Mercedes driver George Russell has been caught out criticising the FIA’s scheduling of the Formula 1 calendar in a private chat with tennis legend Novak Djokovic.
Russell and Djokovic met after the Serbian’s opening round win over Russia’s Ivan Gakhov at the Monte Carlo Masters, his first match since a semi final loss to Daniil Medvedev in Dubai in February.
After some small talk about the match, Djokovic can be heard asking Russell about the Formula 1 season.
READ MORE: Gus wants radical rule change amid injury crisis
READ MORE: Icon’s worrying explanation for Cowboys’ struggle
READ MORE: Grim Masters scene raises dire Woods question
“What’s the stage now? Where are you guys going for the next one?” the 22-time grand slam champion asked.
Russell replied: “We’ve got Azerbaijan next. We’ve just come back from Melbourne.
“Melbourne’s a killer. I mean it’s probably taken a week to come back. We were meant to go to China next week so we’ve actually got a couple of weeks off. Then Azerbaijan and then the season really kicks off. Then Miami.”
Djokovic pointed out the F1 schedule was nothing like tennis, which by and large groups tournaments in similar parts of the world in one block.
“No, no, no, we’ve had a few conversations about this because we are left, right and centre,” Russell said.
Formula 1 bosses have already announced a plan for the sport to be carbon neutral by 2030.
Russell’s point about the schedule is valid, although with various contracts in place it’s hard to fix.
The teams, who are all based in Europe, will make three separate trips across the Atlantic in 2023, firstly for the Miami Grand Prix in May, then the Canadian Grand Prix in June, followed by a group of four races in October/November, in Texas, Mexico, Brazil and Las Vegas.
It would make sense for the Miami and Montreal races to be grouped together, but neither race seems willing to budge.
Similarly, the Australian Grand Prix saw the teams fly all the way to Melbourne and back for one race, after the cancellation of the Chinese Grand Prix, which was to have been run in what has now become a four week gap between Australia and Azerbaijan.
When Adelaide hosted the season-ending race in the 1980s and 1990s, it was paired with the Japanese Grand Prix, a more sensible scheduling model.
If Formula 1 was starting from scratch, it’s fair to suggest the schedule would look very different. The problem is the various contracts were negotiated separately, apparently with little regard for how the whole season would fit together.
Those contracts all end at different times, making it tricky for Formula 1 to bring some order to the chaos. Melbourne, for example, has a contract in place through until 2037, while a number of circuits are due to renew in the next two years.
Melbourne’s contract provides for the Albert Park circuit to host the season-opening race on four occasions over the next 15 years.
In the last two years Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have taken the opening slots on the calendar, but this is complicated in 2024 by Ramadan, which runs from March 9 to April 8, making racing in those two countries impossible during that time.
The proposed solution will see Saudi Arabia open the season on March 3, before the teams make the trip to Australia, splitting the Saudi Arabia/Bahrain double header.
“We are committed to making Formula 1 more sustainable and increasing diversity and opportunity across this incredible sport,” said the sport’s boss, Stefano Domenicali, in December.
“We remain focused on these very important objectives and have continued to make strong progress.”
For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!
Bathurst 1000: Memorable moments from Mount Panorama
