F1: Proposed environmentally friendly ’24 and ’25 F1 schedules (Update)

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Given Sergio Perez’s father’s strong statements regarding a race in Cancun, Mexico starting in 2014, I have modified the two proposed schedules below to see where Cancun would fit best in keeping with grouping races regionally to reduce F1’s transportation carbon footprint.

Cancun could be paired with the Miami and Canada race in May.  May is the third driest month of the year, in Cancun. Cloud coverage is generally heavier than in previous months, and humidity is very high, hence since he is talking about a street race, we assume it will be a night race.

The other option is to run the Cancun race late in the season, perhaps back-to-back with the Mexico City race. The weather in November is slightly better than in May temperatures are a few degrees lower and the humidity tends to drop at night. Although this is a possibility, for arguments sake we assume in the proposed schedules below that Cancun would be paired with the Miami and Montreal in May.

For arguments sake, we will pair it with the Miami race in 2024 and in 2025 we have to assume the South African GP will not happen since the schedule was already at 25 races. Hence Kyalami has been removed, and Cancun added.

25 Races starting in 2024 – wow if true.

25-Race Environmentally Friendly 2024 F1 calendar

Ramadan Mar 10 to Apr 9

Round Date Grand Prix Venue Comment
February 7-9 Pre-season testing Jerez or Barcelona Sunny & warm
1 February 18 (Night Race) Saudi Arabia Jeddah Middle East Swing
2 February 25 (Night Race) Qatar Lusail
3 March 3 (Night Race) Bahrain Sakhir
4 March 9 (Sat Night to avoid Ramadan) Abu Dhabi Yas Marina
5 March 24 Australia Melbourne Australia / Asia Swing
March 31 Easter No Race
6 April 14 (Night Race) Singapore Singapore
7 April 28 China Shanghai
8 May 5 Japan Suzuka
9 May 19 (Night Race) Cancun Cancun Americas East  Swing
10 May 25 (Sat. evening dusk to dark) Miami Miami Gardens
11 June 2 Canada Montreal
12 June 16 Monaco Monaco European Swing Part 1
13 June 30 United Kingdom Silverstone
14 July 7 Austria Spielberg
15 July 21 Hungary Budapest
16 July 28 Belgium Spa
4-week Summer Break
17 August 25 Netherlands Zandvoort European Swing Part 2
18 September 1 Italy Monza
19 September 15 Spain Barcelona
20 September 28 Emilia Romagna Imola
21 October 13 Azerbaijan Baku
22 October 27 USA Austin Americas Swing
23 November 3 Mexico Mexico City
24 November 17 Brazil Sao Paulo
25 December 2 (Sat Night) Las Vegas Las Vegas

 

25-Race Environmentally Friendly 2025 F1 calendar

Ramadan Feb 28 to Mar 30

Round Date Grand Prix Venue Comment
February 13-15 Pre-season testing Jerez or Barcelona Sunny & Warm
1 March 2 Australia Melbourne Australia / Asia Swing
2 March 9 (Night Race) Singapore Singapore
3 March 23 China Shanghai
4 March 30 Japan Suzuka
5 April 13 (Night Race) Saudi Arabia Jeddah Middle East Swing
April 20 Easter – No Race
6 April 27 (Night Race) Qatar Lusail
7 May 4 (Night Race) Bahrain Sakhir
8 May 11 (Night race) Abu Dhabi Yas Marina
9 May 25 (Night Race) Cancun Cancun North America East Swing
10 June 1 (Evening dusk to dark) Miami Miami Gardens
11 June 8 Canada Montreal
12 June 22 Monaco Monaco European Swing Part 1
13 June 29 United Kingdom Silverstone
14 July 6 Austria Spielberg
15 July 20 Hungary Budapest
16 July 27 Belgium Spa
4-week Summer Break
17 August 24 Netherlands Zandvoort European Swing Part 2
18 September 7 Italy Monza
19 September 14 Spain Barcelona
20 September 21 Emilia Romagna Imola
21 October 12 Azerbaijan Baku
22 October 26 USA Austin Americas Swing
23 November 2 Mexico Mexico City
24 November 16 Brazil Sao Paulo
25 November 22 (Sat Night) Las Vegas Las Vegas

 


March 11, 2023 

–by Mark Cipolloni–

The FIA and Formula 1 have a dilemma with their Formula 1 schedule – the entire circus crisscrosses the globe in a very inefficient manner – resulting in unnecessary burning of fossil fuel and a strain on the traveling team members.

This article proposes a new schedule for 2024 and 2015 in an effort to meet F1’s goal of being as ‘green’ as possible.

Current inefficient F1 global travel

There may be only one way to fix it.

Group the races by regions of the world to optimize travel distances while making sure all the races are run at times of the year when temperatures are moderate for the fans, teams and drivers.

Where excessive heat and humidity cannot be avoided, the race is designated a night event.

In doing the scheduling work I always used a 2-week gap minimum when the circus moves from one region of the world to another. There were a few problems that had to be overcome as I laid out proposed schedules for 2024 and 2025.

Solving the Canadian GP Problem

Currently, the Canadian GP is scheduled in June every year, right in the middle of the European season and that requires that the entire F1 circus fly from Europe to Canada and back just for that one race.

The FIA keeps pressuring Canada to move their race to mid-May so it can be paired with Miami in early May, but it is too freaking cold in Montreal in mid-May.

Max Verstappen of the Netherlands driving the (1) Oracle Red Bull Racing RB18 leads Carlos Sainz of Spain driving (55) the Ferrari F1-75 during the F1 Grand Prix of Canada at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on June 19, 2022 in Montreal, Quebec. (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images)

Sure, you might get lucky once in a while and get a high in the 60s-F, but there is a 95% chance the high will be in 30s-F in the morning rising to the 50s-F in the afternoon. That will negatively impact attendance, and on cold tires we could see crashes galore.

The Miami race should ideally be in April because as we saw last year, during the day in Miami from May 1st through October 1st, daytime temperatures can be unbearable.

Having fans sit in the sun on hot, humid days will negatively impact attendance over time.

However, the nights in Miami are delightful in May and even early June.

“I’m partial to night races because I think they’re beautiful environments,” Tyler Epp, President of the Miami GP, told RacingNews365.

“I really enjoyed Singapore. We would never say never (for Miami to be a night race), but there are no immediate plans in this case.”

Well, Mr. Epp, it’s time to stop using the word ‘never.’

The solution to the Montreal schedule problem, and the Miami heat-exhausted fan and driver problem, is to move the Miami race to late May under the lights (which would be absolutely spectacular), and to pair it with the Montreal race moved to earlier in June.

Of course, Monaco would lose its traditional date in late May immediately after the Festival de Cannes, but the race was just fine when the Festival de Cannes was postponed two months in 2021.

Avoiding Religious Holidays Ramadan and Easter

Assuming China returns to the schedule in 2024 , below is what a more environmentally friendly schedule would look like.

It would sometimes involve 3 or 4 races on consecutive weekends, but the teams would be glad to suck it up if the races are grouped sensibly, and they would not have to return to that part of the world a 2nd time.

I had to make some major changes to the schedule to make it work, and some races had to lose their traditional dates, but they are still held in times of the year when the weather is pleasant.  There is flexibility in case I overlooked something. The Religious Holidays of Ramadan and Easter were accounted for.

2024 and 2025

2024 was a bit difficult because of the dates Ramadan falls on and the countries that celebrate it. It required starting the season earlier than normal, a sacrifice for just one year.

In 2025, I increased the schedule to 25 races with the assumption South Africa would be added to the schedule. South Africa would be an outlier given its geographic location.

Ramadan will be an issue in 2025 as well.

24-Race Environmentally Friendly 2024 F1 calendar

Ramadan Mar 10 to Apr 9

Round Date Grand Prix Venue Comment
February 7-9 Pre-season testing Jerez or Barcelona Sunny & warm
1 February 18 (Night Race) Saudi Arabia Jeddah Middle East Swing
2 February 25 (Night Race) Qatar Lusail
3 March 3 (Night Race) Bahrain Sakhir
4 March 9 (Sat Night to avoid Ramadan) Abu Dhabi Yas Marina
5 March 24 Australia Melbourne Australia / Asia Swing
March 31 Easter No Race
6 April 14 (Night Race) Singapore Singapore
7 April 28 China Shanghai
8 May 5 Japan Suzuka
9 May 25 (Sat. evening dusk to dark) Miami Miami Gardens North America East Swing
10 June 2 Canada Montreal
11 June 16 Monaco Monaco European Swing Part 1
12 June 30 United Kingdom Silverstone
13 July 7 Austria Spielberg
14 July 21 Hungary Budapest
15 July 28 Belgium Spa
4-week Summer Break
16 August 25 Netherlands Zandvoort European Swing Part 2
17 September 1 Italy Monza
18 September 15 Spain Barcelona
19 September 28 Emilia Romagna Imola
20 October 13 Azerbaijan Baku
21 October 27 USA Austin Americas Swing
22 November 3 Mexico Mexico City
23 November 17 Brazil Sao Paulo
24 December 2 (Sat Night) Las Vegas Las Vegas

 

25-Race Environmentally Friendly 2025 F1 calendar

Ramadan Feb 28 to Mar 30

Round Date Grand Prix Venue Comment
February 13-15 Pre-season testing Kyalami South Africa Swing
1 February 23 South Africa Kyalami
2 March 2 Australia Melbourne Australia / Asia Swing
3 March 9 (Night Race) Singapore Singapore
4 March 23 China Shanghai
5 March 30 Japan Suzuka
6 April 13 (Night Race) Saudi Arabia Jeddah Middle East Swing
April 20 Easter – No Race
7 April 27 (Night Race) Qatar Lusail
8 May 4 (Night Race) Bahrain Sakhir
9 May 11 (Night race) Abu Dhabi Yas Marina
10 May 24 (Sat. evening dusk to dark) Miami Miami Gardens North America East Swing
11 June 1 Canada Montreal
12 June 15 Monaco Monaco European Swing Part 1
13 June 29 United Kingdom Silverstone
14 July 6 Austria Spielberg
15 July 20 Hungary Budapest
16 July 27 Belgium Spa
4-week Summer Break
17 August 24 Netherlands Zandvoort European Swing Part 2
18 September 7 Italy Monza
19 September 14 Spain Barcelona
20 September 21 Emilia Romagna Imola
21 October 12 Azerbaijan Baku
22 October 26 USA Austin Americas Swing
23 November 2 Mexico Mexico City
24 November 16 Brazil Sao Paulo
25 November 22 (Sat Night) Las Vegas Las Vegas