Monaco Formula 1 GP to become three-day event

The Monaco Grand Prix will be a three-day event next year, Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has revealed.

Monaco had been an outlier in so much that the opening two practice sessions were held on a Thursday, with no F1 activity on the Friday as a legacy of the event once coinciding with a public holiday.

While that tradition has been observed since the first event, in 1929, it ends in 2022.

“Monaco will be in three days, straight away,” Domenicali told pay television news network CNN.

“So, [it will be] Friday, Saturday and Sunday instead of Thursday, a hole, then Saturday and Sunday.

“Yes, that is the change we’re going to introduce next year.”

While the headline act has had a day off in the Principality, Fridays have featured support category sessions, including Formula 2 this year.

Exactly why the change is being made is not clear, although it should be noted that the Miami Grand Prix will join the calendar in the first half of May, the same month in which Monaco typically falls.

Despite the addition of Miami, the season is set to span 23 rounds, as was to have been the case this year before pandemic-related restrictions led to a raft of changes.

Speedcafe.com understands that the Australian Grand Prix is shaping for the weekend of Sunday, April 10, while Domenicali has now affirmed that the French Grand Prix is safe.

Furthermore, the season would likely end earlier than the December 12 date which this year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix occupies.

“The plan is that we’re going to have 23 races,” said Domenicali.

“We’re going to announce the calendar at the [FIA] World [Motor Sport] Council, on the 15th of October.

“The idea is to finish earlier than what we finished this year.”

Round 15 of the 2021 campaign, the Russian Grand Prix, takes place this weekend at the Sochi Autodrom.