An (unfortunately) unexpected stop
The outbreak of war in the Middle East has 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 Arabian GPs, but due to this conflict both were cancelled. For this reason, the last race took place in Japan on March 29, and there will be no other challenges on track until May 3 in Miami: in total, there will be five weeks of void. In the history of F1, however, it is not the first time that such a break has occurred, quite the contrary.
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The strange cases of the 90s
Although for different reasons, in more recent times we have to go back to 2012, the year in which the summer break lasted from July 19 (Hungarian GP) until the return to Spa-Francorchamps on September 2. More anomalous, if we look at it with today’s eyes, was the 1999 calendar: then, after the inaugural GP in Australia on March 7, F1 remained stationary for over a month, returning to Brazil only for the race on April 11. A season that saw Ferrari’s return to the top of the world in the Constructors’ 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 championship scheduled five weeks after the one held at Nürburgring, home of the European GP. A challenge that was resolved in favor of the Finn, who then became world champion again in 1999.
The even longer break and the record
The question arises almost spontaneously: have there been world championships in which the calendar presented breaks longer than five weeks? The answer is yes, and you don’t have to go too far back in time to identify the first one. This happened in 1990, more specifically in the period between the Brazilian GP and the San Marino GP, respectively the second and third rounds of the championship. While in Interlagos Alain Prost obtained his first victory with Ferrari by taking advantage of contact between Senna and Nakajima, in Imola Riccardo Patrese climbed to the top step of the podium, but seven full weeks passed between these two victories, as regularly scheduled.
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However, this long period between two races does not represent a record: this in fact dates back to 1965, the year in which the first race of the world championship was held on New Year’s Day in East London, South Africa. Since then, only non-championship races were held, until the return after almost five months, on May 30, in Monte Carlo.
