Formula 1 Carbon Footprint Slammed After 2023 Calendar Release

The carbon footprint of Formula 1 has been called into question as many are unhappy with the distances involved between certain races, with the teams and drivers going from Europe to Canada and then back to Europe in one example of the slightly haphazard schedule.

There will be 23 Grands Prix this year as F1 bosses have decided to cancel the Chinese Grand Prix again, with no replacement announced as of yet.

Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and Oracle Red Bull Racing will begin defending the title in Bahrain on March 5.

Formula 1 fans have taken to social media to complain about how the environment will be affected by the sport’s globetrotting.

There has also been dismay that there will be no races in France or Germany but there are three on the schedule for the United States, with a Miami GP, Las Vegas GP (which will take place at night) and the United States GP itself.

Sharing a graphic of the flights that the F1 teams will take to move from circuit to circuit, Twitter user @lydiahejka wrote: “Formula 1 really said, let’s choose the least efficient route possible.”

There were some who countered the environmental argument, saying that teams keep equipment in certain countries, so that the whole lot doesn’t have to be shipped around the world.

One Formula 1 fan tweeted: “On the flip side they don’t use just one set of race equipment for the season, they have multiple sets. They ship those instead of flying them to lower carbon footprint so logistically it’ll take longer for them to arrive at each race hence not doing all the USA races back to back.

“And they do manage to keep the bulk of European races in a streak. Italy-Monaco-Spain then Austria-UK-Hungary-Belgium-Netherlands-Italy again.

“For the non euro races you can see how they spread them about a month apart to account for the shipping times.”

Here is the 2023 Formula 1 schedule with the race start times in U.S. Eastern Time.

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