Russell calls for changes to F1’s ‘unsustainable’ 24-race calendar

F1 will embark on a record-breaking 24-race calendar in 2024, with the season kicking off on February 29 with FP1 in Bahrain.

The ending of the F1 2023 was criticised by many due to the timing of the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix, which was just one-week before the season-ending race in Abu Dhabi.

This left many, including Russell, feeling under the weather at the end of a gruelling F1 campaign due to the major time zone difference between Vegas and Abu Dhabi.

• F1’s six sprint races for 2024 revealed, including two new venues

2024 will be 24 races long with the re-introduction of China, as well as Imola, which was cancelled due to flooding this year.

There will also be six sprint events, meaning there will be technically 30 ‘races’ in 2024.

Russell thinks changes will have to be made to the calendar “geographically” to make it easier on the teams.

“Everybody up and down the paddock – I’ve got so many mechanics who are ill, people in the engineers’ office,” Russell said.

“They have really struggled with the constant timezone shifts, the body not knowing where you are, eating at different times, staying in different hotels, different environments, different climates. The body’s getting confused.

“I think there are talks for next year about personnel being regulated, that they can’t do every single race. I think that would be a good thing.

“I don’t think it’s sustainable for 4,000 people, I think it is, to do 24 races a season, especially when you see how geographically it still doesn’t make a huge amount of sense.”