A month-long hiatus: What happens in Formula One now?

The Formula One season will take a forced five-week break just after the first three races of the year.

Following the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday, won by Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, the next race is only on May 3 in Miami.

Here, dpa takes a look on the reason for this long break and what impacts it could have on the sport.

Why is F1 taking a break?

Due to the conflict in Middle East, the races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, originally to take place on April 12 and 19 respectively, were cancelled for security reasons.

The escalation of the conflict between the United States/Israel and Iran dashed all hopes that the situation would have calmed down sufficiently by the time of the two races.

Replacement venues, such as Portugal or Turkey, were ruled out. Therefore, the F1 calendar will have 22 races instead of 24.

What's the financial impact?

According to experts, organizers in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia pay a combined sum of around $100 million to F1 to host the races. The racing series is likely to lose around that money unless there are side agreements with the organizers. As a result, each team would lose several million from the now-smaller prize pool.

In return, the teams save on the costs of flights and hotels for their crews and spend less money on spare parts for their cars. TV revenues should remain unaffected, as the agreed minimum number of races will still be met.

Who will be helped by the break?

All teams who are currently behind the leading pack of Mercedes and Ferrari will get more time to further develop their cars. Major updates aren't expected, but teams will have plenty of time until the Miami GP to work on technical aspects.

Teams such as Williams, whose car is more than 20 kilograms overweight, or Aston Martin, where the new Honda engine is a design flaw, are pinning their hopes on the break.

For drivers, it will mean they will have extra time to get used to the new cars following the introduction of major new regulations.

For whom is the long break a disadvantage?

Mercedes would have liked to turn their current advantage into victories in April as well. They have won all the races so far, with young talent Kimi Antonellit taking victory in China and Japan and George Russell winning the opening round in Australia.

However, as of June 1, ruling body FIA will close a loophole in the regulations that Mercedes are believed to have been exploiting. By tweaking the compression ratio, the engineers at the German team have been able to extract more power from the engine.

With the cancellation of the April races, Mercedes will only be able to capitalize on this advantage during the May races in Miami and Canada - or so the competition hopes.