The FIA World Motor Sport Council has ratified a revised 2016 F1 calendar featuring a number of changes from the original version, which was published in July.

In total eight races have new dates, namely the Australian, Chinese, Bahrain, British, Azerbaijan, Hungarian, Malaysian and Mexican GPs. Baku is now twinned with Montreal, and Mexico with Brazil.

Bernie Ecclestone has been wrestling with various scheduling headaches over the past three months after the July schedule attracted some concerns both from teams and some race promoters.

As predicted last weekend, the opening race in Australia has been moved forward to March 20, the Melbourne organisers having confirmed the news on their website earlier today. This creates a new logistical headache for the teams, who now have to change their R&D, car build, crash testing and spares production schedules.

2016 F1 Schedule

20 March Melbourne

3 April Bahrain

17 April Shanghai

1 May Sochi

15 May Barcelona

29 May Monte Carlo

12 June Montreal

19 June Baku

3 July Spielberg

10 July Silverstone

24 July Budapest

31 July Hockenheim

28 August Spa-Francorchamps

4 September Monza

18 September Singapore

2 October Sepang

9 October Suzuka

23 October Austin

6 November Mexico City

13 November Sao Paolo

27 November Abu Dhabi