Analysis: Trying to make the F1 schedule more logical and efficient
Formula One is looking to improve its traveling efforts in the near future. It's a record-breaking -- and some say, back-breaking, as well -- season with 23 races on five different continents.
And there's increased discussion that the schedule may expand to as many as 25 races by 2025.
The current F1 calendar consists of five races in North America (Mexico, Canada, Las Vegas, Austin and Miami), one race in South America (Brazil), six in the Middle East or Asia, the Australian Grand Prix, and an astonishing 10 races in Europe. This causes an issue with scheduling as it is not easy for these locations to host Grand Prix event, especially for the street circuits.
A venue for an F1 race needs to be able to provide a track, hospitality, transportation, and of course an area for upwards of 400,000 fans on select weekends. In some cases, important roads/infrastructure will need to be shut down temporarily for several days, if not a week or more, to hold an F1 weekend.
This is why the original Miami bid was refused because of the proposed road shutdowns in busy areas with high traffic in the city. For Liberty Media, owner of F1, this is important because you can't simply schedule a race weekend without taking proper steps and precautions.
Due to scheduling issues, this causes concern when F1 is trying to reduce traveling miles and traveling costs. In an age where the FIA is promoting a "zero net carbon effect," many fans and journalists have taken a shot at the FIA with the current 2023 calendar because of its hypocritical approach.
In a normal 20-car F1 race, around 77,602 ounces of fuel is burnt and put into the atmosphere, according to F1 estimates. The more races added to the calendar, the more fuel that gets burnt.
Luckily, the FIA is moving towards the zero net carbon goal they set out for future seasons with the new fuel regulations.
In a 23-race season, including fan impact, F1 will contribute 1.9 million tons of CO2 generated. This number will only grow higher with more races and more travel between those races.
Why the 2023 calendar is an issue
Shipping costs have increased greatly this season for F1 teams. Most F1 teams are based in the UK, meaning the 10 European races are quite a bit easier to ship and travel to, given it's on the same continent. The FIA has tried to group the races for the 2023 season a bit closer together, but ultimately failed.
For example, for the 2023 season, teams based in Europe will wind up crossing the ocean an astonishing 10 times. Yes, in a 23-race schedule with 10 races in Europe, yet the calendar has the teams crossing the ocean nearly a dozen times.
You can see how this would be an issue for the teams trying to move from race to race. In fact, a five-race run has the teams crossing the ocean at least once -- or more. The teams will go from Saudi Arabia to Australia, to Azerbaijan, to Miami in the United States, and then finally to Italy. That five-race run consists of three European races, yet there is another race placed in between each one.
There are four races in the Middle East in the 2023 season. The calendar places Bahrain and Saudi Arabia as the first two races, which makes sense. The season finale is in the United Arab Emirates, yet the race in Qatar is placed five races before that.
Qatar is placed as the race before the teams head back over to North and South America for a quadruple-header (Oct. 22 in Austin, Oct. 29 in Mexico, Nov. 5 in Brazil and Nov. 18 in Las Vegas). The FIA could place Qatar as the penultimate race. That is yet another example of how to cut these costs and have a more streamlined calendar. Maybe that will be the case in 2024, because it makes plenty of sense.
According to DHL, official partner of F1, the cost of shipping is upwards of $8 million dollars. DHL says that each team will transport around 50 tons of cargo per year. DHL has also pointed out that in terms of air travel, it takes around 130,000 km (roughly 81,000 air miles) for teams to take part in a full season.
A more streamlined 2024 calendar could cut these numbers in half if done correctly.
How to fix the calendar for 2024
F1 needs to take a more logistical approach to its 2024 calendar. They must first do their best job at limiting the number of times they travel across continents.
Of course, it would not be the greatest idea to have all 10 European races in one go or to have all three United States races in the same month. Liberty Media tries to build up anticipation for a race venue, so having all three American races in the same month could lessen the spectacle of each.
The same could be said about the races in the Middle East.
Another way the FIA has combatted this is by scheduling back-to-back weekends or even triple-headers. In most cases, these races are near each other. In the future, the schedule could consist of more of these kinds of weekends with more weekends off in-between.
But this might not go down well with fans (many are already grumbling about there already has been five off-weekends since the season began).
There will have to be a compromise somewhere in order to achieve a better calendar. The travel miles could be reduced, but at the cost of more venues in the same area of the world at a time.
Would the teams be willing to group more races together to save time and money on travel? Will the fans and investors appreciate a "tour style" calendar?
Either way, if the FIA and Liberty Media want to crack down on their travel efforts, the calendar will have to take a step back, in order for the sport to take a step forward.