F1 2010 calendar altered

The F1 2010 calendar looks likely to be altered to ease the logistical load on teams, with the date of the prestigious Monaco Grand Prix moving forward by a week to allow longer for the cars and equipment to be transported across Europe to Istanbul for the Turkish Grand Prix a fortnight later.

When the original preliminary schedule was released by governing body the FIA last month [see separate story - click here], there were only a matter of days between when the competitors would have left Monaco on Sunday, 16 May in order to arrive in the Turkish capital - more than a thousand miles away - just two or three days later.

That prompted a raft of concerns from within the paddock, with McLaren Racing managing director Jonathan Neale admitting that the timing represented 'a phenomenal logistics challenge...physically uprooting all of the infrastructure out of Monaco and moving it to Turkey is not a trivial issue' [see separate story - click here]. What's more, the cross-Atlantic trip to Montreal for the popularly re-instated Canadian Grand Prix in the Francophone city follows almost immediately afterwards again.

Now, it seems, F1 commercial rights-holder Bernie Ecclestone has accepted that a change might need to be made, with Monaco's sporting body the ACM issuing a statement affirming: 'Although the official calendar of the 2010 F1 events is not yet published by the F?d?ration Internationale de l'Automobile, we strongly consider that the original dates of the 68th Grand Prix Automobile de Monaco announced will be advanced 13 to 16 May 2010, Ascension Day.'

The revised 2010 Formula One World Championship Calendar is as follows:

14 March Bahrain
28 March Australia
4 April Malaysia
18 April China
9 May Spain
16 May Monaco
30 May Turkey
13 June Canada *
27 June Europe (Valencia)
11 July Great Britain
25 July Germany
1 August Hungary
29 August Belgium
12 September Italy
26 September Singapore
3 October Japan
17 October Korea
31 October Abu Dhabi
14 November Brazil

*Subject to the completion of contract negotiations with Formula One Management. If these are not completed then the Turkish Grand Prix will be moved to 6 June.