F1's 2019 schedule confirmed

While the 21 race venues remain the same, several dates have changed. The season begins March 17 in Melbourne and ends in Abu Dhabi on December 1.

That extra week of racing before the summer break means the Belgian Grand Prix -- which also signed a three-year contract extension this year -- will be held a week later on September 1, with Singapore being turned into the first part of a back-to-back with Russia later in the same month.

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The Japanese Grand Prix is a standalone race before a date swap between Austin and Mexico that sees the Mexican Grand Prix held as the first of the pair on October 27, with the United States race at Austin's Circuit of The Americas a week later on November 3.

Following the F1 draft calendar publication, the World Endurance Championship moved its round at Fuji up one week to Oct. 6 to avoid a date clash with F1's Japanese Grand Prix.

Among the changes to the 2019 Sporting Regulations:

• Safety Car regulations will now ensure a consistent point at which drivers may overtake when the Safety Car returns to the pits, which will apply in all three types of restart
• Teams will now be responsible for initial scrutineering of their cars. Before the cars go on track for the first time, teams must declare conformity with all safety-related matters
• The official end-of-race signal will now be a checkered light panel, although the checkered flag will still be shown.
• For 2020, the team personnel curfew -- the amount of time for which all team personnel must be away from the track -- will increase from eight to nine hours.

Accepted technical regulation that were accepted from the Formula 1 Strategy Group and Commission include the addition of rear endplate lights for safety (Article 14.5) and minor modifications to the Halo fairing (Article 15.2.6), which are being made for safety reasons during a potential driver extraction.

2019 F1 schedule: