This will be the most number of races in a season of Formula 1 ever.
Formula 1 fans rejoice as there will hardly be a weekend without the sport next year, with the FIA recently revealing a packed 24-race calendar for 2023. The most number of races ever in a season of the motorsport to date, this coming season will see the debut of the Las Vegas GP, and the return of both the Chinese and Qatar GP, to the racing calendar.
Kicking things off in Bahrain on the 5th of March and concluding in Abu Dhabi on the 26th of November, Formula 1 fans will be hyped to hear that the calendar features two triple headers and a whopping six back-to-back race weekends next year. In fact, bar the summer break, there will be no breaks lasting longer than a fortnight between two races.
The full racing calendar for 2023 can be viewed in the graphic below.
Now just getting a little bit more geeky into the calendar, long term F1 fans might notice there has been a few tweaks made to the traditional racing season for next year. The Belgian GP at Spa for instance now has been vacated its typical post-summer time slot to the last race right before the summer break, but perhaps more surprisingly is that the (admittedly usually snooze-fest of the) French GP has been omitted from the 2023 calendar entirely.
And continuing on that surprising note too is that despite the persistent rumours of its imminent cancellation, the Monaco GP will remain on the Formula 1 calendar till 2025. This comes after a recent agreement that has been signed between the Automobile Club of Monaco (ACM) and the FIA.
Commenting on the recent announcement of the calendar, Formula 1 CEO and President Stefano Domenicali stated: “We are excited to announce the 2023 calendar with 24 races around the world. Formula 1 has unprecedented demand to host races and it is important we get the balance right for the entire sport.”
“We are very pleased with the strong momentum Formula 1 continues to experience and it is great news that we will be able to bring our passionate fans a mix of exciting new locations such as Las Vegas to the Championship with much loved venues across Europe, Asia and the Americas,” he added.
Having said that however, this bumper race calendar has also attracted some criticism from fans of the sport. This is particularly with regards to the environmental impact of all these races that are scattered all over the world, with some more environmentally-conscious fans questioning the rationale of putting the Miami GP right between the Asian and European legs of the racing season.
Some fans have also brought up concerns regarding the welfare of those working on track in this coming bumper racing calendar, which comes ahead of increasingly louder complaints from crew members about the stressful and tiring work conditions that has already arisen from the current 22-race season this year. But given that Formula 1 now becoming more popular than it ever was, these scattered complaints will likely not even be a hindrance to this new record-breaking 24-race calendar for at least the foreseeable future.
