The Formula One calendar for 2024 was published several months ago, yet the exact time schedule for the on track events was left outstanding. Today F1 has released these times which reveals a number of anomalies. 

The inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix last year was the first occasion in decades when the long form race was held on a Saturday and this has been extended to the first two events of the year. The season opener in Bahrain and the subsequent race a week later in Saudi Arabia will see the Grand Prix held on Saturdays in respect for the Muslim annual celebration of Ramadan.

 

 

 

F1 season opener with sympathetic timing for core of F1 fans

Bahrain has been the venue for the season opener since 2014 and since the switch to night racing in Sakhir the timing is now more sympathetic for the core of the F1 race fans based in Europe with lights out planned for March 2nd at 3pm GMT. 

The first of the ‘unsociable’ hours Europe’s viewers will face  is the third event held in Melbourne where the Grand Prix is scheduled at 4am GMT. In its efforts to cut down on global travel the Japanese Grand Prix follows this two weeks later with a 5am start time followed two weeks later by the reinstated Chinese GP beginning at 7am.

Formula One then moves on to one of the newer venues in Miami where the Grand Prix will be aired during prime time Sunday night TV at 8pm GMT before beginning the first of the European legs in Emilia Romagne which was cancelled last year due to biblical levels of local flooding.

Las Vegas sucked in much of Formula One’s marketing bucks in 2023 with the race down the strip creating headlines often for the wrong reasons. This event too was a Saturday night headliner but began badly when Carlos Sainz Ferrari hit a loose drain cover just eight minutes into first practice.

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Vegas timings heavily criticised

The subsequent safety checks required meant the session was cancelled and practice two was delayed by two and a half hours by which time the local stewards had reached the limit of their working time regulations and were forced to evict the fans from the stands as they clocked off for the day.

As it stands there are class action law suits being pursued given F1 only offered the disappointed supporters a voucher for F1 merchandise rather than their ticket price refunded. Lawyers are also claiming for travel expenses and hotels costs for these fans who if they had a Friday ticket only would have made a pointless journey to sin city and seen just eight minutes of on track action.

The punishing schedule stretched even the well coseted drivers and team bosses to the limits of fatigue and calls were made for a review of the on track session times.

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said after the chequered flag, “It’s been a brutal weekend for everyone behind the scenes and I think we need to look at how we can improve that for the future.” Fred Vasseur also described the situation as “unacceptable.”

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F1 fails to honour promise on Vegas review

The teams then endured a back to back event in Abu Dhabi with an 11 hour time difference to adjust to and a number of the paddock staff and drivers fell ill due to the relentless nature of the scheduling.

Yet as the event start times were released it was clear F1’s deal with Las Vegas affords little wriggle room for the on track sessions which are to be held at night when much of the heart of vegas is closed to regular motorists. The Grand Prix will again begin two hours before midnight on Saturday although the other sessions including qualifying is as yet listed TBA.

This year the back to back racing schedule remains though with Qatar as the next destination which has a similarly difficult to manage time difference to the one F1 personnel experienced in 2023 with Abu Dhabi.

Given the narrow window F1 has been granted to take over the heart of Las Vegas highways and the strip, a special request was made to hold the delayed practice two session beyond the curfew time agreed with the Vegas authorities.

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Rule change for Force majeure still pending

One further outcome from the crazy events in Vegas was the call from a number of senior figures for a rule change following the unfortunate sequence of events suffered by Carlos Sainz.

With Ferrari closing in on Mercedes for P2 in the championship, Sainz car was partially destroyed when it hit the loose drain cover. The rebuild required a new energy store which exceed the FIA limit of two for the season which saw the Ferrari driver receive a ten place grid penalty drop despite the transgression being due to no fault of the Spaniard or the Ferrari team.

The race stewards made a desperate attempt to find any way they could exempt Sainz from the punishment but in the end were forced to abide by the regulations which saw Sainz begin the race outside the top ten.

Toto Wolff whose Mercedes team benefited greatly from this Ferrari disaster recently called on the FIA to look at ways this scenario doesn’t happen again.

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Wolff backs regulation change

“It was unjust what happened to him and it ruined the race weekend for him that he maybe could have won, so we’ve got to look and give it a hard think how we can change it,” argued Wolff.

Yet the Mercedes boss believes it will be difficult where to draw the line and delimit what is in fact a Force majeure.

“Force majeure is a difficult one. What happens with kerb strikes (and) you destroy your car by riding over a kerb? There’s nothing you can do,” added Wolff

“You’re riding over bumps with cold tyres like happened to Lando [Norris during the Las Vegas GP], and you smash into a wall? Are people going to say this is a force majeure event?

“What if another car T-bones you and you’ve done nothing? Is that force majeure? As a sportsman, nobody liked the situation,” concluded Toto.

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Additional 4 week break for F1 teams 

Ironically amidst the uproar in the Ferrari camp over the Sainz impending penalty, eight of their competitors proposed a unique solution to allow Sainz to race without suffering the grid drop.

However, this idea was ultimately rejected – with Mercedes being the single dissenter to the proposal.

The final six races of the year will be held over just an eight week period which again has caused concern for the welfare of the foot soldiers who work each race weekend for the teams. From October 20th in Austin Texas there are two further back to back events before a two week break sees the start of the triple header in Las Vegas, Qatar and finally Abu Dhabi.

Little reported on is the extra four week break the teams will get over and above the usual month long shutdown in August. The race before Austin will be held in Singapore on September 22nd giving the teams a month to prepare for the two triple headers which conclude the F1 2024 season.

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