The Las Vegas Grand Prix will keep its late 10pm start time for its second running this year, despite complaints from teams and others in F1 over the challenges presented by its schedule.
The FIA has confirmed the starting times for all 24 grands prix on the 2024 F1 calendar. The vast majority are unchanged, though the starting time for the Miami Grand Prix has been put back by half an hour.
The session times for the six sprint events on the calendar – at Shanghai, Miami, Red Bull Ring, Circuit of the Americas, Interlagos and Losail – are yet to be confirmed. The timings for the practice and qualifying sessions in Las Vegas have also not been set, as F1 explores ways to improve the race’s schedule.
F1’s longest-ever calendar has already provoked concerns from teams and drivers about the demands placed upon staff. The timings of the new Las Vegas Grand Prix proved especially punishing last year.
In order to allow the roads which make up the Las Vegas Strip Circuit to be opened to daytime traffic, F1 was confined to using the track only after nightfall. This meant second practice and qualifying were scheduled to start at midnight.
The schedule had to be adjusted after the first practice session was abandoned when a water valve cover damaged two cars. The second practice session did not finish until 4am.
F1 is under pressure to find ways to ease the strain of the Las Vegas schedule this year when the event is the first of three on consecutive weekends. The following round takes place in Qatar, meaning F1 staff will also have to adjust to an 11-hour difference in time zones.
Following last year’s race Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said the schedule was the first point F1 needed to address before its return. “It’s been a brutal weekend for everyone behind the scenes and I think we need to look at how we can improve that for the future.”
The 10pm Saturday start time for the Las Vegas race means it will take place at 7am for viewers in western Europe, 6am for those in Britain and 1am in the east cost of the USA.
This article will be updated.
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