The F1 Calendar Is A HUGE Problem (And Why Driver's Threat To Retire)

the 2024 F1 calendar is a huge problem and drivers are threatening to retire because of it see right after the 2024 F1 calendar was announced we can notice that there are 24 races in the season this is two more than what we had in 2023 now most people generally reacted positively towards the 2024 calendar because there are more races and more entertainment as well as there are less season breaks for us Formula 1 fans to endure but I guess everybody forgot the fact that there would be more opportunities for the Dutch Anthem to be playing throughout the season but generally everybody including myself are looking forward to the multiple races that will come to F1 and everybody's just looking forward to it except for f1's own drivers so there have been two drivers who are threatening the idea of retiring to the FIA after they launched the 24 race calendar the first driver being our dad Fernando Alonzo so bro has been racing in F1 for over 20 years now and with the announcement of more races being added to the calendar he recently mentioned that he might consider retiring and yes this broke my heart like especially considering Alonzo has just found a competitive form with a capable car and a competent team after years and years of Italian incompetence McLaren Honda torture and alpines overs to seeing him consider retiring again only after the 2023 season sucks you know he's also said that the schedule was very demanding especially with triple headers and it could really drain his motivation and energy as a driver this I completely understand because there's two triple headers now in the season and the schedule goes from the 29th of February and concludes on the 8th of December this is nearly 10 months of continuous racing like I would personally be mentally drained just from that and don't forget the physical toll that some of these races could have on the drivers for example Qatar literally had drivers passing out after the race and I know Fernando is probably going to race till 2050 or maybe even 2077 straight up looking like this but damn you know fia the dude is 42 he might still be performing as good as other drivers but give the man a break especially after his back got severely injured for carrying the out of Aston Martin now Fernando also criticized the decision to race mostly on Street circuits like Las Vegas he mentioned that the F1 cars are designed for high-speed Corners instead of slow ones which are mostly found in well Street circuit tracks but in my personal opinion Las Vegas was actually a race that I originally thought would be an absolute atrocity would just be another money-making race in the US where they would just invite celebrities that just couldn't give two shits about the sport part of that is still right but Las Vegas turned out to be a very entertaining race one that really got me to the edge of my seat even when I was rooting for Alonzo who got spun and unbelievably kissed at the start that is where that's the another driver who has voiced their concerns is Max vapen a driver whom I personally did not expect at all to ever really threaten retirement but he somewhat did so max didn't directly threaten to retire like Alonzo since of course he still still has an entire career ahead of him Max mentioned that he is very worried for the future of the sport if they're just going to keep endlessly adding races after the other for the sake of making money and maximizing profits without caring about the Personnel or the drivers it's going to make a lot of people consider leaving F1 because of how impractical it is to try to keep up with its standards now this is definitely not up for debate I mean it makes sense why drivers are concerned about this because in the past couple of years there have been you know less races and now there's more so it's right for drivers to assume that there would be more races in the future that the FIA might consider adding to the calendar with the possibility of these F1 tracks coming back to the sport there's also huge concerns as to the logistics and also the health of the personnel and drivers now speaking about the personnel and the crew in F1 the 2024 F1 calendar is just as concerning for them as it is for the drivers George Russell even voiced his concerns about the toll of the extensive schedule on the F1 Community cuz if you think about it more race do also mean that there will be more physical and mental challenges faced by mechanics Engineers Pit Stop crew and other team members due to constant time zone and environmental shifts every week or two just imagine you're an F1 crew member all the way in Vegas and then bam 19 hours later you're in Abu Dhabi having to fix a $12 million car with probably two brain cells left and one hot coffee to start up your day like don't even forget the part where your body probably can't even tell whether it's night or day because your body clock has probably been over from the numerous flights in the past couple of weeks like I wouldn't blame any crew members for leaving the sport after having to go through [Music] that don't forget the part where F1 legit promised to reach zero emissions by 2030 and yet we have races legit separated by over 10,000 miles in the 2023 season like I understand if there's a a problem with scheduling but damn you know going from Saudi Arabia then all the way back to Australia and then back to Europe and then to the US and then back to Europe again like holy FIA you guys can do way better than that like it's a good thing though that the 2024 season looks a lot Tamer with a bunch of the races in Europe being grouped up together and the pairing of us to Mexico to Brazil and then back to the US again but there's still a lot of ineffectiveness in the schedule which I'm not exactly going to about since I know nothing about about managing a motorsport but still F1 could use a lot more of an effective schedule not just to reduce the emissions caused from the sport but also allow the drivers and personnels to have to not go through the huge time zone shifts and extremely long flights like I honestly don't even know how they pull it off like I'm not much of a travel guy myself so if I'm on a plane for more than like 8 hours I'm either throwing up going to the bathroom every chance I get or watching Charles lir dnf highlights so I can kill time by crying myself to sleep [Music] s so overall Fone really needs to consider how they really schedule things cuz Fernando and Max are already concerned with the demands of the sport like I don't exactly blame them there's two triple headers in the 2024 season which means there's two successive weekends of three races in a row like many personnels have definitely voiced out their concerns and many have pointed out how ineffective F1 plan is to reduce all carbon emissions so they really have to do something about the races and try to sort things out to be both efficient at generating profits but at the same time keeping the drivers and staff happy now I'm not that concerned with the whole carbon emissions thing like sure climate change and environmental stuff is pretty real out there but as long as they don't replace the engines with some electric like I'll be fine you know but still F1 emits approximately over 256 6,000 tons of carbon dioxide every season that is a lot but not obviously not as heavy as the depression that a Ferrari fan carries over their shoulders like come on guys stop falling for the same trap you know Max is going to win [Music] anyways [Music]