The FIA has set its sights on driving Formula One to ‘net4 zero’ by the year 2030. The ditching of tyre blankets, 100% bio fuel planned for 2026 and fewer tyres used per race weekend are all just part of how this is supposed to happen.
Yet there is one single glaring issue which would massively reduce the carbon footprint of the sport at the stroke of a pen.
Crazy F1 race schedules
Re-organising the annual F1 calendar.
In years gone by we have seen a 1 week dash of over 13,000 miles from Canada to Azerbaijan and then back again several more thousand miles to Europe.
A quick glance at the upcoming schedule would make the carbon worriers lose a week of sleep.
Canada date has always been bizarre
The teams will depart Europe and travel to Baku and then hop a quarter of the way around the globe to the America’s for the race in Miami before heading back to Europe.
Total 14,000 miles for just three races.
The next absurdity occurs in June when following the Spanish GP, Formula One pops over to the French speaking region of Canada and the race in Montreal before returning to Europe clocking up another 6,500 miles.
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Ramadan affects start of F1 season
Formula One’s CEO, Stefano Domenicali, informed the teams during the Australian Grand Prix weekend that big changes were coming for the 2024 race calendar.
With Ramadan beginning mid-March last year it appears the Koran with great foresight, banned F1 racing in Muslim countries during this celebration.
So the season will begin with Bahrain testing and then move on to Jeddah for the opening round of the year in Saudi Arabia on March 3rd.
Weather in Japan will be inclement
Unable to now race in Bahrain, the F1 circus will head off to Australia as part of a triple header that will then move on to China and complete the trilogy in Japan.
One observer suggested this time of the year would meet with poor weather conditions in the Land of the Rising Sun. This weekend’s opening round of the Super Formula at the Fuji Speedway was run in cold wet conditions, hardly conducive to F1 racing.
The Australian promoters may be glad of the return to a more traditional date for their race in Melbourne, given those extra few weeks make all the difference between the end of the Australian summer and the cold weekends of Autumn the teams and drivers suffered at this years event.
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Singapore promoter refuses to move race
One possibility would be to let the Japanese GP remain in its current slot and move from Shanghai to the warmth of Singapore.
However, the race promoter Colin Syn made it clear in Melbourne
said in Melbourne: “We’ve had the race in late September since 2008, this has created a routine for those who come and watch the race and if we change it we may lose some of our more regular ticket buyers, so I’ve told Stefano I don’t want that change to happen.”
Singapore pays significantly more than Japan for its hosting fees and so the option to switch it up appears doomed.
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Will North America region be grouped?
Domenicali made no reference to the 2024 F1 calendar beyond the first four races, so its yet to be seen whether sensible decisions like regionalising the races in the America’s finally comes to fruition.
Ambient temperature a seasonal conditions aside, ne of the reasons the races in North America were nonconsecutive, was due to promoters fears that back to backing them would affect overall attendance.
With the new found obsession in North America for Formula One, at least this is one difficulty F1 no longer needs to concern itself with.
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Incognito George keeping an eye on the competition 😎#AusGP #F1 @MercedesAMGF1 pic.twitter.com/iTE7mQWTVH
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 8, 2023
Canadian GP has been in June ever since 1982, also in the years when no other North American GP occurred, so nothing bizarre, & purely about climatic conditions.
Ramadan indeed affects next season more than this or the last season comparatively, with the phase starting on March 9 sunset & ending on April 8.
However, Quran doesn’t ban F1 from racing in Muslim countries during Ramadan (nothing does per se), but holding any international sporting events in such countries during this particular phase would simply be inconvenient & impractical.
Suzuka can & usually is warm in March already, especially towards the end & Shanghai is no different, with the chilly weather risk equally existing there, given more or less matching monthly average temps.
The first Fuji race today occurred in dry & decently warm weather conditions.
Of course, COTA & Mexico are already on consecutive weekends, but holding all North American events consecutively, is easier said than done, given certain differences in climatic conditions.
The overall attendance aspect is rather invalid, especially these days, given locations with considerably shorter distances, such as Spa & Zandvoort, have hold races on consecutive weekends without negatively affecting attendances.
Thank you Jere for clearing that up regarding the Quran… I’m laughing so hard! The catchy headline to have one single sentence relating to it… 👌 And the entire sentence is incorrectly dated and misleading oh my word! 😂
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