The 2017 Formula One season is scheduled to be the 71st season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It is scheduled to feature the 2017 Formula One World Championship, a motor racing championship for Formula One cars. It is 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. Teams and drivers are scheduled to compete in twenty Grands Prix—starting in Australia on 26 March and ending in Abu Dhabi on 26 November—for the World Drivers' and World Constructors' championships.
As the reigning Drivers' Champion Nico Rosberg announced his retirement from the sport in December 2016, the 2017 season is set to be the first since 1994 in which the reigning champion did not compete. Mercedes are set to start the season as the defending Constructors' Champion, having secured their third consecutive title at the 2016 Japanese Grand Prix.
Contracted teams and drivers
The following teams and drivers are currently under contract to take part in the 2017 Formula One World Championship:
The parent company of MRT went into administration in January 2017. The administrators failed to find a buyer and the company collapsed later that same month; however, under the terms of the team's agreement to compete, the entry held by MRT is still valid until the third race of the season.
Sauber signed a deal to use one year-old Ferrari power units in 2017, mirroring the arrangement between Ferrari and Scuderia Toro Rosso in 2016.
Toro Rosso agreed to return to using Renault power units in 2017, having used 2015-specification Ferrari power units in 2016. The team had previously used Renault power units in 2014 and 2015 before the relationship between Renault and sister team Red Bull Racing broke down, prompting Toro Rosso to seek out an alternative supplier.
Kevin Magnussen turned down an offer to stay with Renault and instead signed a deal with Haas to drive alongside Romain Grosjean. As a result of the agreement with Magnussen and the team's decision to take up an option on Grosjean, Esteban Gutiérrez's contract with the team was not renewed. Gutiérrez later moved to the Formula E championship.
Esteban Ocon reached an agreement to move from MRT to Force India and is scheduled to fill the seat left vacant by Nico Hülkenberg's departure to Renault.
Reigning champion and Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg retired from the sport at the end of the 2016 season. Valtteri Bottas was released by Williams to sign as his replacement. Felipe Massa, who had intended to retire from Formula One at the end of the 2016 season, extended his contract with Williams to replace his former teammate, alongside 2016 European Formula 3 Championship winner Lance Stroll. Stroll, who is scheduled to make his Formula One début, was originally hired by the team to replace Massa.
2015 GP2 Series champion Stoffel Vandoorne signed a contract with McLaren as a full-time driver. Vandoorne has previously competed in one race for the team, the 2016 Bahrain Grand Prix, in which he substituted for the injured Fernando Alonso while serving as the team's reserve driver. He is scheduled to replace Jenson Button, who is taking a sabbatical from racing in 2017 while staying on with the team as a reserve driver.
Pascal Wehrlein, who drove for MRT in 2016, moved to Sauber for the 2017 season, replacing Felipe Nasr, who drove for the team in the 2015 and 2016 seasons.
The following twenty Grands Prix are scheduled to take place in 2017:
The Chinese and Bahrain Grands Prix swapped places in the schedule for the 2017 season.
The Baku event was renamed, becoming the first Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The previous race at the Baku Street Circuit ran under the European Grand Prix title in 2016. The date of the Baku race was changed to avoid conflicting with the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which had been a source of controversy at the 2016 European Grand Prix.
The German Grand Prix was removed from the calendar after the owners of the Hockenheimring and Nürburgring circuits were unable to agree to commercial terms with Formula One Management.
The Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari—more commonly known as the Imola circuit—signed an agreement with Bernie Ecclestone to host a Grand Prix from 2017; however, the agreement had to be ratified by the Italian motorsport federation in order for the event to take place, and it was omitted from the calendar. The Imola circuit previously hosted the Italian Grand Prix in 1980 and the San Marino Grand Prix from 1981 to 2006.
In September 2016, Liberty Media purchased a minority stake in the sport from CVC Capital Partners, and completed the purchase ahead of the 2017 season, with the long-term goal of adopting a model similar to that used by the U.S. National Football League and Major League Baseball, with teams entitled to purchase a stake in the sport. The commercial operation of the sport underwent a restructuring in January 2017, with Bernie Ecclestone leaving his position as chief executive of Formula One Group after forty years in the role.
With the acquisition of the sport by Liberty Media, teams were given more control over creating and uploading content to social media. Under Bernie Ecclestone's previous management, all footage filmed in the paddock was automatically controlled by Formula One Management with tight restrictions on the release of content.
As a response to widespread changes in the technical regulations expected to increase cornering speeds by up to 40 km/h (24.9 mph), the FIA requested that every circuit on the calendar undergo revisions to update safety features.
The technical regulations governing bodywork design were revised for 2017, with the objective of improving lap times by four to five seconds over the 2016 generation of cars. These changes include:An increase of the width of the front wing to 1,800 mm (70.9 in).
Lowering the rear wing by 150 mm (5.9 in) and moving its position back by 200 mm (7.9 in).
The leading edge of the barge boards being brought forward to allow teams more freedom in controlling airflow.
An increase of the width of the front and rear tyres to allow cars to generate more mechanical grip.
The minimum weight of the car including the driver being raised by 20 kg to 722 kg, with teams allowed to use 105 kg of fuel to account for the increase in minimum weight.
The token system used to regulate power unit development—where the power unit was divided into individual areas, and each area assigned a points value with development of these areas deducting points from a manufacturer's overall points quota—will be abandoned.
Restrictions are to be placed on the dimensions, weight and the materials used to build each individual component of the power unit.
Teams are restricted to four power units per season regardless of the number of Grands Prix in the season. Previous seasons had included a provision for a fifth power unit if the number of Grands Prix in a season exceeded twenty; from 2017, this provision is to be abandoned.
The cost of a power unit supply is reduced by €1 million in 2017 ahead of a further reduction in 2018.
Cameras will no longer be permitted to be mounted on stalks, located on the nose of the car.
Under rules introduced in 2015, grid penalties for exceeding a driver's quota of power unit components carried over from one race to the next if the penalty could not be fully served when issued. When this carry-over system was abandoned, teams could build up a reserve of spare components by introducing several at once while only serving a single grid penalty. From 2017, teams will only be able to use one new component over their quota per race, with any additional components incurring further penalties. This change prevents teams from "stockpiling" spare power unit components.
Power unit suppliers will have an "obligation to supply", mandating that they supply power units to any team, should a team end up without an agreement. The rule was introduced following the breakdown in the relationship between Renault and their customer teams Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso at the end of the 2015 season that left both teams in limbo until deals could be arranged.
In the event that a race is declared wet and must start behind the safety car, the grid will follow normal starting procedures once conditions are declared satisfactory for racing. Drivers will line up on the grid for a standing start once the safety car pulls into pit lane, although any laps completed behind the safety car will count towards the total race distance.
