• 2012 calendar

Ecclestone proposes calendar changes

Bernie Ecclestone's proposed changes include an earlier date for the Indian Grand Prix © Sutton Images

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Bernie Ecclestone has proposed a number of changes to the 2012 calendar, including pushing back the Bahrain Grand Prix and dropping the race in Turkey altogether.

The new calendar would see the season start on March 18 in Melbourne - as it did this year - in order to give Bahrain more time to settle down following the political unrest which caused the cancellation of this season's race. The race in India would also be moved to an earlier slot as the United States Grand Prix becomes the penultimate race in order to avoid the high temperatures expected from its original June 17 date.

The Turkish Grand Prix was only announced on the original calendar with a provisional date as its current contract has now expired, and there is no place for it in the revised calendar which features 20 races.

There would be a number of back to back race weekends, with the Australian and Malaysian, German and Hungarian, Belgian and Italian, Japanese and Korean, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain and the US and Brazilian races run on consecutive weekends.

Proposed 2012 calendar in full:

March 18 - Australia
March 25 - Malaysia
April 8 - China
April 22 - India
May 13 - Spain
May 27 - Monaco
June 10 - Canada
June 24 - Valencia, Spain
July 8 - Great Britain
July 22 - Germany
July 29 - Hungary
September 2 - Belgium
September 9 - Italy
September 23 - Singapore
October 7 - Japan
October 14 - Korea
October 28 - Abu Dhabi
November 4 - Bahrain
November 18 - United States
November 25 - Brazil

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.