Formula 1 will break with decades of tradition when it returns to Las Vegas next year for a new race which will take place on a Saturday.
However F1 won’t break new ground by holding a race on a day other than a Sunday. The first world championship race in 1950 took place on a Saturday and points-scoring rounds have been held on all seven days of the week.
But that was only the case during the first half of the world championship’s 73-year history. Every race on the 2022 F1 calendar is scheduled for a Sunday, as was also the case in the 36 preceding seasons. Not since the 1985 South African Grand Prix in Kyalami has F1 held a race on any other day.
The first world championship calendar in 1950 included seven events, the first of which took place at Silverstone on Saturday 13th May. Eight days later the field reassembled in Monaco for the first Sunday round of the championship.
The world championship began on a Saturday in 1950Round three of the inaugural championship took place on…