George Russell has been increasingly vocal about the impact of the grueling F1 calendar on people working in the sport. He recently called the 2024 calendar ‘unsustainable’. Now, the Mercedes driver has also shared health concerns on how the consistent travel across different time zones is affecting his heart rate.
According to Racing News 365, Russell stated, “So from the disruptions of the timezone, my heart rate, during the night’s sleep is on average, about 25 percent higher than it would be when I’m in a consistent location.”
Currently, the F1 calendar schedules Grand Prix weekends across five continents. This becomes very challenging for teams and personnel in the sport. Often, there can be double and triple headers across different time zones and varied climates. This will naturally affect health, especially in quicker turnarounds.
Russell‘s concerns seem valid given how several race weekends come back to back. The latest example of the Las Vegas-Abu Dhabi double-header was a perfect demonstration of this issue. The 25-year-old cited a few days ago how he and some of his mechanics got ill following the exertion of this double-header.
To accommodate races better, F1 is looking to make adjustments and group races regionally. There are such provisions in place for the 2024 calendar. However, it still keeps certain races very closely placed and these health issues may not be eliminated.
George Russell concluded on this, “So it’s not just a feeling – there’s definitely data to back that up.” However, the Briton’s boss, Toto Wolff, opines that the grouping of races will be a smart idea to resolve this issue.
Toto Wolff makes contrasting remarks to George Russell
Toto Wolff termed F1’s attempt and intention to organize the 2024 calendar systematically as smarter. He understands how at present, teams and personnel are “zig-zagging” across the world to get to races.
Wolff said, “We will no longer hop from continent to continent. If we are somewhere, we will stay there longer.” The Austrian boss is keen on the regional grouping of races. He believes it will prevent the inconvenience of traveling to the opposite part of the world.
An example of the Azerbaijan-Miami double header from 2023 can be taken over here. These two weekends were held on consecutive weekends despite Miami being over 11,000 km away from Baku. Logistically, it gave teams very little turnaround time.
As a result, F1 has brought further the Japanese GP earlier in the year to start grouping races regionally. Thus, Japan will become a part of the Australasian leg of the calendar in 2024. Ideally, races can be grouped continent and region-wise. Starting in the east from Australasia, F1 can move to Europe, the Middle East, and then conclude in the Americas.
However, weather also becomes a factor in this planning. Certain races like Miami, Canada, and many races in the Middle East like Qatar cannot be held at any time of the year due to the respective region’s climate being too hot or cold. In 2024, the Las Vegas to Qatar double-header at the end of the season will be a similar traveling hassle.
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Wolff has called this approach a “no-brainer” which is valid. However, F1 needs to balance out turnaround times and space out races as they have done for outliers like Miami and Canada (providing a week’s break). This can help to achieve an efficient and sustainable F1 calendar.
