🌏 It is impossible to put together an F1 calendar that pleases everyone

(c) Red Bull Racing on Twitter

No one is going to be happy whenever a calendar is created for Formula 1. There are too many races, but maybe there aren’t enough. Perhaps there should not be (m)any triple-headers, but the entertainment for fans makes them almost unmissable. Maybe the sport shouldn’t go to certain countries, but F1 is always going to need money to continue, and despite obligations, the former is going to win. 

I’ve tried to put together a hypothetical schedule, which incorporates a few new ideas, a few old, the revival of a few tracks, some races on rotation, and a couple more rules. 

Three is the magic number?

Firstly, two triple-headers. That might be two too many, with triple-headers a massive effort and strain on the teams and their personnel. But each ending to the treble is intended to be a mini season-finale. So the two triple headers in my plan would be races 4-6 Miami, Spain and Monaco, and, later in the season, rounds 15-17, taking in Belgium, the Netherlands and Monza. 

Support series have also been considered, with two rounds a season seen as super weekends - either side of the break at Silverstone and COTA. Here, we’d fit in F3, F2, W Series and an F1 sprint, as well as the main event of an F1 race. There are just six weekends where F1 would be the only cars on track. Several of those are at the end of the season to keep the focus on what will hopefully be a closely-fought title fight. 

I’ve also taken out a race. We’re back to 22 races, with nearly one-third of those incorporating the sprint. There are several changes I would incorporate to the short race that I’ll explain in a different article, but there are apologies to several current races. There’s no room for China, the newly-announced IRL Qatar, Russia and France (although France gets a testing spot). There are a few tracks from the past that fans miss and would be quality additions to a balanced, challenging schedule. 

The Majors

Monaco, Silverstone, COTA, Monza and Suzuka. 

To me, four of these five tracks ARE Formula 1. Monaco is the glamour and its history, Silverstone the industry and its innovation, Monza the temple of speed and Suzuka represents its global appeal. COTA is a nod to innovation, the end of game boss that takes the most difficult bits of other tracks into Frankenstein’s monster, challenging the drivers in the heart of Texas. There’s also room to make the Austin round F1’s homecoming under its US owners, and COTA would also replace Spa as the track to tackle after the month-long summer break, deliberately placed in part of the schedule to avoid clashing with the NFL. 

Similar to other sports, these races simply mean more. Winning a major won’t net you extra points, but winning drivers would be entitled to put a star on their halo filled with the flag of that country as a nod to their achievement. 

Testing, testing

There’s no room for Paul Ricard on this schedule, with its eye test of a track not making the final cut. But because of its versatility, it would be the venue for the first test. Bahrain would double as a testing spot and the week after, the first race weekend, which would incorporate a sprint. 

Street Fighter

Some of these categories have crossovers. For example, Monaco would be a major, but would also be a street track alongside Melbourne, Miami, Baku, Montreal*, Jeddah and Singapore. 

The asterisk will be clear later. 

I love the IndyCar way of naming each street track as Streets of wherever. In adopting those two words, it immediately sets that track apart as a new challenge for drivers taking on bus lanes at 200mph. 

Like with the majors, and in line with things like the Tour de France, the driver who gets the most points during the street series would get a patch on their race suit and vehicle as King of the Streets.

Rotate and revive

The most exciting part of putting this together was to look back at where F1 had gone in the past, and attempt to incorporate them into modern F1. With that in mind, there was also a need to rotate some tracks. 

Growing up in the ‘90s for example means Germany is immediately F1 country to me and it seems unthinkable that Hockenheim or Nurburgring isn’t on the schedule. That’s back, splitting German Grand Prix duties every other year. Imola has earned its place back on the calendar, and forever linked with Ayrton Senna, but I also found the surprise appearance of Mugello a refreshing change during the pandemic, so a second Italian race comes in rotation alongside it.

A similar argument can be made with Turkey and Portugal, and the former's status as a perennial stand-in. I’d rotate Istanbul with the Hungaroring and Portimao with Barcelona. The last rotation choice would be swapping Canada (as a street track) and Mexico every other year. More recent fans of the sport won’t have ever seen a race at either track, but both have produced spectacular races in the past. 

I considered bringing back the European Grand Prix as a real wildcard, but couldn't make it fit into the schedule. Partly because I really wanted to add Malaysia. Sepang is a fast, sweeping track with two long straights - perfect for overtaking in the modern F1 era, and is an excellent destination race. I’ve also got it second in the calendar, way apart from Singapore. 

A European summer and a flyaway finale

In Europe, we’ve got round 10 in Austria, before pushing Belgium back a bit, which kicks off the second-triple header. For the flyaway races, the last four come in as a pair of double-headers, with Suzuka being the sprint finale and the end of F2, the night race of Singapore, Jeddah acting as the street series finale and Abu Dhabi the setting for F1 to close - something it allegedly pays a premium for.  

The reason to not end F2 in Abu Dhabi is to provide a little bit of certainty. Teams apparently wait for drivers to pick up their Superlicense points, and the final round is just too long to wait. It also stops F2 and F3 having to take on an additional flight. 

So here it is, the full schedule, alongside the real-life F1 schedule for 2021. 22 races, lots of changes, absolutely nowhere near 100% of people to approve and absolutely 0% chance of it happening.

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DateVenueF1 SprintF2F3WProjected F1 2022 CalendarMar 6Testing Paul RicardMar 13Testing BahrainMar 20Bahrain11March 20BahrainApril 3Sepang1March 27JeddahApril 17Streets of MelbourneApril 10MelbourneMay 1Streets of MiamiApril 24ImolaMay 8Barcelona/Portimao2May 8MiamiMay 15Streets of Monaco21May 22BarcelonaMay 29Red Bull Ring2May 29MonacoJune 12Streets of Baku3June 12BakuJune 26Istanbul Park/Hungaroring2June 19MontrealJul 3Imola/Mugello33July 3SilverstoneJuly 17Silverstone3444July 10Red Bull RingBREAKJuly 24Paul RicardAug 14COTA4555July 31HungaroringAug 21Streets of Montreal/MexicoBREAKSep 4Interlagos56August 28Spa-FrancorchampsSep 18Spa-Francorchamps66September 4ZandvoortSep 25Monza6777September 11MonzaOct 2Zandvoort88September 25SochiOct 16Hockenheim/Nurburgring98October 2SuzukaOct 30Suzuka710October 23COTANov 6Streets of SingaporeOctober 30Mexico CityNov 20Streets of JeddahNovember 13InterlagosNov 27Abu DhabiNovember 20Abu DhabiNov 28Young Driver Test Abu Dhabi

PREVIOUSLY THIS SEASON – POST-RACE

🇹🇷 R16 - Risk-takers and innovators🎮 The arguments for and against putting F3 and W Series into F1 2022 (and beyond)More from the 2021 season here