Analysis: Busy Time Ahead for F1
You wait in vain for a race, or at least one involving more than six cars, and then four come along at once

After the emptiness of Indianapolis, with the seven Michelin teams pulling out of that dismal US Grand Prix, Formula One is about to get busier than it has ever been in its 50 year history.
Four races in the space of five weeks - France this weekend, followed by Britain the next Sunday and then Germany and Hungary - add up to a tough month of unprecedented activity.
It is a key phase of the Championship, providing a fourth of the remaining points available.
Some fear it is all asking too much and they will have taken little encouragement from Wednesday's meeting of the FIA's world motor sport council in Paris.
While the headline-grabbing story was the crisis-averting decision to put off until September any action against the Michelin teams for the US tyre fiasco, the governing body also took the opportunity to publish a list of preliminary dates for 2006.
There were 20, between March 12 and October 22.
The first two, likely to be Bahrain and Malaysia because of the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne pushing back the Australian round, would be back-to-back while June and early July has three races on successive Sundays.
There would also be back-to-back races at the end of May, the end of July, in September and October.
No countries were listed in what remains a work in progress but it would not take a great leap of the imagination for Mexico to make its debut as the 20th race after the Canadian and US rounds in June.
Broadcasting Headache
A date does not mean a definite race but there were 19 on the preliminary 2005 calendar and that turned out to be the number of Grands Prix - the most Formula One has held in a single year so far.
Leaving aside the probability of the dates giving broadcasters a headache in a World Cup soccer year, even those in Formula One have serious doubts.
"I hope to have less," team boss Peter Sauber said in Indianapolis when asked about even 19 races. "Seventeen is enough. Especially all these back-to-back races, it's too much for the team."
BAR's Nick Fry agreed: "I do wonder whether the four races in five weeks that's coming up is simply too much for the customers," he said.
"(I wonder) when they're that close, just how willing people are to give up their Sunday afternoons, or will they be allowed to give up their Sunday afternoons to watch motorsport four out of five times?
"I think we should be entertainers, but I think the public needs to tell us whether they want that many races," added Fry. "I think spreading them out a little bit is probably a better move and if that means reducing it a little bit, then so be it."
The calendar is drawn up by commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone, who has several countries waiting in the wings, but has to be approved by the governing body and the teams - who are not contractually obliged to more than 17.
There was a row about extending this year's calendar, until the teams agreed to it in order to save the British and French Grands Prix.
The debate since then has been about either reducing the number of races or incorporating testing into race weekends, with the money saved allowing teams to rotate staff.
"I've always had the view that we need a balanced championship," McLaren's Ron Dennis said in Indianapolis.
For him, the number of back-to-back races was already way too high.
"It's too much," he said. "The impact also is dramatic on the families. Because you would think of course that they (the staff) go back and have a rest. But there is no rest.
"It's just too intense at the moment."
Latest news
Aston Martin starting "too far to the back" to score strong F1 results
Aston Martin Formula 1 team principal Mike Krack admits that the Silverstone outfit has to address its qualifying issues to be able to score more than the occasional point.
Mercedes: Flashes of F1 form are “annoying” trait of W13
Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin admits that the W13 has an “annoying” characteristic of showing glimpses of real potential in Formula 1.
Las Vegas GP date leaked, F1 race could be paired with Abu Dhabi
The inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix night race has a preliminary race date of 16-18 November next year that could form a glitzy season-ending back-to-back with Abu Dhabi.
The other McLaren exile hoping to follow Perez's path to a top F1 seat
After being ditched by McLaren earlier in his F1 career Sergio Perez fought his way back into a seat with a leading team. BEN EDWARDS thinks the same could be happening to another member of the current grid
The other McLaren exile hoping to follow Perez's path to a top F1 seat
After being ditched by McLaren earlier in his F1 career Sergio Perez fought his way back into a seat with a leading team. BEN EDWARDS thinks the same could be happening to another member of the current grid
How studying Schumacher helped make Coulthard a McLaren F1 mainstay
Winner of 13 grands prix including Monaco and survivor of a life-changing plane crash, David Coulthard could be forgiven for having eased into a quiet retirement – but, as MARK GALLAGHER explains, in fact he’s busier than ever, running an award-winning media company and championing diversity in motor racing. Not bad for someone who, by his own admission, wasn’t quite the fastest driver of his generation…
Could F1 move to a future beyond carbonfibre?
Formula 1 has ambitious goals for improving its carbon footprint, but could this include banishing its favoured composite material? PAT SYMONDS considers the alternatives to carbonfibre and what use, if any, those materials have in a Formula 1 setting
How Russell has proven he deserves to be Hamilton's Mercedes heir
He’s fast, he’s smart, and he’s already shown he’s not going to let Max Verstappen intimidate him. George Russell won’t say it, but LUKE SMITH says he’s ready to take the lead at Mercedes when Lewis Hamilton moves on to a quieter life. And – whisper it – Mercedes and Lewis are starting to think so too
The traits that fuelled Alonso's unexpected Aston Martin move
Fernando Alonso’s bombshell switch to Aston Martin sent shockwaves through Formula 1, not least at Alpine that finds itself tangled in a contract standoff with Oscar Piastri. Not shy of a bold career move and with a CV punctuated by them, there were numerous hints that trouble was brewing
The elements Ferrari must resolve to first save face, then win championships
OPINION: Ferrari's Formula 1 title hopes look all but over after another strategic blunder in last week's Hungarian Grand Prix denied Charles Leclerc the chance to fight for victory, while handing it to chief rival Max Verstappen. The Scuderia now faces intense scrutiny over what it must now do to finally become a genuine factor in championship battles
The clues about Hamilton’s F1 retirement plans revealed after Vettel’s decision
OPINION: Sebastian Vettel is set to leave Formula 1 at the end of 2022 and will, rather shockingly, be replaced by Fernando Alonso at Aston Martin. But what about the final chapter of the other driver that defined the post-Michael Schumacher era? In Hungary, Lewis Hamilton spoke about his future in the context of Vettel’s upcoming departure, which offered clues on how long it will last
Why all signs point to F1’s Monaco special relationship continuing
OPINION: With more potential venues than there are slots in future calendars, rumours have been circulating that the Monaco Grand Prix could be a casualty of F1’s expansion into new markets. But MARK GALLAGHER thinks this is highly unlikely