Monaco set for date change

The provisional 2010 world championship schedule featured just one week between Monaco and Turkey - a gap which the teams considered logistically impossible due to the travel distance involved.

Now the Monte Carlo race organisers have announced a provisional date change for their event, which will move from Sunday 23 May to Sunday 16 May.

"Although the official calendar of the 2010 F1 events is not yet published by the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile, we strongly consider that the original dates of the 68th Grand Prix Automobile de Monaco announced will be advanced [to] 13th to 16th May 2010, Ascension Day," said a statement from Monaco's sporting body the ACM.

The change would mean that there is now a one-week gap between the Spanish Grand Prix and Monaco, and then two weeks until Turkey.

The Formula One Teams' Association had been concerned that the original schedule made it impossible to transport equipment between Monte Carlo and Istanbul without turning the Turkish race into a 'flyaway' event, which would have had repurcussions for the journey to the Canadian GP two weeks later.

The Monaco date change has yet to be approved by the FIA.