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For the first time in F1 history, the sport will be taking an enforced break over the forthcoming Christmas period.
For many years, F1 has enjoyed a mandatory two-week shutdown in August when all personnel, no matter their role, are not allowed to be at the factory, open their laptops, or even answer emails on their mobile phones.
With the calendar continually expanding, stretching to a record-breaking 24 grands prix in 2024, the sport has now imposed an additional compulsory shutdown that will run from Christmas Eve through to January 2.
Ordinarily, with the development of the following year’s car crucial, teams have worked between those dates to ensure it will be ready for pre-season testing.
As Mercedes technical director James Allison pointed out, it is “a common misconception that the season ends and we get a break”, instead “the season never ends, and the break never comes”.
Speaking on the Performance People podcast, Allison added: “The challenge of next season, the one you’re in currently, and the seasons to come, mean that you are continually rolling from one car project into the next without a break at any stage.
“The workload stays pretty high throughout the whole year, with it probably being at its most intense in the factory from now through to around April.
“The only enforced periods of grace, and it does need to be enforced, are during the summer, when the sport as a whole shuts down for a couple of weeks, and during Christmas.
“This year, for the first time, the sport has also decided to impose a compulsory shutdown between Christmas Eve and the second of January.
“It will be the first Christmas in Formula 1, since forever, where people will be able to take a few days off in a guilt-free fashion because it’s imposed at a sport level.”
Following an exhausting end to the past campaign, with five grands prix in six weekends, notably with the penultimate race in Las Vegas and its night-time schedule ahead of a 12-hour time swing to Abu Dhabi to conclude the year proving particularly difficult, Allison is amongst those eager for the Christmas break.
Whilst describing it as “pretty crucial”, Allison can appreciate, however, there are pros and cons to the upcoming holiday.
“It is true to say that it’s not universally popular in the team,” said Allison.
“By imposing on the team these known shutdown periods, you are effectively taking two weeks of annual leave, and forcing that on a team in the first couple of weeks of August, and then you take another week of holiday allowance at Christmas.
“That doesn’t leave a huge amount of discretionary holiday out of your holiday allowance to be taken in the remainder of the year.
“So what that does is it forces the whole factory to take their holiday in parts of the year where it is quite expensive.
“For people who may not be forced by their job, or their role in the company, to be omnipresent during the year, then it’s maybe a little less flexible and less enjoyable to be told you must take your holiday here and here.
“But for a different slab of the company, certainly for me in my role, for anyone who is part of the travelling community, that does the races for any of the management structure of the team, and a chunk of the factory as well, this enforced break comes as the most blessed of reliefs.
“It does allow you to go home, not feel guilty for not opening your laptop or your phone and answering a trillion emails, and just get some rest, so I’m looking forward to it greatly.”
