Changing the F1 Format and Calendar: Too many races?

June 18, 2018

We will see five races in the next 6 weeks with a unique triple header (France, Austria and Britain) followed by a normal 2 week break before a double header (Germany and Hungary). I love Formula One so much that no matter how bad it gets I will still watch it. I want more races and to see the cars on track.

Like many fans, whilst I watch lots of other motorsport series, F1 will always stay with me because it’s the sport I grew up with and the sport that got me into motorsport and motor racing. However, repeating the same format for 21 races again and again does get a bit boring. The number of races is fine for me but I wouldn’t mind if there were a few less races.

If I was to change the current calendar I would do the following:

Bold denotes back to back races. A big space in between races is a 2 week break.

Australia
China
Bahrain
Azerbaijan
Spain
Monaco
Canada —weekend prior to Le Mans
Miami (or any US other street circuit to be honest) —-weekend after Le Mans
France –8 July
Austria –15 July
Britain –29 July
Germany (Nurburgring and Hockenheim alternate each year) –5 August
Hungary –12 August — Followed by Summer break (3 weeks)
Belgium –2 September
Italy –9 September
Singapore –23 September
Japan (Suzuka and Fuji alternate each year) –30 October
USA –14 October
Mexico –21 October
Brazil — 5 November

(this year’s dates as an example)

I tried to make it as realistic as possible and I even decided to put the expected Miami race in the calendar as I think Liberty will make sure that there is a US street race on the calendar from next year. The first 7 races can remain as usual in the same order and keep their dates. I have no problems with that. I would then put Miami 2 weeks after Canada so that Le Mans can take place in between those weekends F1 free so drivers, like Fernando Alonso is doing this year, can take part and perhaps not force an audience war.

This means that a lot of the races are pushed back so Silverstone for example would take place at the end of July and Germany and Hungary would be in July. F1 should make use of the non-football season by having races until the opening weekend of the European domestic football leagues. Of course, F1 shouldn’t arrange it’s calendar around things like the Olympics, the World Cup etc. because those things only happen every four years. They should just ignore them as they do now.

Having 20 races does allow for any new and exciting races like we’ve had with Baku to slot into the calendar nicely, especially since I’ve said the season should finish in early November. This can always be pushed back if new races are introduced in the future. I’ve got rid of Sochi and Abu Dhabi because they’re simply boring and are the worst tracks that F1 go to at the moment by far. Reality says this is unlikely to happen, but I just couldn’t resist leaving them off the calendar.

I decided to keep the triple header. The arrangement might give the organisers a chance to make use of a special ticket, allowing fans to go to all three of those Grand Prix (France, Austria and Britain).It would give the chance for fans to tour around Europe whilst visiting three very different events in as many weeks. This arrangement could be improved with more geographically closer places, perhaps with Hockenheim and Spa as well.

Brazil should always be the finale because the weather can play a part and it has produced some magical moments in F1. Abu Dhabi has produced three final races were the championship has been on the line but they’ve all been pretty boring because the nature of the track and the conditions means that there’s less chance of something unpredictable happening compared to Sao Paulo.

I would say that 21-22 races should be the limit but F1 could easily space things out nicely because like I said, my calendar finishes very early so there’s room to add one or two races. New tracks must be tracks were you can overtake and race hard. Baku is a great example and Sochi is a complete contrast. It doesn’t really matter were it is to me as long as the track is unique and good enough to see some wheel to wheel action.

Onto the format

At the moment F1 just repeats the same format again and again, 21 times a year. It gets boring. I would love to see different formats used at different races to give each event it’s own uniqueness. It’s also a good way to trial new ideas to see if they work or not even if only for 3-4 of the races. If F1 does want to trail a Saturday race or a Sprint Race, then just do it for a handful of the races and if it really does work, then you can implement it at more races and if it doesn’t work then at least us fans won’t have to put up with it all season.

They wouldn’t be the first series to do this, the V8 Supercars, has lots of different formats and my opinion, it’s brilliant. There’s long races such as the Bathurst 1000; sprint races which have been seen at Albert Park earlier this year; a sprint race and a longer race (which is what we see at the majority of the events) but also races which are the same distance but repeated on Saturday and Sunday. It’s great and it just adds that bit of variety.

I want F1 to copy this. Little changes like having a warm-up at some circuits (perhaps the Asian or American rounds were there aren’t many support series) or having four short practice session rather than three, 90 minute sessions. Just minor tweaks.

Something I would definitely like to see is a proper top 10 shootout where the cars go out one by one to do a lap. Keep the current knockout format to get to the top 10 but just do a proper shootout at some of the circuits. Doing it at the opening race then driver tracks like Monaco, Silverstone, Spa, Suzuka and then the final race and maybe a few others would add to the spectacle.

Maybe a few of the races should be longer and run over 2 hours. Then others, like Monza which is a short race could be done twice. A race on Saturday and then a race on Sunday. I wouldn’t like to see reverse grid races or championship order grids but just changing the format to give some variety could help F1 quite a lot.

Many of you won’t agree with all the ideas, but as many would be open to some.

Liberty Media want to make each event as big and unique as possible so altering the format for a number of events will do this. If the format is rubbish, simply get rid of it. If it’s good, thrive off it but don’t make every event the same. It isn’t likely to be confusing because increased media presence means most F1 fans will know what is coming up. If the Australia Supercars and other series like IMSA or Indycar can make it work, then F1 can as well.

Variety is a good thing and one day F1 will have to move away from a traditional format which has been more or less the same for the last 60 years.

However, I will say one last thing. Changing the format or making calendar changes should NOT have priority over the key changes for 2021 which will hopefully make F1 more spectacular and exciting. The racing must improve even though F1 isn’t necessarily about creating an artificially exciting motorsport, there’s other series for that. It doesn’t matter what format you have, it will make little difference to the excitement of the championship if the racing is poor. If the number of F1 races does increase, we don’t want 21+ Canadian Grand Prix style races which is just a procession which makes you want to watch something else.

If the racing is good, improving the format can come as a secondary change to improve the sport and add to the variety. Change can be a good thing and hopefully in this new era of F1, change can improve the sport.

Onto the format

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