2024 Formula One race calendar announced, Melbourne dates locked in

The 2024 Formula One season calendar has been announced, with a record 24 races set to take place between March and December next year.

For the third year in a row, the Australian Grand Prix returns as the third race of the season – after being the opening round on 20 occasions – taking place across 22-24 March 2024 at Melbourne’s Albert Park Circuit.

Record crowds flocked to the Victorian capital for the 2023 Australian Grand Prix, with an estimated attendance of 441,631 people across four days – the most since the race moved to Melbourne in 1996, but short of the estimated 520,000 fans who attended the final running of the event in Adelaide in 1995.

Next year’s Formula One season will also be the first to include three full-length races on a Saturday – with the season-opening Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix moved a day ahead of their normal times due to Ramadan beginning on March 10, the day after the Jeddah race takes place.

The final Saturday race of the year will occur in Las Vegas as the third-last round, marking Formula One’s return to the Nevada desert since 1982 when the season ended in the car park of Caesars Palace.

Max Verstappen is expected to retain the #1 on his Red Bull Racing car next year, having dominated the opening nine races of the 2023 season with seven wins and two second-place finishes.

The Dutchman currently sits on 229 points, 81 ahead of team-mate Sergio Perez and 98 more than third-placed Fernando Alonso.