Ex-F1 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve warns F1 about a ‘BRUTAL’ challenge in 2024

Formula 1 is a global sport that travels across five different continents every season. The sport’s recent boom in popularity has led to a jam-packed calendar for the upcoming season. F1 will host a record-breaking 24 races in 2024 including multiple triple headers to accommodate this tight schedule. Now, former F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve has highlighted a challenging aspect of this year’s calendar.

The final leg of the 2024 F1 season would witness a triple header including Qatar, Las Vegas, and Abu Dhabi. The paddock would have to travel from the Losail Circuit to Sin City before coming back to the Middle East within a couple of weeks. Villeneuve has warned the sport that this could be an exhausting schedule for teams and even the media.

The 1997 world champion highlighted that the McCarran International Airport for the Las Vegas GP could be a difficult airport to maneuver. Although Jacques Villeneuve pointed out that for a top team, this could be manageable as the squad could simply hire a large plane for its entire crew.

That’s gonna be brutal. Already, the double-header late in the season, flying back from Vegas – it’s not an easy airport to fly from so getting here… it’s ok for a big team because they can rent a big plane, put all the mechanics in it, and fly.

Jacques Villeneuve told PlanetF1

Moreover, the Canadian driver emphasized that this schedule could severely impact media crews covering races. Villeneuve reckoned that the media was being overlooked with F1’s recent expansion as costs of Grand Prix trips get more expensive and complicated.

It’s really brutal for the media – I think this is the group that is being left behind in all that is happening. The cost of everything is going up, hotels, travelling, these trips have become very, very complicated.

Jacques Villeneuve claims F1 calendar will be hard on the staff in 2024

Many have criticized Formula 1’s recent expansion as the sport continues to add more races. Some team bosses believe that F1 has reached its limit when it comes to the number of races. Subsequently, Jacques Villeneuve highlighted that the current schedule would be tough on team members even if staff rotation takes place at every squad.

Staff rotations can work but it’s hard on the staff. The timezone is in the wrong direction because you lose time by coming in instead of gaining.

Certainly, Formula 1 teams will need to adapt in order to stay competitive despite the hectic schedule. Teams have started to adopt a rotation system to ensure that no crew member needs to travel to all races in a single season.

The 2024 F1 calendar would be a major challenge to everyone in the paddock. Perhaps F1 has understood the issue and thus the upcoming 2026 race in Madrid would not add a round to the calendar. Rather, the street circuit would replace Barcelona to host the Spanish GP. However, it remains to be seen if the F1 grid could endure the upcoming 24-race season.

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