F1 News

F1 sporting director supports flyaway triple-headers in the future

F1 sporting director supports flyaway triple-headers in the future

26-09-2018 19:29
Author profile picture

Bobby Vincent

Steve Nielsen, Formula One's sporting director, would prefer to use flyaway races to form a triple-header in the future following the fallout from this season's first ever triple back-to-back races.

F1 had a 'triple-header' for the first time ever this season, in France, Austria and Great Britain, which proved to be difficult for teams with so much travelling around the world.

The triple-header was enforced in order to try and avoid clashing with the football FIFA World Cup that was on over the summer, but amongst teams in the paddock, the three back-to-back races were heavily criticised.

Russia and Japan are now on the horizon for F1 teams and although European back-to-back races sound simpler for teams, Nielsen explained why that is not true.

"In actual fact, while European back-to-backs probably sound simpler, they are far more complex than the flyaways, as the European back-to-backs involve taking down motorhomes, building motorhomes, fleets of trucks and all sorts of movement," Nielsen explained to Crash.net.

"In Europe, F1 requires nearly 300 articulated trucks. It's actually far more complex than a flyaway. With flyaways the distances the distances are obviously far greater, but you're basically packing everything up and putting it all the same sets of planes.

"Formula 1 organises the movement of all the teams' freight and it's a very efficient process; the way in which the equipment moves is much slicker than at a European race.

"If you had to choose a pattern F1 is best set up for, it's ironically the long distance flyways that are the easiest in terms of logistics."