F1 calendar demands highlighted with Miami point made

RB team principal Laurent Mekies has highlighted the continual rigours of the current F1 calendar, with the remainder of the season comprising double and triple-headers.

Further still, there will not be a standalone F1 round until the Miami Grand Prix in May next year, the sixth race of the 2025 season.

When F1 returns from the summer break, the second half of the year will be kicked off by the Zandvoort and Monza back-to-back for the Dutch and Italian Grand Prix.

After a week’s break, the paddock will head to Baku for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and then to Singapore before a three-week autumn hiatus.

F1 returns on the third weekend of October with the United States Grand Prix in Austin that kickstarts the first of two season-ending triple-headers, with Mexico City and Sao Paulo following immediately after.

After a two-week break, F1 heads to the Americas again for the second running of the Las Vegas GP, before the long haul over to the Middle East to conclude in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, with the curtain falling on the season in early December.

“We now have a few days’ work either side of the summer break before tackling the last 10 races in several time zones, all of them back-to-backs or triple-headers,” Mekies said to media including RacingNews365.

“We actually won’t have a standalone race now until Miami at the start of May next year!”

When F1 resumes for 2025, it kicks off with a Melbourne-Shanghai double-header, as the Muslim festival of Ramadan means the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grand Prix cannot occupy their usual season-opening slots.

Instead, those two rounds will form a triple-header after the Japanese Grand Prix. After that, F1 returns to Florida for the fourth running of the Miami Grand Prix, the next standalone round, in ninth months.

Despite the intensity of the calendar, Mekies underlined his point by speaking to the positives of the jam-packed schedule, even if it is “tough” for team personnel.

“[It is] Proof that Formula 1 is enjoying huge worldwide popularity, and we are happy to be part of it,” he said. “It is certainly a tough schedule, particularly for the mechanics.”