Should Formula 1 Bring Back Non-Championship Races?

Formula 1 looks set to keep expanding its calendar for the foreseeable future, possibly sometimes at the expense of beloved tracks in favour of new untested ones.

While new avenues should always be explored, perhaps there’s a better way of going about it.

After all, having more races on the F1 calendar doesn’t guarantee that the racing will improve alongside it. F1’s most recent addition to the calendar, Miami, proved that. Sure, it was a memorable Grand Prix, but not really for the reasons most actual F1 fans would have wanted, i.e. the racing.

Is there a way then to satisfy the needs of your most casual of F1 fans, the big bosses upstairs at the FIA and Liberty and the actual proper Formula 1 fans that arguably care more than anyone? Yes. Yes there is. Bring back Non-Championship Grand Prix.

MIAMI INTERNATIONAL AUTODROME, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA – MAY 08: Mick Schumacher, Haas VF-22, leads Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren MCL36, and Kevin Magnussen, Haas VF-22 during the Miami GP at Miami International Autodrome on Sunday May 08, 2022 in Miami, United States of America. (Photo by Andy Hone / LAT Images)

Some of you might be wondering, what is a Non-Championship Grand Prix. To you, I say it’s exactly what it says on the tin.

It’s a Grand Prix race that runs in the same way a normal Grand Prix weekend would, except that the results don’t impact the overall Championship, either for the Drivers or the Constructors. It used to be done quite a bit back in the classic F1 days of the 1950s but hasn’t been seen for quite some time now.

But this kind of throwback could be exactly what Formula 1 needs. Let’s take the recent Miami Grand Prix as our Guinea Pig example here. First of all, there was no way that the race could possibly have lived up to all the hype surrounding it in the build-up to the weekend.

It felt more like the Superbowl than a Grand Prix – and in this case, that’s not a good thing. With the Superbowl, you’re there for the experience, not the game. While the game may be good from time to time, it’s not essential for anyone attending to enjoy themselves. This is problematic when you have an F1 race that is part of the Championship battle for the year.

MIAMI, FLORIDA – MAY 08: Sergio Perez of Mexico and Red Bull Racing during the F1 Grand Prix of Miami at the Miami International Autodrome on May 08, 2022 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Peter Fox/Getty Images) // Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool // SI202205090416 // Usage for editorial use only //

Now changing the Grand Prix to being a Non-Championship race doesn’t automatically fix things.

But my next point will. Instead of having the regular twenty drivers compete in the race as they would for a Championship race, instead every team should call upon their reserve drivers or drivers from their driver academies to compete in the race instead.

Instantly, the hype for the Grand Prix is elevated to another level and even die hard F1 fans are immediately more invested in the weekend as a whole. It’d become a proper event with something for everyone and if the race was still the same quality as the one we got in reality not that long ago, we’d accept it more willingly because of all the different drivers taking part.

If this idea of mine had indeed played out the other weekend in Miami, this is what the grid could have looked like (I’ve added some names that aren’t reserve drivers, but I don’t think you’ll complain too much about that):

Mercedes: Stoffel Vandoorne and Nyck de Vries

Red Bull: Liam Lawson and Sebastien Buemi

Ferrari: Antonio Giovinazzi and Mick Schumacher

McLaren: Colton Herta and Pato O’Ward

Alpine: Oscar Piastri and Jack Doohan

Alpha Tauri: Jehan Daruvala and Juri Vips

Aston Martin: Nico Hulkenberg and Jessica Hawkins

Williams: Jack Aitken and Jamie Chadwick

Haas: Pietro Fittipaldi and Emma Kimilainen

Alfa Romeo: Robert Kubica and Tatiana Calderon

Do I really need to sell that list of drivers to you? Nyck de Vries and Oscar Piastri would make their overdue F1 Grand Prix debuts. Giovinazzi would be in the 2022 Ferrari.

Four deserving women would be on the F1 grid and thus really hammer home that not only should there be women on the F1 grid in the future but also just think about how much more marketing Miami could do with this.

Everyone loves money in Formula 1 so this is all a no brainer. Pato O’Ward and Colton Herta would also send the American F1 fanbase into a frenzy if they got to drive. It would be fantastic.

This Miami blueprint could then be applied to any other new F1 venues in the future, e.g., Las Vegas, rumoured Kyalami, Qatar, etc. It would give the normal drivers a break and a chance to observe the guest drivers to see what they could learn from them and still provide teams with crucial data.

Casual F1 fans would be on board as quick as a flash because most are there for the experience anyway, as mentioned above. Liberty and the FIA would look like visionaries for potentially showcasing the F1 grid of the future and the die hard F1 fans would have plenty to keep them talking for the rest of the year. The marketing and publicity before, during and after practically takes care of itself.

A small additional side note would be that if Formula 1 insists on keeping the annoying Sprint Races too, lob them into these Non-Championship event weekends. It gives the “new” drivers more time in the car and more time to race and lets the regular drivers got on with the proper business the rest of the time. It all fits perfectly if I do say so myself.

What do you reckon then? Are Non-Championship races destined to come back to F1? If so, should they look like this and be a proper showcase of what Formula 1 has to offer? If they do, I certainly hope so.

Author: Thiemo Albers-Daly