Each year, Formula One drivers work to balance training, racing, sponsor obligations and family time as the F1 world moves at a frenetic pace around the globe. This year’s F1 schedule is grueling, and it’s already underway, just one month on from the end of the 2025 season.
Most of the teams’ liveries and uniforms have been or will be revealed this month and the first testing (unsanctioned and private by participating teams’ agreement) is scheduled for nine days from today in Barcelona, Spain.
Two rounds of sanctioned testing happen in Bahrain at the end of February before the first race of the season in Australia on the first weekend in March.
“I loved it and I did it for so many years, but also, it’s an intense job and it’s stressful,” former F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo told Newsweek. He further explained that the sport took and mental and physical toll on him during his 14 years behind the wheel for various teams and that when he stopped racing, it took months for him to learn how do things most think are not exceptional, like sleeping in.
Past Champions’ Cup champion Max Verstappen has been outspoken about his wish to have the schedule changed. “Try and reduce a bit the practice time to maybe one or two practice sessions. Start everything on a Friday. Try to condense it all a little bit more,” he told Newsweek.
Verstappen would like to see less street circuits on the calendar. About a quarter of the races during the 2026 are on street courses including Singapore’s grueling Marina Bay track and the corporate hospitality-friendly Las Vegas race.
Other race series have even less street circuits on their schedules. The World Endurance Championship series only races on dedicated tracks. NASCAR has one street race in 2026, in San Diego. IMSA races on the street in Long Beach, California, and Detroit.
Verstappen acknowledges that he is biased, looking out for his own health and well-being over the fan experience and business interests. “I look at it how I would prefer it, not about how you make the most money out of the sport. You always have to look at it from two ways, but if you look at your own comfort and happiness, that’s what I would suggest. But I also understand that there are different stakes in the sport,” he said.
The racer recently expanded his family with partner Kelly Piquet, welcoming daughter Lily in May 2025.
Athlete mental health is a growing concern. Gymnast Simone Biles famously pulled out of competing in most events during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics citing mental health challenges spurring a worldwide conversation about the subject. A 2019 consensus statement by the International Olympic Committee found that 5-25% of elite athletes report a mental health disorder.