The 2020 F1 calendar will challenge teams and drivers like never before as they face a record 22 races in the space of nine months.
But future calendars could be even longer. New rules which will come into effect from the 2021 F1 season allow the championship’s owners Liberty Media to extend the season to 24 races, and CEO Chase Carey has suggested the schedule could have as many as 25 in future.
Does bigger mean better when it comes to the calendar, or is F1 about to discover you can have too much of a good thing? This weekend’s debate asks whether the calendar should be longer or shorter.
Longer
What’s not to like about having a long championship? More races means more action.
It also means the championship can take in a wider variety of circuits in a greater number of locations. That means increasing the challenge to drivers and bringing F1 closer to more fans around the world.
Teams may complain about the added strain it creates but it isn’t true to say past Formula 1 seasons weren’t as busy. Yes, there were fewer races, but teams had more testing and non-championship events as well.
Shorter
F1 is at risk of turning off viewers by making its championship too long. There is a huge amount of competition for the interest of sports fans and F1 isn’t the only one increasing its schedule.
The sport’s promoters are quick to urge the value of bringing the sport to new markets. But some of the recent additions to the championship schedule have failed to generate strong crowds, partly because they take place on bland circuits which excite neither drivers nor fans.
A longer calendar risks becoming an exercise in quantity over quality.
I say
On one hand I think those who hanker for the ‘good old days of the 16-race calendar’ are viewing the sport with rose-tinted glasses. On the other, a 22-race calendar with seven pairs of back-to-back races already feels congested. Stretching it to 25 races, even if it is achieved by paring back the amount of pre-race practice, seems a step too far.
I think there’s an argument to be made for capping the number of championship races at a conveniently round figure – say, 20 – to create scarcity value among those bidding to hold races.
But I doubt Liberty Media would be pushing for two dozen-plus if they didn’t have a strong business case for it. I’d be surprised if we don’t end up at that level in a few years’ time. But I wonder whether it’s ultimately going to do the sport more harm than good.
You say
How many rounds should the world championship calendar have? Cast your vote below and have your say in the comments.
How many F1 races should there be on the world championship calendar?
- 26 or more (4%)
- 25 (8%)
- 24 (5%)
- 23 (1%)
- 22 (11%)
- 21 (5%)
- 20 (37%)
- 19 (5%)
- 18 (16%)
- 17 (2%)
- 16 (5%)
- 15 or fewer (2%)
Total Voters: 237
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Debates and polls
- Will Alonso win a world championship title with Aston Martin?
- How long should Red Bull give Ricciardo to prove he’s not lost his touch?
- Were stewards right to penalise Alonso over his driving before Russell’s crash?
- Are Williams right to bench Sargeant so Albon can race after crash?
- Is the FIA right to make ten seconds the new standard for penalties?
Pironi the Provocateur (@pironitheprovocateur)
26th January 2020, 8:42
18-19 races for me, otherwise F1’s handing still bigger and bigger advantage to dominant teams which – despite a blunder or two or even three – can secure the title without any problems.
Chaitanya
26th January 2020, 13:47
+1 this problem of ever expanding calander and the benifit it provides to leader of pack has infected MotoGP as well. Apart from this Fan and team fatigue along with increased cost of logistics are also reason to consolidate the calander for good.
anon
26th January 2020, 21:37
Given that race hosting fees are a major source of revenue for both series, it is perhaps not surprising that the commercial bodies have sought to keep expanding the calendar. MotoGP is perhaps slightly less guilty of it, in as much as the calendar hasn’t crept up to quite the same levels as in F1 yet – but the same upward trend has been there.
It’s probably a case where Liberty are perhaps hoping to try and push up the number of unique viewers by putting out more races into new markets, expanding the reach of the sport that way. You are right thought that, overall, the response from the fan base seems to suggest the sport has reached a tipping point – continued expansion may start having an adverse impact if fans start thinking that the sport is asking for too much of their spare time, and choose to drop out rather than see ever more of their free time being swallowed up by the sport.
Eoghan (@)
27th January 2020, 13:00
That’s also my view too.
GeeMac (@geemac)
27th January 2020, 10:02
Couldn’t agree more.
Trocaderoo
29th January 2020, 15:54
Unless the corona virus situation in China and the Far East is sorted quickly, the Vietnam & China races might not take place. Also unsure that Melbourne will happen if the fires are still burning.
TheNewNo2
26th January 2020, 8:52
21 was definitely too many. I think that 18-19 is probably about right. I say that not on grounds of team fatigue but on grounds on FAN fatigue – it is exhausting to watch this many races and takes up too much time. I want some weekends off.
bosyber (@bosyber)
26th January 2020, 19:43
Yep, I voted for 18, feel much like you. I enjoyed almost every race I saw, but this year I couldn’t sit down to follow all of the race weekends, and I did not watch all laps of all races, let alone all of qualifying, and forget about a surprising many FP’s I just didn’t feel like bothering to see, or watch delayed/summaries off, it just gets to be too busy.
The Dolphins
26th January 2020, 21:16
The “right“ number of races lies somewhere in the range of 18-20:
– 3 months winter break feels normal to build up the anticipation for the next season
– 1 month off for the summer break
– ideally a race every two weeks (double headers and triple headers are a logistical nightmare for my personal TV viewing schedule)
This leaves about 18-20 races to a Formula 1 season.
Lee That's Me (@leethatsme)
26th January 2020, 21:22
I agree and I also voted 18 as about right. In recent years I’ve found myself recording the races I expect to be less exciting (Russia, Spain, Bahrain and even Monaco this year) and fast forwarding through the dull laps. Missed a couple of qualifying sessions entirely as well. That is purely down to the number of races. When it was 16 races I would faithfully sit through even the dullest race.
mfreire
30th January 2020, 22:41
…. Are you serious?
MaddMe (@)
26th January 2020, 8:57
I quite like the sound of a 22 race season, it, I’d like to see that with a race every 2 weeks, so effectively starting earlier and ending later…
That would give us 44 weeks of racing, spread over 48 weeks (allowing for the summer shutdown). This would give a shorter development time for the next season and as such playing in to the strategy of when a team stops its current development to start its next season developments.
The added bonus of this would be to give a very much shortened off season period where we are desperate fornthe new season to start…
Klon (@)
26th January 2020, 8:58
I am going to go for the extreme and say F1 should aim for 15 races. I am fully aware that the business necessities mean that those 15, with maybe the exception of Monaco and Singapore for their inherent value to the brand, can only go to the richest of venues, but so be it. I’d rather part with a few “classic” locales if it means the values of races elsewhere is increased. There’d be more time to hype the race, get the energy going. Casual fans would actually want to not miss out on the few chances and not just go “Oh geez, there’s a race again, might as well turn it on for background noise” and hardcore fans would be less exhausted and actually follow the parts of the weekend made for them (I would very much call myself a hardcore fan and I haven’t watched a free practice session since … 2017, I think … because there are just too many goddamn sessions to watch already). As much as you could argue the morality of it, exploiting FOMO is still the most efficient business approach in the social media age.
15 races would also be better for the “show”, given as longer calendars, as we have seen, are not conductive to having close championship battles. As much as we talk about Red Bull and Mercedes being the dominant forces that they were in the 2010s, we cannot merely use that to explain why six championships this past decade have actually been decided before the last two races (in comparison: 00s: four times; 90s: three times; 80s: one time). Again, there’s an argument to be had that that introduces an undue element of randomness to proceedings, but in a sport where the failure of your equipment can decide whether you win or not, that’s a rather moot argument. Not to mention, “only” 15 races would mean that statistics are less inflated and thus less likely to be dismissed in historical debate and winning a Grand Prix would actually mean more again. I mean, we can pretend that winning a Monaco Grand Prix still means something, but when two other temporary circuits follow in the next three weeks as it does next year, that idea really rings hollow. Plus, both engineers and drivers would be rested, resulting in more peak performance. Last year, you could clearly see drivers mentally taking off certain races and that’ll only continue with these calendar sizes.
So from a business and a from a sportive perspective, 15 races (plus minus one) would be the ideal scenario. But such a radical proposal would probably be hard to sell anyway, so for those of you who call me mad, don’t worry, nobody’s in charge is gonna listen to me anyway.
Magnus Rubensson (@)
26th January 2020, 13:44
I’d go even further and say 12.
MrBoerns (@mrboerns)
30th January 2020, 11:15
10! Lets get ol’ Jimmy Clark back up those all time leaderboards!!!
John Beak (@johnbeak)
26th January 2020, 9:42
By going for too many races, F1 Grands Prix lose their exclusivity.
Only most dedicated fans will feel comfortable giving every other weekend to watching F1. More casual fans will go from watching all races to watching maybe half, potentially slipping to stopping watching altogether.
All the travel and lack of breathing space between races must be terrible on team staff already with the number of races we have now. I don’t even want to imagine what would it be like to work with a F1 team in a 25-race season.
What’s wrong with making some events bi-annual, or running them once/twice in three years? This might even make hosting races more financially accesible to tracks with little or no government support. Having a solid basis and changing rest could be refreshing.
I personally still think 16 races was about the ideal amount.
It might be difficult for F1 to be truly global while sticking to just 16 races though, with quite a number of government-funded races have sure spots on the calendar and assuming that there will be at least effort to keep core traditional tracks as permanent fixtures.
Therefore I think most people will vote for a number of around 20, as that seems to be a compromise between nostalgia, realistically fitting in all the necessary races and not going way over capacity.
At the end of the day, it’s not for us, but for Liberty to decide. Whatever they do, we’re going to watch anyway.
Pironi the Provocateur (@pironitheprovocateur)
26th January 2020, 17:34
Fully agree, apart from the part with 16 races – that would make for a really short season and I wouldn’t like to go back 13 years ago when we had to wait five months for the next season.
By the way, looking at your profile picture – a Slovak or Czech by any chance?
John Beak (@johnbeak)
26th January 2020, 22:21
@pironitheprovocateur I’m Czech.
mfreire
30th January 2020, 22:41
An F1 race at Brno wouldn’t be a bad idea.
Sam Andrew (@sama)
26th January 2020, 9:44
The more the merrier! the thing I like most about the new calendar is the shorter downtime between the last race of the season and the next race of the new season. if the calendar is long enough, the teams can have two complete sets of pit crews; so rather than one very over stretched crew you can have two fresh ones doing 12 races each.
GT Racer (@gt-racer)
26th January 2020, 13:41
@sama
Teams won’t want to do that as doing so would increase overall costs at a time when most of them can’t afford it.
Remember that some of the teams used to operate 2 or more sets of crew guys including dedicated test teams, But they scaled them back to a single crew around a decade ago to cut costs & none of them will want to scale things back up even if the top few teams could afford to do so.
And remember it’s not just the race teams that will have to put up with more races. The guys who produce the TV broadcasts & have to goto races early/leave late to setup/de-rig everything as well as all the various people from the media & broadcasters. It’s an increased strain on everyone who has to attend every race & not all of those involved are able to simply run multiple crews.
anon
26th January 2020, 16:27
@gt-racer, you raise a valid point that “Teams won’t want to do that as doing so would increase overall costs at a time when most of them can’t afford it.” – doubling up on pit crews is not going to be a trivial task.
Equally, does it not rather run counter to the philosophy of the cost cap to force teams to have to recruit additional staff, and thus push up staff costs, right at the point when they are supposed to be cutting back on their expenditure? I understand that it is already something of a sore point for most pit crews that the growth of the calendar means they’re now having to spend more time on the road, and that it does seem to be starting to have a more noticeable impact on the mental health of a number of mechanics (there seem to have been a rise in the number of anecdotal reports of people suffering from problems with alcohol abuse, breakdowns in relationships and stress related illnesses, though how much of that may be due to better reporting is open to question).
As you note, it’s not going to be much better for those involved on the broadcasting side either, given how many will be having to work behind the scenes to get the show up and running. There have been those at Liberty Media commenting about the stress of the work and how much personal time they were losing, but they’re the ones who arguably had the least stressful job to do – it’s those lower down the ladder who are going to start paying for this.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
26th January 2020, 9:44
The Paywall is a bigger “turn off” than racing on a circular track. I cannot think of anything that discourages viewers better than a Paywall. So while having extra races does produce some resentment to the extra races, the Paywall produces more resentment.
GongTong (@gongtong)
26th January 2020, 10:05
20 races for a nice round number and the aforementioned scarcity value.
Paired with a nice tidy points system for all cars down to a theoretical P40. Fixed for the rest of history so the points statistics start to mean something again.
Jere (@jerejj)
26th January 2020, 10:41
@gongtong The current points-system isn’t a problem here, though.
Pironi the Provocateur (@pironitheprovocateur)
26th January 2020, 17:39
Awarding points just for turning up is not only a spit in the face of all the privateers and garagists who did tremendous efforts to finish on certain positions in order to get points (I doubt we’d have Webber-Minardi story or Sato-SuperAguri one if we’d awarded points for 12th or 13th), it is also a spit in the face of competition. To compete means to achieve the best result possible and it would be hardly a competition if the 7th place was easily negated by 5-times 11th or so.
GongTong (@gongtong)
27th January 2020, 13:54
@jerejj, no but I’m sure you can see the connection.
@pironitheprovocateur I see that argument and understand where it comes from but disagree entirely. Those achievements will always hold great weight for what they meant at the time. However, we already “spit” in the face of previous race winners who scored 10 points instead of 25. We spit in the face of every team that finishes 11th in every race on merit in a hypothetical season where somebody “lucks into” a points finish. Awarding points for finishing is a far more fair system of recognition in that sense and at least would guarantee some level of continuity going forward. But as I say, you’re entitled to your view. And to push it with a moral ferver! I was simply throwing mine in the mix.
GongTong (@gongtong)
27th January 2020, 14:09
We already spit in the face of all the 7th and 8th place finishers. Then we moved on to the 9th and 10th. Soon enough we’ll do it again down to 15th or something. Why not just try to make the next move of the goalposts the final one?
DAllein (@)
26th January 2020, 10:35
20 is max.
Introduce the cap, implement financially sound circuit rotation scheme, totally rewrite contracts and cut the fees.
Will it be great?
Yes.
Will it happen?
No!
What will we get?
Races around 38 Shopping Malls + Champions League, Super Cup and other sub-championships – entertainment for each weekend!
Phil Norman (@phil-f1-21)
26th January 2020, 10:40
I voted before reading Keith’s viewpoint. I agree with him for the same reasons.
I think 18-20 is the best for a variety of reasons. I am not really sure what more races are adding apart from money of course. The sport would be easier to manage with a max of 20 races for both teams and spectators.
This number would still allow the sport to a global spectacle without there being the need to hold races in places with no motorsport racing tradition and little local interest.
I don’t mind there being an extra race in North America say but do we really need 3 races in the Middle East for example as is being proposed? The only attraction here is financial really.
It’s really quite apparent from the voting (so far) that this is what fans really want.
KaIIe (@kaiie)
26th January 2020, 10:45
I’m sounding like a broken record, but a Grand Prix used to mean something special. Now it’s just (not really, but at times seems like) worldwide NASCAR. I consider myself a quite hardcore fan having followed the sport for nearly quarter of a century, but some years ago I realised that too much is too much. F1 is on almost every weekend from mid-March to early December, and my reaction is usually “oh no, again?” instead of “yay, F1, can’t wait for FP1 to start”. Skipping watching the practice sessions help, but it still feels like it is different to the “good old days” when every race meant something special, instead of just a small part of an endurance campaign, both for the teams and for the viewers. Maybe it’s also the 24/7 news coverage that devalues things.
Having said all this, if the 2021 rule changes do most things right and the racing will be better than ever, I’m definitely going to watch every race. But if we get 25 events like the French GP of 2019, no thanks.
mfreire
30th January 2020, 22:45
I agree. F1 is not as spontaneous or as interesting as it used to be, and because of that these GP’s aren’t as special and valued as they were 25 or so years ago. Even 15 years ago there was some modicum of that spontaneity and interest. Now, there’s very little of that.
Jere (@jerejj)
26th January 2020, 10:47
I voted for 20, but more precisely, I’d instead vote for the range of 19-21 where the seasonal number of races varied throughout the 2010s decade.
To partly copy-paste my last post about the race calendar-matter from one of the most recent round-ups: One way to help ease the burden for the teams would be the organize the race calendar a bit differently from the logistical-POV. For now, no significant changes would be needed, just little tweaks here and there, for example, pairing Singapore and Japan instead of Singapore and Russia on subsequent weekends. It’s good that the US and Mexican GPs hold slots on consecutive-weekends, but so should Singapore and Japan, especially given the Azerbaijan-Canada, and Australia-Bahrain double-headers with significantly greater distances. The Singapore-Russia-Japan segment is the only one with which I’ve had a problem in the most recent race calendars, but other than that, I’ve been predominantly fine with everything.
black (@black)
26th January 2020, 10:57
The problem with the ever-expanding calendar is that in order for some new circuits to squeeze in, another classic circuit might be under threat. Because Liberty cannot add just +5 races instantly from one year to the other – you can only get about +1 race every year – and Liberty sure has plans to add more than just 5 races, you end up with changes like: you get Vietnam, Spain struggles to stay on the calendar, you get Netherlands, Germany drops out, etc.
It’s nice to have some variety, but more races dilute the value of each race. One solution might be to come to an agreement to host some struggling races every other year (usualy the old ones because the new ones want to make some money of their investment by hosting every year the first couple years), like Germany did with Nurburgring and Hockenheim. For example Portugal is intrested to host a GP but is low on cash…? have it alternate with Spain which is also struggling. France doesn’t draw a lot of crowds…? alternate with Germany which is also stuggling. Argentina wants to join in…? alternate with Mexico which is uncertain about hosting every year. And so on…
Keep the calendar stable to 20 races and keep the variety of races the same. Don’t drop Monza which is an extreme circuit on the calendar for an empty hairpin/chicane-filled Tilkedrome in Saudi Arabia…
Sad F1 Fan
26th January 2020, 11:08
Just kick out the dictatorships that can’t even uphold human rights a little bit. So no race in China, Bahrain, Vietnam, Singapore, Azerbaijan, Abu Dhabi or Russia and no Future race in Saudi Arabia.
Coincidentally, they are al also the most horrible boring tracks on the calendar.
And since F1 doesn’t care about that tracks have got long straights or are so narrow you can’t pass anymore. It means we can bring back the legendary tracks of old that were banished for those reasons in the first place.
Pironi the Provocateur (@pironitheprovocateur)
26th January 2020, 17:42
+1
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
27th January 2020, 1:23
+100
Mario
27th January 2020, 1:31
What about no races in the US? Not nice to have a race in a country that started so many wars in the last years.
mfreire
30th January 2020, 19:49
I wouldn’t mind seeing a race at the Dubai Autodrome, as there should be at least one race in the Middle East.
A poll conducted recently here show that 90 percent of the people here do not want these stupid, genocidal wars. That has come at the expense of taxpayers quality of life because DC politicians are being endlessly bribed by the military industrial complex.
All those countries mentioned have their races paid for by their respective governments- and not a single one of them has any real foundation in motor sports- where as the US very much does. The US is a developed country. All of those except Singapore are not. So your simplistic comparison and argument has effectively fallen apart almost immediately.
mfreire
30th January 2020, 19:25
+10000
kenji
26th January 2020, 11:28
I am happy with 20/22 at the max. What i don’t want to see is any expansion of the calendar that is full of dull unexiting tracks that become borefests and do no one any favors. Tracks should be uber challenging with major elevation changes that fully test both cars and drivers so that the outcome is never a given. I have been watching F1 since inception..a very long time and whilst todays racing can be good it isn’t always so. The last 6 years have been so predictable that i am almost convinced to watch something else. Obviously i would never do that but i do have to convince myself that each new race may just throw up a different winner!!!!
George O'Donnell (@georgeod)
26th January 2020, 11:45
I think there are too many races currently – I chose 17 in the poll but I’m between 16 and 17.
The problem now is that I don’t have the time to watch races on 20 weekends a year, let alone stretch this to 22 for this season. So whilst I am still somewhat engaged with the races I choose/am able to watch, I’m not engaged with the F1 championship. Knowing that there are so many races means each race is less important in the full picture of the championship, so I don’t need to watch every race either. It’s a shame.
Steve (@)
26th January 2020, 11:52
It was OK when they were on the ITV and the BBC you could record them…….but not on Now TV you cant……and no one sensible would subscribe with the outrageous price of Sky.
George O'Donnell (@georgeod)
26th January 2020, 12:04
Absolutely @machinesteve , I would be interested in watching full races on demand at my convenience, which is what happened when they were live on FTA TV. The Now TV pass on works well when you watch live, which is something I don’t have the time to do (or might not have the opportunity to watch the reruns).
Steve (@)
26th January 2020, 11:50
For 40 years I have got up early in the morning to watch the Australian race – full of hope – every so often that hope pays off (Brauns 1 and 2!!), but year after crushing year the same inevitability. By the British Grand Prix I am enduring races rather than enjoying them…..and year by year my ecological guilt about the increasingly corporate and predictable sport grows.
Pironi the Provocateur (@pironitheprovocateur)
26th January 2020, 17:45
You are kind of right. I feel the same about the season spiralling down the same and boring way each year after we come back to Europe, this year was maybe an exception with all the action-packed races. It wouldn’t be the worst idea to divide the calendar into three continental blocks which would change the perception a bit.
GtisBetter (@)
26th January 2020, 12:05
The thing that bugs me the most about the many races is the reason. Money. The attitude is not about making money, but maximizing profits. Without regards to the people who work in F1. More races, more festivals, more this and more that. Quantity over quality. For me a max of 18 races on good circuits is all I want and need. Give the guys plenty of time for holiday and time to spend with the family.
petebaldwin (@)
26th January 2020, 12:28
The big thing for me is that the more races you have, the less a win is worth. Winning a GP should be a big deal – more like a tennis player winning a tournament and less like a football team winning a single match. With the move to more and more races, each GP is feeling less special and it’s becoming more like watching football. You win a race and there is no time to celebrate it – you just stay focused and move on to next weekend.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
26th January 2020, 12:32
We have only 4 grand slams per year in tennis, and tennis lovers look forward to them every year. It makes them even more special.
22 is already too much…
DavidH
26th January 2020, 12:33
I’d be ok if in the UK I had access to the subscription and could watch races live or on demand whenever I wanted. As it stands NowTV want £9 just for 24hr acccess so you can’t even catch quali and the race for that amount. Not getting a full on Sky subscription just for F1. Also NowTV doesn’t even offer on demand, it’s live TV or nothing which doesn’t fit round my life and my work which largely included weekends.
So for me 20 is a reasonable number. 25 would seriously minimise the importance of each event for me and it also presumably means more one off Mickey Mouse races at poor locations just because some oil billionaire wants good PR. Too many races and I go from eagerly wanting to see most of them to being so exhausted that I stop following altogether because missing one or two races and you start to just not care. This upcoming season with no free to air highlights will test me. I figure I’m just not going to follow the sport with at all the same passion as I might have done. Increasing races just risks alienating me more.
glynh (@glynh)
26th January 2020, 22:28
You can get a nowtv season pass which is better value and channel 4 will have longer highlights this year if that helps.
Pell
26th January 2020, 12:37
16 races during 6 months.
Broke84 (@broke84)
26th January 2020, 12:59
18 is fine. On a personal level any more than 20 is too much. I like to remember the races in a season, so too many makes it hard, plus my commitments as a parent makes it very difficult to commit to 20+ races on a dodgy stream.
RP (@slotopen)
26th January 2020, 17:04
Exactly, I love F1, but I can’t watch any more races. I don’t want to miss races either, that takes some of the fun out of it.
20 is enough, I could even do with a few less.
Broke84 (@broke84)
26th January 2020, 17:51
I try to watch formula e too. But including f1 and my desire to watch indy 500 means I can’t put my family through more than that.
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
26th January 2020, 13:31
Liberty try to maximize the revenues but a limit will be reached at some point, either from fans interest, teams exhaustion or the amount of weekends in a year.
Probably a 24 races with a simpler 2 day format could still work. A single practice and the qualifications on saturdays then the race on sunday. But that would mean less support races, less features so a cheaper entrance would be then more than welcome. They will reach a limit, I can’t blame them for trying. So far they’ve been pushing in all directions with good success, keeping in mind that the real test is the 2021 package. Liberty has done its maths and commercially its certainly beneficial. Hopefully 24 races would be an absolute maximum though.
HK (@me4me)
26th January 2020, 14:03
I’m fine with 22+ races as long as they are exciting and contribute to the World championship. Going through the 2020-calendar there are serveral races which I think F1 could do without: Spain, France, Russia, Mexico and Abu Dhabi. The remaining 17 have earned their spot on the calendar in my opinion, and further races could be added if some or all of the forementioned five races were to be dropped.
StefMeister (@stefmeister)
26th January 2020, 14:04
I felt 21 was too many & think 22+ is too many again & with so many double headers it starts to feel like all i’m doing every weekend is watching cars go round in circles with less time to spend with friends/family…. Something that hasn’t been helped by them moving session start times to an hour later meaning qualifying/races now feel like they take up the entire afternoon.
An F1 race weekend used to feel more special when there was only 16-18 of them & when you had 2-3 week gaps between them as well as a longer off-season to recharge & eagerly await it to start again. It all just feels routine now, None of them really feel special & there’s no time to take anything in or recharge to look forward to the next… It’s all just one excruciatingly long blur now which I just want to be over by race 19-20.
I know the counter-argument often tends to be ‘You don’t have to watch all of them’.. But I want to because I want to follow the season & story of the championship, I don’t want to skip a chapter & miss a crucial moment. Yes I could watch it later or just catch the highlights but i’ve never been able to get motivated to watch things that aren’t live…. Especially if I have the results spoiled.
I’ve not missed a race live since the start of 1995 & don’t want to start skipping any now yet feel chances are i’m going to end up doing so this year because I really feel it’s going to start feeling like far too much when we get into the double headers.
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
26th January 2020, 14:15
Even 20 to me is just a bit too much.
I’m on the side of quantity doesn’t mean quality but no doubt there will be plenty of others that will be happy to have more races.
What I’d be interested to know from those in favour of more races though is would you be watching/attending each of the races religiously or do you intend to just watch a few edited highlights?
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
26th January 2020, 14:34
My old “rose-coloured glasses” still view 16 races as an ideal amount for a season.
The modern reason why is that I enjoy watching practice sessions and build up which I never could do before in the “good old days”. Alas, unless you are a F1 journalist, it is hard to stay on top of this sport and hold a full time job, let alone have other interests, activities, relationships, etc.
20 races was getting a bit much. 25 races is pure greed. Liberty should try harder to improve their package (especially the actual race broadcasting) rather than just expand it. Remember that dinosaurs get bigger and bigger just before they go extinct.
AJ (@asleepatthewheel)
26th January 2020, 14:37
In my opinion, the lesser the number of GPs, the more ‘valuable’ is the event. Increasing the number to 22 or more will simply make each race a mere formality, and not something which an F1 fan would really have to wait for to watch. And besides, taking out 3-4 hours to watch it live on tv on all the race weekends is a bit of an ask sometimes. 16-18 is a good number.
Coefficient
26th January 2020, 15:07
16 to 18 races is ample. I prefer to commit to watch the entire season but I can’t justify sacrificing so many weekends to my family so rather than watch some races and miss others, I don’t watch any.
Peppe (@turbopeppino)
26th January 2020, 16:43
I’d say 18 is a great number. You kill the longing to a race weekend by making it so readily available. Like, yeah I really couldn’t care less for circuits like Paul Ricard, Abu Dhabi and Barcelona, I normally plan my weekends around the racing calendar so when it’s time for those I’ll just look at highlights or results or whatever. So much for fan engagement Liberty, right?
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
26th January 2020, 17:02
If Braches says he’s giving up the job cos he spends too much time away from home, then it’s worse for the teams and behind the scenes folk.
20 races max.
More means were less likely to see a final race title showdown.
Dane
26th January 2020, 17:20
I wouldn’t mind a big calendar if we got more classic venues or new interesting challenges. Racing in Saudi Arabia or a parking lot in Miami seems to be what business owners want rather than the fans and teams want.
Darryn Smith (@darryn)
26th January 2020, 18:57
I like 16, but up to 18 is cool. I am far too busy to watch 22 or 44 if they turn it into two races a weekend. I lose interest in things when I can see it any time I want to. I mean it seems that I just got through the holidays and they are already getting ready to test the new cars. My F1 break hasn’t been long enough to really have any interest going into the new season. Having said that I don’t care how many races there are as long as the season only lasts 5 or 6 months.
Phil Norman (@phil-f1-21)
26th January 2020, 19:26
Lots of agreement, according to the comments at least, that 20 races a season or a little less, is more than enough.
Will Liberty listen though. How can pressure be brought to bear on them that the majority of fans don’t want 24/25 race seasons.
Jim from US (@jimfromus)
26th January 2020, 20:27
I voted 26 or more but I do have some qualifications for it.
I don’t think it will water down the sport as long as each race is held in a different country. F1 should be a world sport. It is a special week when F1 comes to town.
As for the travel and logistics it becomes another facet of the competition. The schedule should be modified to make the travel reasonable. Race in Australia, and eastern Asia. Take a break, travel to Europe and western Asia. Take a break, travel to the Americas. Take a break, travel to Middle East and Africa.
Jon Bee
26th January 2020, 22:30
There are already too many races. So many that it’s difficult to remember individual races, especially on tracks that are so similar and boring. Do we need another season of being told, repeatedly, that we will see better racing next year?
rob91
26th January 2020, 22:50
If you have more races in a championship than there are drivers competing in it then you have too many races. This is just my opinion.
I will also say that quite a few of the current races in F1 don’t really add anything to the sport other than the opportunity for the leading drivers and teams to pull out an even greater advantage over the opposition than they already have, which is a big negative that the sport could do without given the current competitive situation.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
27th January 2020, 2:58
Never too many, I’d say. If I were a team or a driver I’d see it differently.
nickthegreek (@nickthegreek)
27th January 2020, 9:14
agree!!
montreal95 (@montreal95)
27th January 2020, 3:14
I agree that F1 should settle on a definitive final round number of races @keithcollantine. It’s better for brand recognition, implies exclusivity etc. And aspiring employees new to F1 will know what they sign for for the foreseeable future. However I’d argue that 25 is a better number than 20. Firstly it’s a nice symmetry: 25 points for a win at 25 Grand Prix sounds right. And the 25 figure takes into account the growth potential that Liberty’s research implied. So 25 is cool but no more IMO
Markus
27th January 2020, 5:48
Cap it at 20 races per season.
Each team has 2 crews: crew A and crew B
Crew A do races 1,3,5,7 etc
Crew B do races 2,4,6,8 etc.
Creates employment for young engineers and gives the team members a rest. Could work?
Neil (@neilosjames)
27th January 2020, 7:05
I’d like 25+… I don’t feel that grands prix need scarcity to be special, I’m just a racing fan who wants to see more races. And the more races we have, the more likely it is that the venues I love will remain on the calendar.
But I voted 20, for practicality and ‘reasonableness’. It’s a decent, round number that doesn’t push the crews (team and FOM) too far into the realms of an overwhelming quantity of work, provides enough space for good venues and gives fans a long, fairly well-filled season.
nickthegreek (@nickthegreek)
27th January 2020, 9:14
I say the more the better. personally if I could have one race every week I’d take it.
you don’t have to watch it live you know (guess this depends on whether you have cable I guess) or you don’t even have to watch it at all. just my 0.02$
Craig Simons
27th January 2020, 9:47
In 2003, there were sixteen races. Then in 2004, the trend of hyper-inflating the calendar slowly began. Personally, I’ve always felt sixteen races should be the upper limit. Although it’s great for us fans having more races, it takes its toll on the teams personnel. Each race added to the calendar means less time for them to see their families at home. It really isn’t fair on them.
And anyway, most of these new markets that F1 supposedly needs to branch out too, never really embrace it. Ticket sales were barren in Turkey and India once the novelty wore off. And Malaysia suffered the same fate; although the decline there was admittedly slower. A large chunk of ticket revenue for Singapore actually comes from foreigners wanting to witness the novelty of a night race first person, rather than actual Singaporeans. The same goes for Abu Dhabi, and interest never really took off at all in Korea. Really, I have no doubt the Vietnam race is going to bomb as well, and it will be off the calendar in a few years.
mfreire
30th January 2020, 22:50
There has to be 2 crews for each team. To expect one crew to do all those races is insane.
Urvaksh (@thedoctor03)
27th January 2020, 11:03
I am being selfish here, purely because I can never get enough of F1. Non F1 Sunday’s are gloomier and not as exciting. Ever since I watched my first race in 1995, Sunday’s were never the same for me. That said, we have to be fair to the teams and those working behind the scenes especially given the looming Budget cap which means there will invariably less number of people doing more work. However, as far as there are no changes to the duration of the summer and winter breaks, I am more than happy for there to be 25 races in a year.
John H (@john-h)
27th January 2020, 13:01
20, but even that is too much probably.
Each time a race gets added, the less special they become.
VelcroFace (@velcroface)
27th January 2020, 13:39
I think 365 races would be about right. Maybe have xmas off, so 364.
Being a bit more serious, any number is fine, but I’d like them more evenly spaced, so one race every other week. Much easier to remember when races are on. Also in a perfect world for me, MotoGP would be every other week in the opposite spot, so I had weekly races to watch :-)
Mairo (@t-a-r)
27th January 2020, 13:55
Wouldn’t shorter calendar make it more affordable for teams to cope with the financial pressure as well? Not just the fact that the fans and crew members fatique is increasing as it is, but also the money spent on travelling and all that. I’m probably wrong but the likes of Caterham and Manor maybe would have had more chance to stay if you’f had say 16-18 races a year so the cost only based on logistics would drop. Plus it used to be mostly races in Europe.Williams would probably be in a better situation at the moment and also new teams would have more chance. It also doesn’t help teams if you have just a weeks gap between Montreal and Baku.
Doru Tudor
27th January 2020, 19:07
I think a calendar with 25 races could be posible if you split the calendar in 3 parts.
Start in mid february and the races will be in the south hemisphere till mid april,then a 4 week break,the european season untill august then 4 week break and the Japan-Americas(including Canada,Mexic,Brazil)-Middle East swing,with the ending in december.
Team MUST run 2 crews,one will cover first and third portion of the calendar and one the middle part.
mfreire
30th January 2020, 22:36
Interesting idea.
mfreire
30th January 2020, 19:57
I would like 27 GP’s a year, starting in mid-January in South Africa, one somewhere in the Caribbean 2 weeks later and then a 4 week break before a round in India. We need to have races in Argentina, New Zealand, India, the Caribbean, South Africa, Finland alternating with Sweden, Holland alternating with Germany (maybe) Thailand (preferably somewhere like Phuket) and Tunisia or Morocco. No races in Vietnam, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi or Azerbaijan, and the Spanish, Russian and French GP venues need to change. I personally would not mind seeing the French and Austrian GP’s alternate on a yearly basis- the Monaco GP is effectively the premier French F1 event. Hell, I wouldn’t mind seeing the Italian GP alternate between Monza, Imola and Mugello.
mfreire
30th January 2020, 22:39
Also, something else: the calendar should be organized regionally. First all the Asian and middle eastern races, then the European races (without going to Canada in early June), then the Americas races (starting in Canada after Italy). This of course would reduce logistical costs.
mfreire
30th January 2020, 22:46
And there has to be 2 crews for each team doing 13 or 14 races. To expect one crew to do 27 races is completely insane and unreasonable.