Moving the Miami Grand Prix to make the calendar coherent is looking complicated

The promoter of the Miami Grand Prix claims that its spot in the Formula 1 calendar “is quite firm,” while officials in the sport are trying to modify the schedule. F1 has been criticized recently for the placement of certain races in the calendar and has considered “grouping” the Grand Prix events by region in order to reduce their intercontinental travel carbon footprint.

Miami joined the calendar in 2022, with the race taking place on the first weekend of May in both years, and Formula 1 wishes to link the event to the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, which usually takes place in June, in the middle of the European part of the season.

A busy calendar in Miami

However, Tom Garfinkel, managing partner of the Miami race and CEO of the Miami Dolphins, claims that it is difficult to move the event due to others. Our date, if you will, is pretty firm due to all the other activities we have at the Hard Rock stadium. We obviously cannot do it in the fall because we have football games, we have the tennis tournament the last weekend of March, so our date can’t really be moved because of that.

Even though he recognizes that the promoters of F1 make these decisions in the best interest of F1 and that they must manage many other factors, Garfinkel insists on the rather narrow window he has.

Advance the date of the Canadian Grand Prix

Similarly, moving the date of the Canadian Grand Prix seems unfeasible. Just a few weeks ago, Montreal was still experiencing regular frosts. Even though temperatures have become milder in Quebec now, with a minimum of 6° at night and 18° during the day this week, it would be taking the risk of having unfavourable conditions for Formula 1 races.

« Obviously, we would like a little more logic and responsible economy,” said Stefano Domenicali for L’Equipe last week. « We are actually working on it and you should have a nice surprise next year in this area. But do you know how difficult it is to build a calendar? We could leave on Monday for Montreal. That would be smart. But no, because in Canada, in Montreal, there was still ice a week ago. Here, in Miami, we can’t have the Grand Prix from September to February: it’s the NFL season. And then, there’s tennis and the Masters 1000. And in the autumn, there are hurricanes. »

The calendar must take into account the constraints of each zone, and this for now on 23 races per season. As the Italian says: « Do you see the number of parameters we have to deal with? And this for the twenty-three Grand Prix. »