2018 Formula One World Championship

The 2018 FIA Formula One World Championship is a planned motor racing championship for Formula One cars which would be recognised by the sport's governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), as the highest class of competition for open-wheel racing cars. Starting in March and ending in November, the championship is due to be contested over twenty-one Grands Prix. Teams and drivers are scheduled to compete for the World Drivers' and World Constructors' championship titles.

An overhaul of the sport's technical regulations to introduce the "halo" cockpit protection device is planned to be introduced for the 2018 championship.

The following teams and drivers are currently under contract to take part in the 2018 Formula One World Championship:

Entrant	Constructor	Power unit	Race drivers
			No.	Driver name
Scuderia Ferrari[1]	Ferrari	Ferrari	5	Sebastian Vettel[2]
			7	Kimi Räikkönen[3]
Force India F1 Team[4]	Force India-Mercedes	Mercedes[5]	11	Sergio Pérez[6]
			31	Esteban Ocon[4]
Haas F1 Team[7]	Haas-TBA	Ferrari	8	Romain Grosjean[7]
			20	Kevin Magnussen[7]
McLaren Formula 1 Team	McLaren-TBA	Renault[8]	2	Stoffel Vandoorne[9]
			14	Fernando Alonso
Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport[10][11]	Mercedes	Mercedes	44	Lewis Hamilton[10]
			77	Valtteri Bottas[12]
Aston Martin Red Bull Racing[13]	Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer	TAG Heuer[14][N 1]	3	Daniel Ricciardo[16]
			33	Max Verstappen[17]
Renault Sport Formula One Team[18]	Renault	Renault	27	Nico Hülkenberg[18]
			55	Carlos Sainz Jr.[19]
Sauber F1 Team	Sauber-Ferrari	Ferrari[20]	TBA	TBA
			TBA	TBA
Scuderia Toro Rosso	Toro Rosso-TBA	Honda[21]	TBA	TBA
			TBA	TBA
Williams Martini Racing[22]	Williams-TBA	TBA	TBA	TBA
			TBA	TBA

• McLaren terminated their engine partnership with Honda and instead signed a three-year deal for power units supplied by Renault.^[8] The team cited Honda's repeated failure to supply a reliable and competitive power unit as being behind the decision to end the partnership. Toro Rosso parted ways with Renault—allowing McLaren to finalise their agreement with Renault—and came to an agreement to use Honda power units in 2018.^[21] As part of the deal, Red Bull Racing agreed to loan Toro Rosso driver Carlos Sainz Jr. to Renault's works team for one year.^[19][23]
• Sauber renewed their partnership with Ferrari, upgrading to current-specification power units after having used older-model power units in 2017.^[20][24]

The following twenty-one Grands Prix are listed on the provisional calendar for the 2018 season published by the FIA:^[25]

Round	Grand Prix	Circuit	Date
1	Australian Grand Prix	Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit, Melbourne	25 March
2	Bahrain Grand Prix	Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir	8 April
3	Chinese Grand Prix	Shanghai International Circuit, Shanghai	15 April
4	Azerbaijan Grand Prix	Baku City Circuit, Baku	29 April
5	Spanish Grand Prix	Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Barcelona	13 May
6	Monaco Grand Prix	Circuit de Monaco, Monte Carlo	27 May
7	Canadian Grand Prix	Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal	10 June
8	French Grand Prix	Circuit Paul Ricard, Le Castellet	24 June
9	Austrian Grand Prix	Red Bull Ring, Spielberg	1 July
10	British Grand Prix	Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone	8 July
11	German Grand Prix	Hockenheimring, Hockenheim	22 July
12	Hungarian Grand Prix	Hungaroring, Budapest	29 July
13	Belgian Grand Prix	Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Stavelot	26 August
14	Italian Grand Prix	Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Monza	2 September
15	Singapore Grand Prix	Marina Bay Street Circuit, Singapore	16 September
16	Russian Grand Prix	Sochi Autodrom, Sochi	30 September
17	Japanese Grand Prix	Suzuka International Racing Course, Suzuka	7 October
18	United States Grand Prix	Circuit of the Americas, Austin, Texas	21 October
19	Mexican Grand Prix	Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Mexico City	28 October
20	Brazilian Grand Prix	Autódromo José Carlos Pace, São Paulo	11 November
21	Abu Dhabi Grand Prix	Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi	25 November
Source:[25][26][27][28]

• The Chinese and Bahrain Grands Prix swapped places, with the Bahrain Grand Prix promoted to the second round of the championship and the Chinese Grand Prix becoming the third round.^[26]
• The French Grand Prix is scheduled to return to the calendar for the first time since 2008. The race is due to return to the Circuit Paul Ricard, which last hosted the French Grand Prix in 1990 before the event moved to the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours.^[29] The race is scheduled to be run in June, with the Azerbaijan Grand Prix brought forward to April to accommodate the change.^[25]
• The German Grand Prix is set to return to the calendar after a one-year absence, with the Hockenheimring hosting the race.^[30]
• The Malaysian Grand Prix, which had featured as part of the championship between 1999 and 2017, was discontinued.^[31] The Russian Grand Prix was moved from April to September in order to replace the race.^[25]

• The number of pre-season test days will be reduced to seven, while the mid-season test held in Bahrain in 2017 will be moved to Barcelona.^[32][33]
• The rules governing starting procedures will be changed for 2018, granting race stewards the power to issue penalties for improper race starts even if a driver's start does not trigger the automated detection system.^[34] The changes were introduced following a series of incidents throughout 2017; during the Chinese Grand Prix, Sebastian Vettel positioned his car too far across his grid slot to be detected by the detection system; while at the Austrian Grand Prix, Valtteri Bottas' start was called into question for his reaction time despite the detection system recognising it as legal.
• Drivers will be required to wear gloves containing biometric sensors which record their vital signs in order to better-assist marshalls and recovery crews assess their condition in the event of an accident.^[35]

• Following a series of serious incidents in open-wheel racing—including the fatal accidents of Henry Surtees and Justin Wilson—in which drivers were struck in the head by debris, the FIA announced plans to introduce additional mandatory cockpit protection with 2018 given as the first year for its introduction. Several solutions were tested, with the final design subject to feedback from teams and drivers.^[36] Each design was created to deflect debris away from a driver's head without compromising their visibility or the ability of safety marshalls to access the cockpit and extract a driver and their seat in the event of a serious accident or medical emergency,^[37] with a series of serious accidents—such as the fatal accidents of Jules Bianchi and Dan Wheldon—recreated to simulate the ability of devices to withstand a serious impact.^[37] The FIA ultimately settled on the "halo", a wishbone-shaped frame mounted above and around the driver's head and anchored to the monocoque forward of the cockpit.^[38] Once introduced, the halo concept is scheduled to be applied to other open-wheel racing categories including Formula 2 and Formula 3.^[39][40][41]
  • The FIA revealed plans to allow teams some design freedom in the final version of the halo.^{[citation needed]} Race Director Charlie Whiting noted that the halo would be incorporated into the chassis design from its inception rather than attached once the design was completed.
• The FIA introduced tighter restrictions on the use of "shark fins", a carbon fibre extension to the engine cowling aimed at directing airflow over the rear wing.^[42] The use of "T-wings", a horizontal secondary wing mounted forward of and above the rear wing, will be banned.^[42]
• The FIA will introduce further restrictions against the practice of oil burning, where engine oils are burned as fuel to boost performance. The practice, which was first used in 2017 saw teams burning as much as 1.2 litres per one hundred kilometres. For the 2018 championship, this figure will be revised down to a maximum of 0.6 litres per one hundred kilometres.^[43]