George Russell has warned against having Australia as a standalone event going forward as he believes it is “too tough” for team members.
For many years, Australia was the opening round of the Formula 1 season, however its events in 2020 and 2021 were cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
It returned this year as the third round of the 2022 campaign, two weeks after the second event of the season in Jeddah.
Russell says that people arrived in Melbourne a number of days early to get used to the time zone, an issue that he thinks can be solved by having it as a back-to-back round with another event.
“I think Melbourne as a season opener was really cool, because everybody came out here early,” Russell said.
“And it was a lot of excitement and anticipation, but I think having Melbourne in between races, especially as a standalone is too tough for the teams and everybody.
“People came out on Saturdays and Sundays to get acclimatised to the conditions, to the time zone change and it’s just too much I think.
“I think it needs to be thought about more. I think there’s no reason why we couldn’t do it back-to-back with all one of the Middle Eastern races.
“It feels like another double header for all of the teams with the amount of time they spend in this part of the world. And as the season is getting longer and longer, we need to find a better balance.”
Russell clarified that he believes F1 “needs” to come to Australia on a yearly basis: “We’re happy for the race to be at any point in the season.
“We obviously race very far east with Japan and Singapore, China, [which we] obviously don’t have this year, but I’m sure it will be on the calendar or it is on the calendar from next year onwards.
“I just think there’s a better compromise to be had, as it can be done. I know there’s a huge amount of limitation involved.
“I think we need to come to Australia, we need to come to this part of the world, but as we said, as a standalone I think it’s just too much for everyone.”
I agree with George that it is an imposition to come to Aus for just one race, so maybe they need to look at a second race for Aus, maybe in Adelaide who have done great hosting job in the past. Sydney would also be a great venue with maybe a race around The Rocks near the Sydney Harbour bridge or other options. You would have just as big a crowd as Melbourne 2022. F1 is big in Aus, not just because of Ricciardo, it would be well supported.
The way F1 looks at getting tracks they will probably go for a street circuit around the Gold Coast. Similar to the Indy circuit.
Russell is not talking about having a second race in Australia..but somewhere near the same time zone within a week so that it’s not too demanding. Getting a second race in Australia will be next to impossible given that there are lot more tracks round the world willing to dish out more to F1 in terms of F1 fees.
Japan is on a very similar time zone to Australia.