourne took over that race in 1996, but there had been a recent trend towards the Bahrain GP getting it.
But over the next decade it looks like there’ll be a degree of rotation between Bahrain and Australia, with Saudi Arabia also appearing in that position at least once.
The Victoria Government’s announcement on Thursday that Melbourne had extended its already-long F1 deal by another two years to 2037 included a note that Australia would be the season-opener in “at least four years” between 2023 and 2037, but that Saudi Arabia would get that honour for 2024 “out of respect for Ramadan”.
Though Jeddah’s 2024 date has not been officially confirmed, The Race understands that the information revealed in the Australian statement is correct.
In 2024, Islamic holy month Ramadan runs from March 10 to April 9, which covers the period in which the F1 calendar has been scheduled to begin every year since 2006. So a Saudi Arabia opener that avoids Ramadan is likely to mean F1’s earliest season start since 2005’s March 6 Australian GP date (pictured below).
Australia’s expectation of ‘at least four’ season-openers over a 15-year period suggests further rotation, with Bahrain at present the most likely race to share that status.
While the Abu Dhabi GP now has a contractual right to host F1’s season finale, the situation with the opener is less clear-cut.
Bahrain is known to enjoy the kudos of that position, and has the financial resources to pay a premium for it.
Aside from the COVID anomaly of 2020 (when Australia was set to hold the opener before the pandemic caused it to be cancelled on the eve of practice beginning) and its Austria season start, Sakhir has been the track that’s taken Melbourne’s place as opener on the four occasions that’s happened since 1996 – and one of those was in 2021 when the Australian GP was tentatively scheduled for late-season due to the pandemic and then cancelled outright. Next year’s calendar follows the 2022 pattern of beginning in Bahrain before going to Saudi Arabia then to Australia.
The promotional value of F1 choosing the right venue for its season-opener is considerable – a predictable and uneventful race at an uninspiring track would be an anti-climax after the traditional building up of expectations pre-season.
Though Melbourne’s Albert Park track – even after its 2022 changes – is not regarded as a great circuit for overtaking, its temporary nature, changeable weather and early season position has often prompted surprising or attrition-affected results. The Australian GP’s return to the calendar this year after its COVID absence also prompted a fresh appreciation of the atmosphere and quality of event that Melbourne creates.
Sakhir’s switch to being a night race from 2014 has made the Bahrain GP a much more atmospheric spectacle, and it has also proved to be a decent venue for overtaking with recent generations of F1 cars. It has the additional logistical advantage of also being able to host pre-season testing.
The fact it’s Saudi Arabia – rather than Bahrain – moving into the pre-Ramadan 2024 opener position is an interesting development, though.
In theory, Sakhir could also have gone for a date ahead of Ramadan that year, so the fact it is Jeddah doing so is a strong hint that Saudi Arabia also has an interest in being in the mix for the season-opener position and that F1 is open to giving it that chance. The fast Jeddah street track has also provided highly dramatic and competitive races so far, meaning it is likely to produce an attention-grabbing season opener.
Both Middle Eastern venues also have a timezone advantage over Melbourne, as their night races take place late in the afternoon in F1’s traditional European heartland and in the daytime for F1’s growing new audience in America.
The Australian GP is very early in the morning for Europeans and late at night in America.
