The final Grand Prix of the 2022 Formula One season, scheduled to take place in Abu Dhabi, could be brought forward by a few hours due to an overlap with the 2022 FIFA World Cup, which takes place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022. The problem concerning the two events is related precisely to the start of the football competition on November 20 and is strictly economic in nature: in order to be able to maximize television revenues and ratings from both competitions, the Formula 1 Grand Prix could undergo a schedule change.
The Formula 1 race will start at 2 pm (Italian time), while the kick-off of the opening match of the World Cup will take place at 5 pm. Everything smooth, then? Not really. As the Spanish newspaper SoyMotor also pointed out, the risk is that the end of the race, with the podium and the celebrations for the official awarding of the 2022 Formula 1 world titles, overlaps the opening ceremony of the football event. The latter was actually scheduled for Monday 21 November. But with an unusual choice, when you think about the importance of the competition, FIFA changed the calendars just three months later. The opening match will no longer be Senegal-Holland (which remains scheduled for November 21) but Qatar-Ecuador, at the explicit request of the host country.
Formula 1 could even race on Saturday, but this hypothesis seems less viable, considering that seven days before the teams will be in Brazil for the penultimate round of the season and that in the Yas Marina weekend, Formula 2 races also have to take place for the grand finale.
Leave a Reply