Monaco to shorten GP weekend in 2022; Kyalami eyes F1 return

The Monaco Grand Prix will become a three-day race weekend from 2022 onwards, bringing to an end its traditional four-day schedule.

While all other races on the Formula 1 calendar have run to a schedule of track action on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Monaco has used a four-day format where practice was held on Thursday and then Friday was a day off for F1 before the usual schedule was followed from then on.

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Having the longer schedule tended to mean more social events were held in Monte Carlo, while visitors spent more time and therefore money within the principality, but as of 2022, F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali says it will fall in line with the rest of the calendar.

“Monaco will be in three days, straight away,” Domenicali told CNN. “So Friday, Saturday and Sunday instead of Thursday, hold, and then Saturday and Sunday. That's the change we're going to introduce next year.”

The change will coincide with a planned update to the race weekend format, with just one practice session to be held on Friday afternoon and media duties taking place on Friday morning rather than on a Thursday, cutting the amount of time teams need to be at each venue as the calendar expands.

The 2022 calendar is expected to be released in the middle of October, but Domenicali also says there has been a lot of interest from venues in Africa hoping to be one of the 23 on the schedule, including Kyalami.

“We received interest from Kyalami to be back in the calendar. Of course, we have discussed with them in order to see if they are ready from the technical perspective, the financial perspective, to be inserted in the calendar, so discussions are there.

“We have received other requests from other countries in Africa. In this moment, I need to keep it confidential.”