F1 heads to the Miami Grand Prix this weekend for round six of 24 in the 2024 season. We’ll officially be a quarter of the way through the longest calendar the sport has ever seen.
Up to this point, the schedule hasn’t been especially intense. The season opened with a back-to-back in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, but there’s been a fortnight between every event since.
Indeed, after the race in Miami it will be another two weeks before the paddock reconvenes in Imola. The Monaco Grand Prix is slated for the following weekend, but that will be a fairly short trip.
Soon after, though, things will ramp up. The first triple-header of the year takes place between late June and early July with the Spanish, Austrian and British GPs.
The races in Hungary and Belgium, the last two before the summer break, are pencilled in for 21 and 28 July respectively. That makes it five Grands Prix in six weeks.
There will be a pair of back-to-backs immediately after the break (Netherlands and Italy, Azerbaijan and Singapore). And the season will then finish with two triple-headers, albeit separated by a three-week interval.
There’s no sign of things changing in the future, particularly as more races mean more revenue. The sport has already revealed its 2025 calendar, which features the same number of rounds.
Williams driver says life in F1 is taking its toll
One driver in particular seems to be struggling to cope with the relentless of modern Formula 1. It’s one thing when you’re fighting it out at the front, but another when you’re scrapping doggedly for a sniff of a point.
Seven drivers have yet to score a point so far in 2024 – the Williams, Alpine and Sauber pairs and Daniel Ricciardo. It’s Logan Sargeant who currently props up the order in his second season in F1.
Sargeant has endured a bruising start to the campaign, having been benched by team boss James Vowles at the Australian GP in March. Alex Albon’s FP1 crash and Williams’ lack of spares left Vowles with a tough call to make, and he opted to let the Thai driver race in the one available car.
Speaking to The Athletic, Sargeant admitted that, as a driver, he feels drained. The 23-year-old, who has been partly responsible for Williams accumulating more than £2m in damages this year, says it’s particularly difficult to maintain motivation after an accident.
“You constantly feel tired,” he said. “You feel down on energy. I think it affects your level of motivation. It’s easier if you’re winning every weekend as well, so that makes a difference.
“You don’t feel fatigued in the weekend because you have this constant adrenaline, and that’s another thing. The truth of it is you’re high on adrenaline for the weekend, and then you crash.
“The science behind it is it takes at least 48 to 72 hours just for your brain to regulate back to normal levels, and it’s normal to feel this lack of motivation, energy, whatever it may be, because you’ve just come off this big crash. Also, when you just release all the nerves and the anxiety, this also plays a big part into it.
“So, it all makes sense. It’s all normal, but it’s just difficult to manage.”
Will Logan Sargeant lose his F1 seat to Kimi Antonelli?
Florida-born racer Sargeant will at least enjoy some home comforts this week as he heads to Miami. But in the back of his mind, he’ll be aware that it could be his last opportunity to race in F1 stateside.
There are two more US races in store this year – Austin in October and Las Vegas in November – but Sargeant may have lost his drive by then. There’s talk that Williams may replace him with Kimi Antonelli at the Italian Grand Prix.
It may seem strange for a driver change to happen in the second race after the summer break. But Mercedes junior and F2 driver Antonelli will have just turned 18 at that point, making him eligible for a superlicence.
Williams could ask for a special dispensation to field the Italian earlier, but that will depend on how much patience they have with Sargeant. Last year, he was thrashed by Albon, scoring just one of the team’s 28 points.
That prompted Vowles to warn him that he had to be ‘the surprise of the season’ to keep his drive. Instead, he continues to face criticism for making ‘random mistakes’, and his days in F1 could be numbered.
The post ‘Affects your level of motivation’: 0-point F1 driver admits he ‘constantly’ feels tired and ‘down on energy’ appeared first on F1 Oversteer.