What is a flyaway race in Formula 1?

If you tuned into the Azerbaijan and Singapore Grands Prix, you may well have heard the team “flyaway race” mentioned – but if you’re new to the sport, you might not know what this means, so we’re here to help.

Flyaway races refer to Grands Prix in the F1 calendar that are outside the sport’s traditional European heartland.

All 10 Formula 1 teams have their main headquarters in Europe – seven in the United Kingdom, two in Italy and one in Switzerland.

For the nine events that take place within Europe, every team's equipment and motorhomes will travel by road to each and every race weekend.

Where this differs for “flyaway races" is, as the name suggests, everything considered race-critical, such as car components, will go by air to all of the far-flung destinations that make up the rest of the calendar.

Similarly, five sets of equipment classified as non-critical for race performance will be loaded into cargo crates at the start of the season and shipped to events taking place several months down the line.

But why was this mentioned frequently of late? Well, that will be because Azerbaijan and Singapore were the first flyaways since Canada, kickstarting a run of eight long-haul trips to conclude the season.

Here’s how the flyaways break down from now until Abu Dhabi…

After moving into the second half of the season as part of Formula 1’s desire to create a better flow of races in certain regions, Azerbaijan was our first stop after the European road trips.

Baku is located where Eastern Europe meets Western Asia, and as the race was heating up on track, packdown was already under way as we looked to get everything set to board the eight-hour flight to Singapore the very next day.

The race around Marina Bay presents an interesting challenge for all the teams as everyone works in European time zones owing to it being a night race, so breakfast at 2pm is perfectly normal.

This is the second triple-header of the season and it is a mammoth undertaking for everyone in the team, but being a well-oiled machine, we expect everyone will take it in their stride.

Austin and São Paulo also host the next two Sprint events of the season, meaning there are plenty of points up for grabs during this trifecta.

Mexico City comes with the unique challenge of being 2.2km above sea level, which means the teams have to set up their cars in a completely different way.

“The circuit in Mexico City is characterised by the altitude; sitting 2200m above sea level means that the air pressure is low,” our Head of Vehicle Performance Dave Robson shared, ahead of the 2023 event.

“The low pressure means that despite running large rear wings, the drag and downforce of the cars is low. Cooling the PU and the brakes is also difficult, and the turbo needs to work very hard to keep the ICE running correctly.”

Then it’s back to Grove for a couple of weeks to prepare ourselves for one last run of races.

The final leg of the season sees us return to the site of one of the most highly-anticipated F1 events of modern times.

Las Vegas stood up and delivered in 2023, and we cannot wait to head back to The Strip this year.

From Sin City, it’s a 16+ hour flight to Qatar, with a November billing hopefully providing cooler temperatures than we experienced last season.

Lusail will host the last Sprint event of 2024, so we could see some big point swings heading into the finale.

From Qatar, it’s a relatively short hop across to Yas Marina, as Abu Dhabi once again hosts F1’s curtain call.