Cramming it All In: Opinions on the 2024 Formula One Calendar

[Music] thank you 24 in 2024 that is what formula one is hoping as once again it seems determined to get 24 races crammed into a season and this time it will be the third time I'm asking something has not been able to do this year and last year due to China being off the calendar as there were government policies surrounding coffee boy and this year was a mix of China's coffee boy policies and imler being more fit for Noah and his Arc than for racing cars they also seem to have moved the calendar around a bit the Bahrain had Saudi Grand Prix have been moved to a Saturday race day to work around Ramadan and Japan has been moved to make a seamless well as seamless as you can get run through the Middle East and up through Asia to get back to Europe with Miami occupying a weird slot in the middle there due to constraints surrounding climate and the NFL see also Canada I did a video on this last year which will answer all of your questions Link in the description or in the corner if I remember so this means the season officially starts in February given that 2024 will be a leap year the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend will start on 29th and the season will finish in December the 8th of December to be precise which is a far cry from when I started watching in the mid 90s when the season started in March and ended late October or so and just out of curiosity I looked at the 1997 season they had 17 races with only the Austrian Grand Prix in the Luxembourg Grand Prix being back to back no triple headers that year the following year there was a five-week break between the Luxembourg Grand Prix the Nurburgring and the Japanese Grand Prix Suzuka a five-week wait that was well worth it because it was quite a drama-filled ending to the season and now you've got F1 content creators whining they had to wait a little bit longer because imela was canceled but I've been over all this before in a couple of videos and we're going to try and do my best to avoid just repeating what I said in those videos because that would be counterproductive but what does remain from those videos is that formula one is and has fallen into that same trap of more more more more more more more more more races more events more stuff on the Telly more more more more more more more formula one is doing it football is doing it snooker is doing it a constant revolving door of stuff with the shortest off-seasons imaginable so it's effectively constantly on the TV and in the aftermath of one of those videos I did actually get a very nice message from someone on Instagram who felt the video was something he agreed with I can't use his actual name so we'll just give him an arbitrary one we'll call him made up nem he's from Central Europe a made-up said that he'd actually been a mechanical unknown Formula One team that was easily worked out not Mercedes or Red Bull because I know that's how people are going to automatically default because stat padding and all that or whatever the kids are calling it and he said that the end of the 2021 season he just walked away jacked in his dream job and walked away and once this whole thing of adding races to be pushed harder under the nose of the commercial rights holders so that this new Norm gets some momentum behind it to get it to will not be the norm and to give Formula One some credit they have actually tried to streamline this calendar as much as possible they've tried to get things together geographically with Japan now at the start of the Season as opposed to near the end well I mean now on a modern calendar it's actually closer to the middle than the end isn't it but I think there's some sort of Expo going on around that same time so that might have caused it to get moved I don't know you know like how the Australian Grand Prix was moved one year because of the Commonwealth Games or the ashes or something like that but then again we've seen the weather that can occur in Japan in October so maybe moving it might be a good idea you know how we have the Pacific Grand Prix at the start of 1994. you do have that outlier in Miami fair enough because of what it has to work around see also Canada for reasons we've discussed then the European season taking place during the European summer which again makes total sense a British Grand Prix in October or April would never work for instance because of how rain is a no-go Zone due to spray and the spray dangers were made ever so evident and real with that death in frecka last weekend later in season you do have that Baku in Singapore grouping before Austin and down through the Americas only to then come back up again for Vegas and I'm struggling to see why that would be the case that doesn't seem streamlined at all it's Thanksgiving around that time right so maybe having it while everybody is on holiday to get as many people as possible on a Southwest Airlines flight to the race but with those ticket prices you'd be lucky to have anyone turn up am I right see who said political comedy can't be fun okay there is that sort of Chunk off that they get after Singapore but the point remains Vegas Qatar Abu Dhabi back to back yeah that's a solid no out of 10 for me and while I said that the opening part looked good what doesn't look good is okay Bahrain and Jetta back to back that's fine that's something you can do going from A to B but two weeks later they're in Australia so Saudi Arabia home to do whatever they got to do with the car then to Melbourne they're not gonna go direct because cost caps Hotel bills and so on then they do the race in Melbourne they go back home which is a long way and then out to Japan then home from Japan and back out again to China the only upside to this is they're going to be racking up a lot of air miles on their frequent flyer cards which as I've said before in the previous video dedicated entirely to the well-being of mechanics in Formula One that's not going to be good for them I have seen a lot of people already on social media pool that they get paid a lot to see the world and do a job most would kill for but like we're seeing in the UK now from the doctors the teachers the nurses the postal workers the train drivers and care workers there's only so much you'll tolerate before you go you know what I don't get paid enough for this and you've got drivers saying that 24 is too many plus the Sprint racing and all that other stuff verstappen has been the most vocal about it and has been hinting at walking away because of it and it's not just the drivers and the mechanics but this sort of thing is going to turn away fans as well I know some people who have been big time F1 fans for a while properly loving it and are now looking at these calendars and going not going to bother watching that not gonna bother watching that can't be asked of that one I'll watch that one I'll watch that one on that one but no to that one and that one and that one and that one they're usually enthusiastic approach to it has been somewhat apathetic they'd rather watch IndyCar and I've seen others going well I'll watch the BTC seek because Aiden said good things about it I'll watch V8 Supercars give that a go what's formulary doing this week that looks interesting where's IndyCar going to be someone else I know has swapped to watching MotoGP and she otherwise would be totally not interested in bikes or bike racing another part of it that doesn't help is that seemingly more and more classic tracks are being binned off for Street circuits in places that nobody really gives two Hoots about that really don't generate any buzz and then you have the forced hype train that really just makes you look cringe and puts people off even further the other part is over saturation people will get bored and f1'd out for want of a better phrase because races that were in the past an occasion are now almost as common as a Premier League football match the fact that these older seasons were more spread out a bit made any Championship Showdown that little bit more lucrative again for want of a better phrase if the break between whatever the second last round of the 2021 season and was had been a four or five week break that weight would have been unbearable so that when it finally does roll around everybody's tuning in everybody's excited everybody's ready for it I guess a good parallel to this is when a band doesn't release any material for a few years and then decides hey we're going on tour there's that big influx of attention and demand for ticket sales and the album if there is an album that comes along with it well I mean with the Advent of digital music that's not so much the case for the latter but remember the days of massive cues outside record shops does anybody actually buy physical these days but I digress another thing that doesn't help is that unless you wear a Red Bull hat people are going to be turning off knowing that it's just going to be another Max verstappen romp into the distance after eight years of Mercedes to now have the same thing with only the names changed it's going to make people go all right what else is on 24 races of this now thanks where's indicara this week especially so if it's fancy tuned in starting with the 2021 season because of the whole drive to survive thing that must have been an absolute gold mine for those producers now the reality is probably starting to hit them now personally the clowns show that F1 has degraded into with this one lap Sprint red flag stuff penalties being applied nine hours after a race ending and other crap like that has started to push me away just as well to do mostly historical stuff that isn't it 18 races seems to be the sweet spot because you can still accommodate decent gaps in between races mechanics can let their wives and kids know that they still exist but given the pandemic and the rush to recoup the Lost billions F1 has now trapped itself in Long contracts and trying to accommodate everything because F1 wants to keep the classic circuits and add new races in emerging markets and because shareholders expect profits year on year that's how it's going to go unfortunately the previous video looking at all this was called has F1 reached Tipping Point it's probably about to mechanic and staff burnout even driver burnout verstappen has made threats and hints about leaving because of the long calendar and also the Sprint racing and things like that and if he left because of stuff like that an F1 is going to have a massive Market hole to fill with another Middle Eastern or U.S race no doubt everyone's constantly talking about sustainability with fuels and carbon and stuff but it's its own product going to be sustainable like this but anyway thoughts on the 2024 calendar and why F1 is probably going to harm itself in the long run because of it if this is giving you Food For Thought leave any opinions downstairs in the designated comment section and get a discussion going and while scrolling down if you think I made some good points like the video for more thinking times from me or anything else to do around here get subscribed with the Bell on so you never miss out massive thanks to the kind patreon for the sport if you want to help support me in a more personal level there's something to patreon in the description as well as I'll link to Discord socials the F1 store affiliate link and other bits and Bobs as well other super thanks if you just want to buy me a pint or a sausage roll or something so until next time I've been Aida Millwood have a great day wherever you are in the world goodbye [Music] foreign