F1 announces revised starting times for 22 rounds of 2021 season

2021 F1 season

Posted on

| Written by

Formula 1 has confirmed details of the starting times for all bar one of the rounds on its 23-race 2021 calendar.

The season will begin with a night race: The Bahrain Grand Prix will start at 6pm local time on March 28th.

European races will have a standard start time of 3pm. This includes the second round of the championship at Imola, the title of which is yet to be confirmed. It has replaced the Chinese Grand Prix, which has not yet been rescheduled.

The venue for the third round of the championship has not yet been confirmed. Portugal’s Autodromo do Algarve, which held the 12th round of last year’s reorganised calendar, is believed to be the preferred venue.

Most rounds will typically begin around 10 minutes earlier than their previous scheduled times as Formula 1 reverts to starting races on the hour, reversing a change which was made in 2018.

In a further change, Friday’s practice sessions will be cut from 90 minutes each to 60.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2021 F1 race starting times

RoundDateRaceCircuitStart timeStart time (UK)
128/03/2021Bahrain Grand PrixBahrain International Circuit18:0016:00
218/04/2021TBC Grand PrixImola15:0014:00
302/05/2021TBC Grand PrixTBCTBCTBC
409/05/2021Spanish Grand PrixCircuit de Catalunya15:0014:00
523/05/2021Monaco Grand PrixMonaco15:0014:00
606/06/2021Azerbaijan Grand PrixBaku City Circuit16:0013:00
713/06/2021Canadian Grand PrixCircuit Gilles Villeneuve14:0019:00
827/06/2021French Grand PrixPaul Ricard15:0014:00
904/07/2021Austrian Grand PrixRed Bull Ring15:0014:00
1018/07/2021British Grand PrixSilverstone15:0015:00
1101/08/2021Hungarian Grand PrixHungaroring15:0014:00
1229/08/2021Belgian Grand PrixSpa-Francorchamps15:0014:00
1305/09/2021Dutch Grand PrixZandvoort15:0014:00
1412/09/2021Italian Grand PrixMonza15:0014:00
1526/09/2021Russian Grand PrixSochi Autodrom15:0013:00
1603/10/2021Singapore Grand PrixSingapore20:0013:00
1710/10/2021Japanese Grand PrixSuzuka14:0006:00
1824/10/2021United States Grand PrixCircuit of the Americas14:0020:00
1931/10/2021Mexican Grand PrixAutodromo Hermanos Rodriguez13:0019:00
2007/11/2021Brazilian Grand PrixInterlagos14:0017:00
2121/11/2021Australian Grand PrixAlbert Park17:0006:00
2205/12/2021Saudi Arabian Grand PrixJeddah19:0016:00
2312/12/2021Abu Dhabi Grand PrixYas Marina17:0013:00

Get all the 2021 F1 race weekend session times plus test and launch dates on your mobile device using the RaceFans F1 Calendar

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2021 F1 season

Browse all 2021 F1 season articles

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

18 comments on “F1 announces revised starting times for 22 rounds of 2021 season”

  1. Is this table correct? The British GP track and UK time shouldn’t be different. Unless you have put all the UK times in GMT rather than BST (when applicable).

    1. I was referring to the UK times specifically, not the table as a whole. Should have made that clearer.

      On a side note, for me personally I find it easier to watch at 14:00 UK time so glad they didn’t do a full reversal to what they had before.

      1. @chimaera2003 Sorry for the confusion – that column originally showed GMT, rather than UK time, which of course switches between GMT and BST. That’s now been changed.

    2. @chimaera2003 There indeed are errors. Misleading – either the local start times for the European events (other than the British GP) are incorrect, or the UK times are wrong, in which case, the reference should be GMT/UTC.

    3. Even less important than the colour scheme of cars and Vettel’s hairstyle, but I’d prefer the 2nd reference to say ‘Starting Time (GMT)’ rather than ‘Starting Time (UK)’.
      This site should deliver against it’s stated aspiration to be more global than focussed on the UK.

    4. I see Zandvoort is at 15.00 and the UK time at 13.00 that is 2 hour diference and i am sure there is only 1 hour diference
      between Holland and England. Or is there a summertime difference? normally that is only a few days for the extra +1 hour.

      1. The last column is GMT, and consistent with the local times as far as I can see.
        @macleod

        1. @coldfly, The times are fixed now I thought there was a mistake there. The last column was first 13.00 uur and is fixed to 14.00 uur.

          1. They all changed, @macleod.
            It was GMT before (and correct) and now all in UK times (BST where appropriate).

            PS – I think it is ridiculous to refer to UK time on a site which pretends to be international, @KeithCollantine. GMT would be much more appropriate or any other ‘global’ time reference. Or alternatively include AET please.

  2. I would have preferred a 2pm start in continental Europe.

    3pm schedule means the race goes until 5pm and Sunday is scrapped.
    Between a Hungarian GP and an afternoon with friends and family, choice is quickly made.

    1. The only inconvenience I have is that the delayed streaming only start after the GP and prize giving has been finished.

    2. @jeff1s Given the number of support races, having an extra hour to give extra flexibility to ensure these races finish (eg if longish red flag) is probably a good thing. Although if the plan to alternate F2 and F3 becomes a reality then this point is somewhat moot.

    3. Agreed. In Italy, it meant that the start was right after lunch, and at 3.30/4pm you were free to enjoy the rest of your afternoon outside during spring/summer.
      Moreover, 3pm overlaps with Serie A kick-off time for at least 3-4 matches.
      While some years ago F1 was a good appetizer for casual fans, now it is in direct competition with the most popular sport in the country.

  3. So the return for 14:00 local (for European races bar the British GP) didn’t happen after all, despite the reports at one point? Otherwise, there are some errors in the timings? British GP is also somewhat confusing.
    As for the flyaways: I wish Saudi Arabia’s would be 18:00 (Bahrain-like) instead, or even 17:00 so that it’d be like the Abu Dhabi GP as the sunset times for Jeddah on December 3-5 is 17:40.
    Canadian, Mexican, and Brazilian GP times are the same as before or in the recent past. US GP what it was supposed to be last year before COVID. The same for Azerbaijan.
    Abu Dhabi and Singapore were clear cut cases in that nothing would change, while Bahrain likewise in that it’d be the hour of 18:00 as it’s been since 2014 except for last year.
    For the Russian GP, the time is the same as in 2016 and 2017. I assume this is because of the reduction in maximum race time from four hours to three.
    The Japanese GP was scheduled for 13:00(13:10) last year before COVID, but this year, it’s 14 again, which has been customary since 2015.
    Finally, Australia: The same as in 2013, most recently. Probably because of later sunset times in the third-quarter of November than in the second half of March. The sunset time for November 21 is 20:16, so I could foresee this change.

    1. British GP is also somewhat confusing.

      Why is this confusing, @jerejj?
      15:00 BST = 14:00 GMT

      1. @coldfly Because at first glance, it seemed as if the local and UK times were different, as @chimaera2003 initially pointed out above. Nothing misleading to any extent if the reference texts were
        ‘Start time’ and ‘Start time (GMT)’ rather than ‘(UK)’ for the latter.

        1. Steven Jackson
          29th January 2021, 11:10

          It is misleading as Start time UK will be subject to DST so basically all the times from races 1-19 are out by 1 hour.

          It’d have been better to quote BST then only 4 would be wrong.

          “Even a stopped clock gives the right time twice a day”

  4. 17:00 for Australia? Wasn’t that in 2009 and wasn’t really preferred?

Comments are closed.