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Organisers of the Australian Grand Prix are targeting mid-March for next season's event, as to avoid a clash with the start of the AFL (Australian Football League). Australia has become a tradition in Formula 1 to open the season and this year's Grand Prix weekend stretched from the 24th-26th of March.
With Liberty Media already announcing that the calendar for next year will contain 21 races, it equals the record for the most races in a championship season, which we first saw in 2016. After Germany dropped off the calendar for 2017, it will be back next season along with a refurbished French Grand Prix.
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"We're working with them and we're very confident we'll get an outcome," Australian Grand Prix Corporation Chief Executive Andrew Westacott told Fairfax Media. "If that works out to be March 18, then we'll be very happy.
"The first race of the season is going to be in Melbourne and we're working with FOM on the date," Westacott added. "Our desire would be to have it on March 18 and if it can't be that, then it's March 25. It's one of those two dates."
The Australian Grand Prix has a contract to host a race until 2023. The race has been held at Albert Park since 1996, but from 1985 to 1995 it was held in Adelaide, which has been rumoured to be making a calendar return in the next number of years in place of Albert Park.
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f1fan0101
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The earlier the better!