The first two races of the 2024 Formula 1 season will take place on a Saturday with both the Bahrain and Saudi Arabia rounds being moved ahead by a day.
The opening two races of the 2024 Formula 1 World Championship will now be held on Saturdays instead of Sundays as previously planned as a result of a scheduling adjustment.
Now the Bahrain Grand Prix and the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix will take place on the Saturdays of March 2nd and 9th, respectively. Although Las Vegas also has its race on a Saturday night later in the season, there is another reason why the two races will be held on a Saturday this year.
Formula 1 has confirmed that the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was moved up one day to avoid conflicting with the Islamic holy month as Ramadan is set to begin on Sunday, March 10.
The Bahrain Grand Prix will be held a day earlier than planned on 2nd March as a result of FIA regulations requiring a minimum of seven days between Grand Prix events therefore resulting to a domino effect.
The recently introduced Las Vegas round, which also held its race on a Saturday last year, albeit for different reasons, means that the change is not as unusual as it was in previous years. The purpose of this case is primarily to make the event more convenient for spectators throughout the world to watch.
In Formula 1’s first thirty to forty years races were held on Saturdays. In fact, the first race ever held on a Saturday was the Silverstone GP in 1950.
In 1981 and 1982, the first Las Vegas Grand Prix, also known as the Caesar Palace Grand Prix, also had its racing days on Saturdays. The only race held on a Saturday before last year was the 1985 South African GP.
