F1 Race Weekend Schedule

Purpose

Retrieve the complete session schedule for a single Formula 1 Grand Prix from formula1.com — every Free Practice, Qualifying, Sprint Qualifying, Sprint and the Race — each with its date, start time, end time, timezone and GMT offset. This is a read-only lookup. The recommended path is a plain HTTP fetch of the canonical race page, which server-renders the full schedule as structured JSON; no scripted browsing is required.

When to Use

A user asks "what time is qualifying / the race / FP1 for the {country} Grand Prix?"
A user wants the full weekend running order and timings for an upcoming or past race.
You have an F1 news/article URL (e.g. .../article/formula-1-lenovo-austrian-grand-prix-2026...) and need to resolve it to the actual session timetable.
You need machine-readable session times (with explicit timezone/offset) to build a calendar, countdown, or reminder.

Workflow

The schedule is embedded twice in the server-rendered HTML of every race page. Fetch the page once and parse the embedded JSON — do not drive a browser.

The canonical race page URL is:

https://www.formula1.com/en/racing/{year}/{race-slug}

Resolve the race slug. Slugs are country/location based and not always obvious (e.g. Monza → italy, Imola → emilia-romagna, Abu Dhabi → united-arab-emirates, Las Vegas → las-vegas, Spielberg/Red Bull Ring → austria). To map a race name reliably, fetch the season index and read the /en/racing/{year}/{slug} links (each card carries the round number and country name):
```
browse cloud fetch "https://www.formula1.com/en/racing/2026" \
  | node -e 'let s="";process.stdin.on("data",c=>s+=c).on("end",()=>{const h=(JSON.parse(s).content||"").replace(/\\"/g,String.fromCharCode(34));console.log([...new Set(h.match(/\/en\/racing\/2026\/[a-z0-9-]+/g))].join("\n"));})'
```
If you were handed an article URL instead of a race name, that article page also links directly to its /en/racing/{year}/{slug} race page — fetch the article and extract the link.

Fetch the race page (works bare — HTTP 200, no proxies/verified needed, no anti-bot):

browse cloud fetch "https://www.formula1.com/en/racing/2026/austria" > /tmp/race.json

Parse the embedded race.meetingSessions array — this is the preferred source because it gives track-local times directly plus an explicit timezone and gmtOffset (no UTC conversion needed):
```
node -e '
const fs=require("fs");
const html=JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync("/tmp/race.json","utf8")).content
  .replace(/\\"/g,String.fromCharCode(34)).replace(/\\\\/g,String.fromCharCode(92));
const i=html.indexOf("\"meetingSessions\":[");
const start=html.indexOf("[",i); let d=0,end=-1;
for(let k=start;k<html.length;k++){const c=html[k];if(c==="[")d++;else if(c==="]"){d--;if(!d){end=k;break;}}}
const arr=JSON.parse(html.slice(start,end+1));
for(const x of arr) console.log(x.shortName, x.description, x.startTime, x.gmtOffset, x.timezone, x.state);
'
```
Each item has: session, shortName (FP1/FP2/FP3/Sprint Q/Sprint/Qualifying/Race), description, startTime, endTime (both track-local, no offset suffix), gmtOffset (e.g. +02:00), timezone (IANA, e.g. Europe/Vienna), state (upcoming/completed), and sessionType. Compose an ISO-8601 instant by appending gmtOffset to startTime/endTime.

Race-level metadata (also in the HTML) gives the official name and location: meetingOfficialName, meetingName, meetingLocation, meetingCountryCode, meetingStartDate.
Return all sessions. A conventional weekend has 5 (FP1, FP2, FP3, Qualifying, Race); a Sprint weekend has 5 with a different mix (FP1, Sprint Q, Sprint, Qualifying, Race — only one practice).

Browser fallback

Only if you cannot run an HTTP fetch. Open https://www.formula1.com/en/racing/{year}/{slug} in a stealth-capable session, then:

Dismiss the OneTrust cookie consent modal — it renders inside an iframe, so a top-level getElementById('onetrust-accept-btn-handler') will not find it. Either click the button inside the iframe via a frame-aware click, or remove the overlay nodes ([id*=onetrust], [class*=ot-sdk], the consent iframe) before interacting.
Click the "Track time" toggle (top-right of the schedule block). By default the page shows "My time" — the viewer's timezone — so without toggling you'll capture the wrong times. The remote browser's clock is typically UTC, so "My time" shows times 2h off from track-local.
The schedule list sits in a scroll container ~y=910px; window.scrollTo(0, 815) brings it into the viewport for a clean screenshot/extraction.

Even in the browser, prefer reading the embedded JSON (browse get text body exposes the JSON-LD; the SSR HTML still contains meetingSessions) over scraping the rendered DOM rows.

Site-Specific Gotchas

The race page only lists the main F1 sessions. Supporting-series timings (F2, F3, Porsche Supercup) are NOT on the F1.com race page — the page merely links out to fiaformula2.com / fiaformula3.com. If a user explicitly needs support-race times, state that F1.com does not publish them and point to those external sites. Don't hunt for an F2/F3 session array in the payload — it isn't there.
Two embedded data sources, different timezones. race.meetingSessions gives track-local startTime/endTime + gmtOffset + IANA timezone. The schema.org JSON-LD subEvent[] (under @type:"SportsEvent") gives startDate/endDate in UTC (...Z) and needs converting. Prefer meetingSessions to avoid conversion bugs.
sessionType is mislabeled on Sprint weekends. The field is offset by one: "Sprint Q" carries sessionType:"Sprint Shootout" and "Sprint" carries sessionType:"Sprint Qualifying". Trust shortName/description, not sessionType.
"My time" vs "Track time" toggle (browser path only). Rendered times default to the viewer's timezone. Confirmed: with a UTC browser, Practice 1 shows 04:30 under "My time" but the true track-local time is 13:30 (Europe/Vienna). The embedded JSON is always track-local — another reason to prefer fetch.
Slugs are not the GP common name. Use the season index (/en/racing/{year}) to map a race to its slug; don't guess (Monza→italy, Imola→emilia-romagna, Abu Dhabi→united-arab-emirates, Barcelona→barcelona-catalunya). Pre-season tests appear as pre-season-testing-1/-2.
No anti-bot. browse cloud fetch returns HTTP 200 on the homepage, season index, and race pages without --proxies or --verified. The site is a Next.js/CloudFront app (s-maxage=60 edge cache). Stealth flags are unnecessary for this read-only task.
state reflects completion. Past sessions show state:"completed", future ones state:"upcoming" — useful for "what's next" queries.

Expected Output

Conventional weekend (5 sessions). Times are track-local; gmtOffset appended to form an absolute instant:

{
  "success": true,
  "race_name": "FORMULA 1 LENOVO AUSTRIAN GRAND PRIX 2026",
  "circuit_location": "Spielberg",
  "country_code": "AUT",
  "timezone": "Europe/Vienna",
  "gmt_offset": "+02:00",
  "sessions": [
    { "short_name": "FP1",        "description": "Practice 1",  "type": "Practice",   "start": "2026-06-26T13:30:00+02:00", "end": "2026-06-26T14:30:00+02:00", "state": "completed" },
    { "short_name": "FP2",        "description": "Practice 2",  "type": "Practice",   "start": "2026-06-26T17:00:00+02:00", "end": "2026-06-26T18:00:00+02:00", "state": "completed" },
    { "short_name": "FP3",        "description": "Practice 3",  "type": "Practice",   "start": "2026-06-27T12:30:00+02:00", "end": "2026-06-27T13:30:00+02:00", "state": "completed" },
    { "short_name": "Qualifying", "description": "Qualifying",  "type": "Qualifying", "start": "2026-06-27T16:00:00+02:00", "end": "2026-06-27T17:00:00+02:00", "state": "completed" },
    { "short_name": "Race",       "description": "Race",        "type": "Race",       "start": "2026-06-28T15:00:00+02:00", "end": null,                          "state": "completed" }
  ]
}

Sprint weekend (e.g. China, Miami) — same shape, different session set (single practice, plus Sprint Qualifying + Sprint):

{
  "success": true,
  "race_name": "FORMULA 1 ... CHINESE GRAND PRIX 2026",
  "circuit_location": "Shanghai",
  "timezone": "Asia/Shanghai",
  "gmt_offset": "+08:00",
  "sessions": [
    { "short_name": "FP1",        "description": "Practice 1",        "type": "Practice",   "start": "2026-03-13T11:30:00+08:00", "end": "2026-03-13T12:30:00+08:00" },
    { "short_name": "Sprint Q",   "description": "Sprint Qualifying", "type": "Sprint",     "start": "2026-03-13T15:30:00+08:00", "end": "2026-03-13T16:14:00+08:00" },
    { "short_name": "Sprint",     "description": "Sprint",            "type": "Sprint",     "start": "2026-03-14T11:00:00+08:00", "end": "2026-03-14T12:00:00+08:00" },
    { "short_name": "Qualifying", "description": "Qualifying",        "type": "Qualifying", "start": "2026-03-14T15:00:00+08:00", "end": "2026-03-14T16:00:00+08:00" },
    { "short_name": "Race",       "description": "Race",              "type": "Race",       "start": "2026-03-15T15:00:00+08:00", "end": null }
  ]
}

Failure (slug not found / no schedule published yet):

{
  "success": false,
  "race_name": null,
  "sessions": [],
  "error_reasoning": "No /en/racing/{year}/{slug} match for the requested race, or the page carries no race.meetingSessions array (schedule not yet published)."
}

find-f1-schedule