“What are you trying to sell?” Max Verstappen takes a jibe at F1’s sustainability focused calendar

Reigning world champion Max Verstappen has taken a dig at F1's 2024 calendar for not adhering to the "sustainability" aspect. To ensure that the thrill and longevity of the pinnacle of motorsport go hand in hand, F1 President and CEO Stefano Domenicali pressed on the need to reduce the sport's carbon footprint in the environment.

The adrenaline-packed F1 yearns to deliver an action-packed outing during every Grand Prix weekend. However, because the sport has a significant environmental impact, a sustainable strategy is required to guarantee its continued existence. Fuel burning, compound degradation, complicated logistics including moving the complete garage across continents, and several other aspects take a toll on our environment.

To combat the problem, F1 came up with Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) activities to attain the sustainable future desired. However, the 2024 Formula 1 calendar is the lengthiest schedule ever, spanning 24 races across five continents; Asia, the Middle East, North America, Europe, and South America.

After having season-opener stints in the Middle East, the teams traveled to Oceania for the Australian GP and Asia for the Japanese and Chinese GP. The subsequent two races were held in North America (Miami) and Europe (Imola). The concerning point is that instead of winding up the calendar continent-wise, the sport has opted otherwise, resulting in various back-and-forth trips across the five continents on the calendar.

Witnessing the environmentally impacting racing order working under the blanket of sustainability, Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen criticized the Formula 1 calendar and suggested a way out, saying (via nini on X):

"We're still traveling too much left and right. It would make a bit more sense to maybe start like we did in Asia, maybe have a few back-to-backs, and then to Europe. From Europe, you move on to the US or whatever. "

"When you look at sustainability but at the same time I understand that having two-three races in the same country or the same continent maybe sell less tickets. But then what are you trying to sell? Is it tickets or actually to sell the sustainability story? That's what we have to look at," the RB20 driver added.

"Sustainability is one of the most important factors": F1 president and CEO after 2023 impact report shows promising results

After witnessing the sport taking a huge toll on the environment in 2018, the next year saw F1 devising sustainability strategies to achieve Net Zero emissions by the 2030 season. Formula 1 released its 2023 impact report highlighting the changes witnessed since the changes were initiated.

According to the report, the aim was to reduce carbon footprints by 50% compared to 2018 but the sport could only achieve a 13% drop. Moving forward, for the remaining 37%, the prime focus is placed on logistics which accounts for nearly 50% of F1's total carbon footprint.

Additionally, the bio-fuel-powered trucks of DHL helped curb a whopping 83% in average emissions during the European season. Moreover, as new power unit rules will come into play from the 2026 season, F1 will use 100% sustainable fuel in the 2026 cars as a part of their further steps for a sustainable future.

Speaking on sustainability as the need of the hour, President and CEO of Formula 1, Steve Domenicali said (via official F1 release):

“Sustainability is one of the most important factors to us not only as a sport, but as a business. It is no longer enough for us to simply deliver great action and wheel-to-wheel racing on the track, we need to ensure that we are doing so in a sustainable way so our sport can thrive long into the future."

So far, the 2025 calendar runs along similar lines to that of the current year's calendar; an unorderly fashion of continent-wise racing.