As Formula 1's schedule has grown to 24 races, coming up with a sensible calendar has become an increasingly complex puzzle.
Under its recent popularity boom, the Liberty Media-owned series hasn't been short of candidates to organise a grand prix, with the likes of Miami, Qatar and Las Vegas joining in recent years, and Madrid on the way in 2026.
While there is a theoretical possibility to go to 25 races, F1 has landed on 24 events as the ideal number to balance the unprecedented demand it is enjoying with the risk of saturation and overextending its 10 teams. One look at recent calendars shows how much work is needed to get there.
The 22-race 2022 schedule featured the return of Australia, Canada, Japan and Singapore following a pandemic-enforced break, and had a punishing double-header of Baku and Montreal, standalone visits to Australia and Miami and a frantic flyaway run of six races in eight weeks to try and finish the season by 20 November.
The 2023 and 2024 calendars also had their challenges, with plenty of standalone flyaways that meant airmiles were racking up fast for F1 staff, and triple-headers that pushed them to the brink.
The puzzle pieces F1 has to fit
As the number of 24 races is non-negotiable, and F1 has set itself ambitious sustainability goals by 2030, then it has to try and reorganise the current roster of races in a way that is more feasible both from a logistical and HR point of view. The most logical way of doing that is by clustering races geographically and ensuring the series and the teams pivot more towards sea freight.
But due to existing mid-to-long-term contracts, it is not as easy as rejigging the calendar in one fell swoop. And the sheer number of puzzle pieces F1 has to try and fit - from the climate to religious holidays and date equity demands - is sometimes underestimated by the outside world.
Every expiring race contract is another opportunity to further whip the calendar into shape, which is a job for F1's director of race promotion Louise Young. Young took over the key role from Chloe Targett-Adams one year ago and is tasked with negotiating deals with existing and prospective race promoters.
"In an ideal scenario we will look to have maximum flexibility in race deals, but then you also have to layer in some practicalities," Young explains to Autosport.
"When we have a new race opportunity, we have to think about the weather conditions, for example staying out of the warmest part of the year in the Middle East and other parts of the world. Religious holidays, national holidays, political cycles; there are lots of things that feed into that assessment.
"I think there's an increasing awareness from promoters that there are a lot of competing demands in establishing a calendar and that they may not always retain date equity or build their brand around a particular date.
"One of the examples is Belgium that has moved from late August to July. Some of our partners are more able to accommodate us at different times, particularly when they are a year-round circuit and this is their premier event of the year."
The early portion of the 2025 calendar, which F1 presented in April this year, is showing further signs of what F1 is trying to achieve.
It is trying to avoid staff having to constantly having to fly back and forth across continents, while freight can also be moved more efficiently with a better flow.
Japan in particular made a big effort to move from its October date to April this year, so it can start being paired with China.
"That was a big ask and change for the Japanese to host two events within a seven-month period," Young points out.
"It was one of the key changes we've made in the last two years, and then the knock-on effect at the other end was a link between Azerbaijan and Singapore to create a flow out of Europe. Those two changes have unlocked quite a lot of savings for us."
One outstanding issue F1 is working on is Miami and Montreal, which remain standalone events for now, but Young is saying it would be "the dream" to finally twin them.
Are triple-headers now inevitable?
Arranging races back to back has become the favoured solution to balance travel requirements and workloads, but one look at any calendar over the past few years shows that the dreaded triple-headers - once thought an emergency measure during the pandemic - are now here to stay.
This year the season finishes with two punishing triple-headers of Austin, Mexico and Sao Paulo followed by Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi. In 2025 the former will be broken up, but instead the season will feature an early triple-header involving Japan, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
So, is there a degree of acceptance that this is just how it has to be, if F1 is set on 24 races per year?
"We've got a number of additional events compared to the size of the calendar pre-pandemic, so it's only natural that there's more congestion," Young explains.
"We've got commitments to the teams, like preserving the August break. We won't be racing in January and we need to leave a number of weeks between the end of the last season and the start of the next one. So, once you've done all of that, you've now narrowed your available weekends quite significantly.
"You will have read [F1 CEO] Stefano Domenicali and [Liberty Media CEO] Greg Maffei saying that we are really focused on 24 events at the moment. In part because we understand the teams would reach a tipping point regarding their team sizes to be sustainable over a greater number.
"At the moment, we think we've got the balance right for competition and for the fans, against the demand we have for new and emerging territories to join us."
Under Liberty Media’s stewardship F1 hasn't just increased the quantity of events, it has also doubled down on improving their quality. The days when a grand prix was just a series of on-track sessions culminating in a 90-minute race on Sunday afternoon are long over.
Liberty's entertainment push hasn't always gone down well with racing purists, but the series owner is keen to capitalise on F1's popularity boom by turning every event into a weekend-long festival packed with entertainment to appeal to a more diverse demographic.
That has required a lot of buy-in from its promoters, especially from some traditional races in Europe which had long banked on their racing heritage to merit their spot. But they too have had to keep pace with some of the glitzy events that have joined the calendar in recent years.
"[Former F1 CEO] Chase Carey used to say: 'As the tide rises, so do all the boats'," Young says. "Our promoters understand that. The sport is doing really well, so they're doing well. Everyone can invest more; you create a bigger spectacle and then more people want to come back.
"Singapore and Silverstone are great examples of how they've incorporated things beyond just the racing action. They've got a really full track programme, but then you can see concerts at night. That's not the most challenging conversation I have with promoters. Promoters are our best marketeers in their market."
What F1 is looking for in new events
Talks over races in Thailand, South Korea and Rwanda have triggered fears that F1 is simply chasing big government deals and moving further away from its traditional European heartland towards overseas street circuits, concerns that Young is keen to dispel.
"When we put out the 2025 calendar, we said there was a balance between tradition and something new. That really does feature in our thinking about what our fans value, what is at the heart of our sport. We think there's always a place for some of these traditional circuits."
But it does seem inevitable that one or more European rounds will have to make way eventually, with Italy unlikely to hang on to both its Monza and Imola rounds. Chatter over a rotation system between Zandvoort and Spa hasn't gone away either, with all four contracts expiring after 2025. Barcelona will also struggle to survive Madrid's arrival beyond its 2026 deal.
"Yes, there are a few European races up for renewal this year and there is tension between them, because there might be a situation where a rotation system makes sense," Young acknowledges.
"A variety of factors go into our renewal strategy, though. What does the circuit generate in terms of on-track content and its racing that plays to the heritage element?
"We then look at our commercial arrangement. Next, how does the promoter service fans, are they delivering against our key metrics? They might have increased their capacity, but can they serve that bigger group of fans?
"Given the pressure and demand to join the calendar from new destinations, one way we can make a slot available without losing a partner is to move two or more to a rotational model. It will depend, case by case, who that promoter is. Do they operate a year-round business connected to the circuit or is Formula 1 the only event they promote?
"In the latter case it might be harder to sustain their business or their staff year-round. So, it's quite an individualised conversation about whether the rotational model makes sense and keeps someone viable."
As Young and her team continue renewing deals and striking new ones, she says she has a "really good idea" of what she wants to see from promoters to secure a hotly contested spot on the calendar.
"Sustainability features really highly in that, so how a promoter operates its event as well as their facilities. How their site is powered is a really big question going forward, down to operational things like vendors serving food and drink in sustainable cups and containers.
"Another one for the future is connectivity. We might start accessing our sport in a more connected way, so that you're sitting in a grandstand and actually watching TV coverage on your phone, you've got the commentary at the same time as you are seeing the on-track action. At the moment, many circuits couldn't have 100,000 people all streaming on their phone simultaneously, so we think connectivity will be really important to shaping the future fan experience.
"The third point goes back to a really basic premise of how people will have a good time at the event. So accessibility, transport, food, shade, water, all of the key things that go to having a good day out in an open air event."
It is clear that neither the 2024 nor 2025 schedule are perfect, and in a reality of cramming 24 races into eight months, it is unlikely there will ever be such thing as a perfect roster.
"Every year we look at what small changes can be made and there probably will be nothing that the community unanimously says is perfect," Young acknowledges. "So, we're continuing to look at incremental improvements."
