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In 2025, fans have more Formula 1 action to enjoy over this year than at any other point in the sport’s seven-decade history.
With 24 grands prix making up the calendar – and six of those rounds being sprint races – there are a total of 30 separate F1 races this season with 72 total days of on-track action, aside from official and private tests.
Of those 72 days, 23 are held on Fridays, with the only exception this season being the Las Vegas Grand Prix, which has its first day of practice on Thursday.
Formula 1 has run a three-day schedule for its grand prix events for decades, with a single exception. The 2020 Emilia-Romagna grand prix is the only event of the modern era that was scheduled to run over just two days – with a single 90-minute practice session on Saturday morning followed by the traditional three-stage qualifying session in the afternoonand the grand prix on Sunday.
Williams team principal James Vowles appears to be a fan of a condensed, two-day race weekend format. Speaking in Singapore, Vowles expressed his support for having more two-day race weekends in Formula 1.
“I’m someone who would like to debate whether we go to a two-day weekend,” he said. “Saturday and Sunday – the same thing, just reduce the amount of free practice and make it a spectacle.”
However, Vowles believes trimming the fat of practice from the race weekend will open up the sport to grow its calendar beyond its current size.
“By doing that and giving back 24 days to the teams, actually you could do a few more race weekends if you wanted to as well,” he explained.
But do fans have an appetite to see race weekends reduced by a third? Even if it means more racing action over the course of a year?
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For
Fewer days per race weekend not only means fewer days work for the already thinly-stretched teams, they also streamline the grand prix weekend experience to get to the more important stages of the event sooner, potentially making races more unpredictable and lightening the load placed on fans’ time to follow the sport over a season.
There is also the opportunity, as Vowles points out, to open up the calendar to have even more rounds than there currently are to take advantage of the high demand for races.
Against
Fewer days over a race weekend means rookie drivers will have even less seat time than they already get to acclimatise with their cars and develop their skills. They also take away from a whole day of track time for fans who attend the event – many of whom enjoy the more relaxed opening day atmosphere of a Friday.
And growing the calendar beyond its current 24 rounds may be attractive to FOM and its teams in terms of the revenue generated from race hosting fees, but it may not be attractive to fans who have so much racing to watch already.
I say
Five years ago, or so, the concept of dropping a whole day from a grand prix weekend would have been virtually offensive to suggest. Yet another act of butchery to the tried and true traditions of Formula 1 that so many of us feel are increasingly under assault by the sport’s decision makers.
But when the grand prix calendar is already as bloated as it is, with Formula 1 demanding more of your time and attention to follow the full narrative of a season than it ever has before, it becomes easier to admit the idea may have some merits.
A two-day weekend would, hopefully, improve the on-track action by denying these meticulous teams so much of the data and knowledge they use to prepare their drivers for Sunday’s race. It may also alleviate some of the strain on over-worked race team personnel who already spend so much of the year away from home working on races. If the sacrifice is a practice session or two, maybe that’s a price to pay for 24 grands prix a season.
What wouldn’t be welcome, however, is using a more svelte race weekend as an excuse to pile even more grands prix onto a fan base that already seems to be struggling to swallow the amount of F1 that FOM and the FIA are insisting on feeding them. Already, an individual grand prix is worth less in terms of its value in an overall championship than it ever has. Adding more rounds to the calendar by cutting the length of individual events would only dilute the sporting side of F1 further.
If F1 insists on sticking with its current calendar – or even balloon it further to be even more exhaustively dense than it already is – then the idea of cutting a day from the race weekend becomes more palatable. But not if that comes at the cost of giving up even more of our weekends to follow this sport.
You say
Would you be open to the idea of reducing the length of a grand prix weekend by a whole day? Would you like to see even more races on the calendar? Have your say in this week’s poll below.
What F1 race weekend format would you prefer?
Three-day weekends – more than 24 rounds (0%)
Three-day weekends – 24 rounds (16%)
Three-day weekends – fewer than 24 rounds (57%)
Two-day weekends – more than 24 rounds (5%)
Two-day weekends – 24 rounds (14%)
Two-day weekends – fewer than 24 rounds (9%)
Total Voters: 44
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