The Schedule
The number of races in the calendar has gradually risen over the last decade or so, but has fallen from twenty to nineteen for 2013. The culled race is the European Grand Prix, which, given its hosting in Valencia for the last few years, has been a second Spanish Grand Prix in everything but name, making its removal understandable. The Valencia circuit will now alternate the hosting of the Spanish race on a yearly basis with the Circuit De Catalunya, as the Nurburgring and Hockenheim currently do for the German event.
The Russian Grand Prix will debut in 2014, bringing the schedule back up to an optimal (in Bernie Ecclestones eyes), twenty races. Nevertheless, several countries attempted (and failed) with bids to add their circuits to the schedule, including Austria, Portugal, Turkey, Argentina and France, who have all hosted events in the past. The complete nineteen race schedule is therefore as follows:
Australia - 17th March Malaysia - 24th March China - 14th April Bahrain - 21st April Spain - 12th May Monaco - 26th May Canada 9th June United Kingdom - 30th June Germany - 7th July Hungary - 28th July Belgium - 25th August Italy - 8th September Singapore - 22nd September Korea - 6th October Japan - 13th October India - 27th October Abu Dhabi - 3rd November United States - 17th November Brazil - 24th November