The 24-race schedule was announced on Tuesday without the usual collaboration with F1 itself, the sport’s commercial rights holder. Sources within the sport believe it has only exacerbated the sense of fatigue and disconnected the teams’ feeling with the FIA, which became clear after the Italian Grand Prix. A team member said the FIA’s attitude was “unacceptable”. The new calendar was expected on Friday. However, following a meeting of the world motorsport council on Tuesday, the FIA released it unilaterally. It features a record number of races in a season that opens in Bahrain on March 5 and concludes in Abu Dhabi on November 26. Lack of information was not the only problem he felt in the sport. The inclusion of a USA, Mexico and Brazil fly-away triple header requires the approval of the teams. They are expected to accept the proposal, as they have done in the past, but there has been irritation that the FIA did not consult them. F1 officials were also surprised by the announcement, a state of affairs unlikely to improve the already testy relationship between the sport’s owners and its governing body. The sport did not have the opportunity to separately publicize the new deal they had made with the Monaco GP until 2025 or the confirmation of the date of the new Las Vegas GP. Instead, they had to quickly issue press releases confirming them in the wake of the calendar. After the Italian GP, the FIA and its president, Mohammed ben Sulayem, came under considerable criticism for their slow release of the grid after qualifying and then the use of the safety car at the end of the race. The governing body has insisted it maintains a good working relationship with the teams, but an already fraught atmosphere has now intensified as teams consider the longest, most grueling season in the sport’s history.
