FIA Formula 3 Championship 2021 season provisional calendar revealed

The 2021 FIA Formula 3 Championship provisional calendar has been revealed today. It will comprise a total of seven rounds, all support events of the FIA Formula One World Championship. As previously announced, there will be three races per round, forming a 21-race season – three more than in 2019 and 2020.

As confirmed last week, F3 will no longer race alongside Formula 2 as part of a wider cost-cutting programme. Although the number of rounds has diminished compared to the two previous seasons, one race has been added per event meaning that the overall number of races has been increased. As a consequence, the running time over a race weekend has been boosted, which will allow young drivers to gain even more experience and exposure.

Six rounds will be held in Europe, including a new venue at Zandvoort in the Netherlands. The 2021 season will open on familiar grounds at the Circuit de Catalunya de Catalunya at Barcelona, Spain on May 07-09. It will be followed by the return of Le Castellet, France on the F3 calendar on June 25-27. The paddock will then travel to Spielberg in Austria a week later before racing at Budapest in Hungary on the first weekend of August. The competition will resume with a triple-header kicking-off at Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium on 27-29 August, followed by Zandvoort on the first weekend of September, back-to-back with Monza in Italy. The season will conclude overseas on October 22-24 at another exciting and new venue: Austin, USA.

The race weekend format - which will be detailed in due time – and the calendar are subject to World Motor Sport Council approval.

MORE: FIA Formula 2 and FIA Formula 3 announce cost cutting measures for 2021 onwards

FIA Formula 3 CEO Bruno Michel said: “As part of our cost control measures for 2021 which we detailed last week, we have decided to limit the number of rounds per season in order to reduce our teams’ budget.

“Thanks to F1 and the FIA’s support, we will now have three races per event which means that we may have gone from nine to seven rounds, but we have effectively increased the number of races overall from eighteen to twenty-one. This will automatically increase the mileage over one season which is something that needed to be addressed as well.

“I’m quite interested to see the F3 cars run at Zandvoort and Austin. These are two exciting new venues for us. We will also go back to Le Castellet where we saw great racing in previous years. F3 may no longer be racing on the same weekends as F2, I am pleased to confirm that all F3 events will take place alongside Formula 1.“