F1’s 2023 start times revealed, including unique Las Vegas GP timetable

There are 23 races currently scheduled, although there remains the possibility that an extra event can be slotted in between the Australian GP on 2 April and the Azerbaijan GP on 30 April to replace the cancelled round in China.

The season begins in Bahrain on 5 March, with the night race beginning at 6pm local time. This is followed a fortnight later by the Saudi Arabian GP, which is another night race that starts at 8pm.

That is not the latest start of the year, though, because the new Las Vegas race on Saturday 18 November will begin even later.

F1 has agreed to a unique timetable for the race, with practice on Thursday, qualifying on Friday and the race on Saturday night at 10pm.

With an eight-hour time difference to the UK, it means the race will take place from 6am GMT.

The entire weekend in Vegas will operate to a late timetable, with Thursday’s hour-long practice sessions beginning at 6.30pm and 10pm.

Friday’s final free practice session will take place at 6.30pm, while qualifying will take place at 10pm that evening.

With the sun setting at 4.30pm that weekend, it means all the sessions will take place in darkness.

Las Vegas track map

Photo by: Liberty Media

F1’s European races are all scheduled to begin at 3pm. The earliest race starts of the season are at 2pm – for Canada, Japan, Austin, Mexico and Brazil.

The timing of the races in the western hemisphere are to help ensure they capture the European television audiences, while the choice for Japan will have been dictated by its early sunset.

The six sprint races that have been scheduled for 2023 have been allocated different times on Saturdays.

They will take place in Azerbaijan (5.30pm), Austria (4.30pm), Belgium (4.30pm), Qatar (5.30pm), the United States (5pm), and Brazil (3.30pm).

After the FIA abandoned efforts to try to conduct all media activities on Friday mornings at GP weekends, therefore starting track action late, the timings for several FP1s in 2023 have been brought forward by half an hour.

F1 2023 race start times