The FIA today announced the Formula 2 and FIA Formula 3 Championship calendars for the 2019 season. It will be the first year under the organisations three-tier Road to F1 schedule.
F2 remains unchanged, again committing to twelve rounds, with the season being book ended by events in the Middle East. The year will begin at the Bahrain International Circuit on the 30-31 March 2019, concluding at the F1 finale at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on the 1st December.
As for FIA F3, the series takes over the calendar left behind from the now defunct GP3 Series, though unlike F2 will not visit Abu Dhabi at the end of the year, instead choosing to conclude at the Russian Grand Prix on the 29th September.
This will mean that the new F3 will have one less round than GP3 had, instead sporting an eight race calendar that begins at the Circuit de Catalunya on the 10-12 May.
The move will likely have been to reduce costs for the new series, but with only 16 races throughout the year, compared to the old FIA European F3 that had 30 (due to having 3 races per round), this may also have been to free up the Dallara car for the Macau Grand Prix.
Autosport confirmed that Bruno Michel, who will be in charge of the new series, has applied to have his cars available for the Street race, but the Macanese government are unwilling to upgrade the circuit to Grade 2 standards as to make it suitable for the new car. This ensures the race may continue to use the old chassis at least for 2019.
Once again, both F2 and now-F3 will miss the German Grand Prix. Unlike in previous years, there will be no non-F1 weekends.
2019 FIA Formula 2 and FIA Formula 3 Championship Calendars
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