F1 on the sofa: the longest breaks between one GP and another

An (unfortunately) unexpected stop The outbreak of war in the Middle East had obvious repercussions not only on the countries involved, but also in the world of sport, starting with Formula 1. In April, in fact, the Circus was supposed to host the Bahrain and Saudi Arabia GPs, but due to this conflict both were cancelled. For this reason, the last race took place in Japan on March 29th, and there will not be any other challenges on the track until May 3rd in Miami: in total, there will be five empty weeks. In the history of F1, however, it is not the first time that we have witnessed a similar pause, on the contrary. The strange cases of the 90s Although for different reasons, in more recent times we must go back to 2012, the year in which the summer stop lasted from 19 July (Hungarian GP) until the return to Spa-Francorchamps on 2 September. More anomalous, if we look at it with today’s eyes, was the 1999 calendar: then, after the inaugural GP in Australia on 7 March, F1 remained at a standstill for over a month, returning to Brazil only for the race on 11 April. A season which saw the return of Ferrari to the top of the world in the Constructors’ World Championship after a long battle with McLaren, which entered that championship as the winner of the 1998 title. In that very season, moreover, there was a long duel between Mika Hakkinen and Michael Schumacher, with a highly anticipated ‘grand finale’ scheduled for Suzuka, the last race of the world championship scheduled five weeks after the one held at the Nürburgring, home of the European GP. A challenge that was resolved in favor of the Finn, who also became world champion in 1999. The even longer break and the record The question arises almost spontaneously: have there been world championships in which the calendar has had breaks longer than five weeks? The answer is yes, and you don’t have to go too far back in time to spot the first. This happened in 1990, more specifically in the period between the Brazilian GP and the San Marino GP, the second and third rounds of the championship respectively. While at Interlagos Alain Prost achieved his first victory with Ferrari by exploiting a contact between Senna and Nakajima, at Imola Riccardo Patrese climbed to the top step of the podium, but seven weeks passed between these two victories, as regularly expected. However, this long period between two races does not represent a record: this dates back to 1965, the year in which the first world championship race was held on New Year’s Day in East London, South Africa. From then on, only non-championship races were held, until the return after almost five months, on May 30, in Monte Carlo.