There are numerous eccentricitiesa modern Formula 1 fan misses out on, whether that be glass-shattering V10s,the (fairly problematic) presence of scantily clad grid girls, or significant differences between each team's car. Still, there is one intangible that current F1 enthusiasts have over the older fans — consistency.

Of course, some might say that the lack of consistency in motorsport is the exact reason why racing is fun, and we wouldn't entirely disagree. However, the consistency we're getting at isn't about race results or the cars themselves. Here, we're talking about the tracks.

Over the last decade or so, the F1 calendar has changed very little, featuring the same core race circuits, albeit with the occasional blip in location or order. To some, it's a tad repetitive, but to others, it's a helpful tool in observing the progression of a team's car and its drivers on the same exact track over many years.

As you've likely guessed, however, it wasn't always like this. Finding locations willing to support extremely fast and incredibly dangerous racing cars was difficult, and it is this exact struggle that has led to some truly fascinating oddities in the world of F1 locations. Whether it be the fault of financial issues, poor safety precautions, or something else entirely, these are the tracks that only waved the Formula 1 banners for a single race.

Pescara's one and only Formula 1 race stemmed from, of all things, an international conflict. In 1956, Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal Company against the wishes of its French and British co-owners, sparking an invasion of the Egyptian Peninsula and triggering a fuel shortage in many European countries. As a result, the Belgian and Dutch Grands Prix were not run as planned. In need of a replacement, the Formula One governing body settled on a track in Pescara, Italy.

The Pescara circuit is not your typical race track, however. In fact, it's more of a gritty rally stage than anything else. Its nearly 16-mile-long route started on the coastline of the Adriatic Sea and carved through multiple villages in the Italian countryside, creating the longest Formula 1 lap ever driven.

Because the course was based on narrow public roads with virtually no safety barriers, Pescara was undoubtedly one of the most dangerous racetracks on earth. Other obstacles included herds of goats crossing the track as well as children playing in the streets between the long intervals of racecars passing by.

Due to the emergency situation in which Pescara was chosen, it was destined from the start to be a one-and-done location, and nearly 70 years later, that remains the case. The race itself was won by Stirling Moss of Vanwall, who conquered the 18-lap race through the Italian landscape in spite of the blazing heat and some particularly fierce competition from Juan Manuel Fangio.

We forgot to mention one more thing that older F1 fans had that we don't anymore — a race in Africa. The most established African circuit for many years was Kyalami near Johannesburg, South Africa, which was on the calendar from 1967 until 1985. However, the honor of the very first African F1 race goes to Morocco and the Ain-Diab Circuit.

This 4.7-mile street circuit was built in 1957 by the Royal Automobile Club of Morocco in just six weeks, near the city of Casablanca. The track itself wasn't particularly difficult, but its progression through desert roads, suburbs, and the Sidi Abderrahman forest made for a spectacle of scenery. Ain-Diab hosted an F1 event the same year of its construction with a non-championship exhibition that featured many of the biggest drivers of the 1957 season. However, it wouldn't be until the following year that it became the site of the final race of the 1958 F1 calendar.

That season-closer was a hot one, too. Stirling Moss and Mike Hawthorne went into the race separated by just eight points. Moss took the race victory, but Hawthorne's second-place finish was enough to crown him the first British Driver's Champion. Sadly, the race wasn't remembered for its inaugural running in Africa. Instead, it is better known for the death of Vanwall driver Stuart Lewis-Evans, who crashed after an engine lockup and was left with severe burns that resulted in his death eight days later in the hospital.

From 1951 to 1976 the German Grand Prix was held at the stunning yet deeply terrifying Nürburgring Nordschleife. This 14.2-mile beast of a circuit has anywhere between 154 and 170 corners, more than 1,000 feet of elevation change, and virtually no runoff areas, all of which contribute to its deserved nickname: The Green Hell. Though, despite its danger, drivers and spectators enjoyed the challenging circuit, which is why F1's decision to replace it with a dull training ground for the 1959 German Grand Prix was so shocking.

The track chosen was the AVUS (Automobil Verkehrs und Übungsstrasse), which was literally an automobile traffic and training road tweaked for use as an F1 track. Located in South Berlin, the AVUS track had essentially two corners, a smaller hairpin at one end and a larger banked hairpin at the other end. The rest of the track was comprised of the front and back straights, each taking up the vast majority of the five mile circuit. 

With each straight stretching over two miles long, these machines (and their drivers) were tested to the absolute maximum, but it failed to leave a lasting impression on drivers or fans. At the end of the track's single day in Formula One, it was Ferrari who asserted its dominance at the arduous AVUS track, finishing one-two-three with drivers Tony Brooks, Dan Gurney, and Phil Hill, respectively.

Like the German Grand Prix, the Portuguese Grand Prix also took a detour for the 1959 season when Formula One opted to travel to the Circuito de Monsanto for Portugal's featured race. Of course, this change wasn't as controversial as the axing of the Nordschleife because the Portuguese Grand Prix had only debuted the year before, at the Circuit da Boavista in Porto. Nonetheless, this third-to-final race in 1959 would be Monsanto's sole appearance in Formula One.

Racing fans weren't ignorant of the circuit at Monsanto park, however, as it had hosted two Portuguese Sports Car Grand Prix as well as two non-championship F1 races during the '50s. The street circuit featured roads within and around Monsanto Park in addition to portions of the highway to Estoril, a future staple venue of the Portuguese Grand Prix from the mid-1980s through the mid-1990s.

As beloved a track as Monsanto was, it wasn't perfect. Bumpy public roads and even a tramline track crossing were among the many quirks of this one-off circuit — not to mention the par-for-the-course danger of road racing in the 1950s.

The race's headlines were dominated by a familiar name: Stirling Moss. He was one of only three drivers who had competed at the park circuit before, and in qualifying he was a full three seconds ahead of Masten Gregory. On Sunday, Moss lapped the entire field on lap 58 of 62, comfortably cruising to the win.

Formula 1 had already visited America in the 1950s, running several races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but it was always a square peg/circular hole kind of situation for F1 cars trying to drive an Indy car track. Luckily, a man named Alec Ulmann — the brain behind the legendary 12 Hours of Sebring — knew this, and before long, he would bring the pinnacle of motorsport to a true, purpose-built circuit: Sebring International Raceway.

However, what followed would nearlyput the December 1959 race at Sebring in financial ruin. Contemporary reports exhibited a collective disdain for the event, with underwhelming crowd sizes and surrounding businesses taking advantage of those who did attend by hiking up prices. The Grand Prix's budget was also compromised, as nearly half the event's allotted cash went towards the $6,000 prize money for its winner. Fortunately, the few who did buy a ticket got the show of a lifetime.

After title hopeful Stirling Moss was retired and fellow contender Tony Brooks lost time after a collision with his teammate, Jack Brabham was in prime position to take the World Championship. However, Cooper ran out of gas on the final lap, forcing him to physically push his car across the finish line while teammate Bruce McLaren held the remaining front-runners behind. Amazingly, he was successful in limiting their points and securing Brabham's title with only a fourth-place finish.

Sadly for Ulmann, even the dramatic title-deciding race wouldn't be enough to save Sebring's reputation as a flop for Formula 1. The following year, he gave up on renewing the venue for non-endurance competition.

In 1960, the U.S. Grand Prix would blunder once again, but this time, on the opposite side of the country. Indianapolis Motor Speedway was still on the calendar, but in light of Sebring's fall from grace in 1959, they needed a new road circuit to fill out the schedule. What landed on the FIA's desk was Riverside International Raceway, a Southern California track built in 1957 that made a name for itself as a destination for NASCAR racing.

The hot and dusty 3.27-mile layout of Riverside started with undulating esses that fed into a pair of switchbacks in the infield, and finally to the 1.1-mile-long back straight that takes drivers right back to the start.

Like Sebring the year prior, the November race at Riverside was the final race of the season, but the stakes were far lower in the Driver's Championship. Jack Brabham had already secured enough points to clinch the title going into the U.S. Grand Prix, and Stirling Moss was too far back to challenge Bruce McLaren for second place. Moss did take the victory in California, however, finishing 38 seconds in front of his Lotus teammate Innes Ireland.

As for Riverside, it fell to a Sebring-esque fate, reportedly managing to attract just 5,000 of the 70,000 expected onlookers. For 1961, the U.S. Grand Prix would go back across the country to New York, racing at the iconic Watkins Glen International circuit, which would stay on the F1 calendar for 20 consecutive years.

It's not unheard of to see racetracks built on former military bases. They provide wide open space, runways perfect for long straights, and relatively flat landscapes. Circuits like the Top Gear Test Track and even the aforementioned Sebring were once home to military aircraft and personnel. So what about racing on an active military base? Well, that's precisely what happened at the very first Austrian Grand Prix in 1964.

The event in question was held at Zeltweg Airfield, a military base located in Styria, Austria. The facility was built in the late 1950s, and today it is still used as one of the Austrian Air Force's main bases. However, ever since the very beginning, Zeltweg was a place for racing, having hosted multiple F2 and Sports Car events in the years leading up to the 1964 F1 World Championship.

The hockey stick-shaped circuit consisted mainly of a Monza-esque front and back straight connected via a hairpin, as well as a pair of sweeping right-hand turns to connect the whole deal. Plus, being an airfield and all, the paddock was in a hangar, and the pits were on the runway.

However, this track was less than two miles long, meaning the average lap time of around one minute and 10 seconds put the final lap tally at more than 100. It was a race of reliability, and young Ferrari pilot Lorenzo Bandini — who was driving the only Ferrari on the grid with a V6 instead of a V8 — took his first F1 victory.

The French Grand Prix has come in many forms, from Rouen les Essarts to Reims and Paul Ricard, but it was just once that F1 came to the mecca of endurance racing — Le Mans.

It turned out, however, that this Prix was far from grand. The race didn't use the whole track, opting instead for the smaller Bugatti Le Mans layout, which skips the chicane and Mulsanne straight after Dunlop Curve to turn towards the infield, where drivers navigated a former parking lot until finding themselves back at the start/finish. According to Formula One, driver Graham Hill called the Bugatti Le Mans circuit "a real Mickey Mouse type of circuit," pointing out the silly sight of 15 petite F1 cars racing on a circuit usually meant for a grid of 55 or more.

The race went on despite the controversy, and it looked like a dominant Lotus one-two from the get-go, with Jim Clark and Graham Hill running strong. However, after Clark came into the pits with a transmission issue, he would retire, and later, Hill would follow, leaving the lead to Brabhams driven by Jack Brabham and Denny Hulme. Hulme would go on to win the Driver's Championship that year, sharing the champagne with his Brabham Repco team, who took the Constructor's title.

Results don't always tell a race weekend's full story, but the abysmal aftermath of the 1984 Dallas Grand Prix is one of the glaring exceptions — this was a hot mess from start to finish. According toFormula 1, of the 26 cars that started the race, only eight made it to the end, and of those 18 retirements, 14 came after hitting a wall. Unfortunately, that was just one small slice of the disastrous pie that made this Texan showdown a complete disaster.

The Dallas Fair Park track, measuring in at 2.4 miles, was a temporary street circuit built at the state's fairgrounds, and as soon as the drivers began practice runs on Friday, the sun-bleached asphalt literally crumbled to pieces.

The high g-forces of the F1 cars chewed up the surface so badly that organizers had to hire contractors to fill the holes. Concrete, however, doesn't cure well in heat, and the Goodyear-verified 150-degree track temperatures throughout the weekend stalled repairs until just hours before the race.

Speaking of heat, drivers were seen pouring buckets of water over their heads while in the pits, and Nigel Mansell collapsed from heat exhaustion after trying to push his damaged Lotus across the finish. When all was said and done, Williams' Keke Rosberg took the treacherous victory, with Ferrari's Rene Arnoux achieving a well-deserved second-place finish after beginning the race well towards the back of the starting grid.

If you're a fan of British GT or the GT World Challenge series, you'll know about Donington Park. This circuit is one of themost iconic international racing venues, with roots dating back to the early 1930s. Sports Car and MotoGP events would follow in the 1970s, until the circuit's true claim to fame in 1993, when it hosted the vaguely-named European Formula One Grand Prix.

Of course, most don't remember the 1993 competition as Donington's big break, but rather as one of Ayrton Senna's finest displays of race craft. After Saturday's two qualifying sessions, Senna only managed to start fourth on the grid, and after being passed by Michael Schumacher early on in Sunday's race, he was fighting from fifth place. And oh yeah, it was also pouring rain.

What followed was a wet-weather charge as magnificent as racing fans will ever see. One by one, Senna would catch and pass the likes of Michael Schumacher, Karl Wendlinger, and Damon Hill before finally overtaking leader Alain Prost into the Melbourne hairpin and taking P1 in less than one lap. After many additional weather changes and four pit stops, Senna brought the win home for McLaren.

Nearly two decades after this iconic European Formula One Grand Prix, Donington Park made a bid to host the British Grand Prix. However, after being beaten out by Silverstone in 2010, Donington would fade into obscurity for several years before being bought, rebuilt, and returning to house various racing series, as it does today.

We don't have to remind you what happened in 2020, but you may need a refresher onhow the COVID-19 pandemic affected the F1 calendar that fateful year. Several host countries didn't participate, including China, Canada, Australia, Japan, and Mexico, among others. This forced the FIA to improvise, pushing the start of the season back to July and running two back-to-back races at the Red Bull Ring to kick off the season. Later, another double-header at Silverstone would be featured in August.

This circus of a season also saw three races in Italy, one of which is our topic of discussion — the Tuscan Grand Prix at Mugello. As the name suggests, Mugello is located in Tuscany, situated between Florence and Bologna in the northern half of the country.

The track originated as a 41-mile street circuit, parts of which were driven at the famous Mille Miglia endurance races. In the 1970s, a proper circuit was developed and built, which was eventually acquired and remodeled by Ferrari in 1988, who still uses the track as a testing ground to this day.

Officially (and long-windedly) called the Formula 1 Pirelli Gran Premio Della Toscana Ferrari 1000 2020, the race was a commanding showcase of Mercedes dominance that had, up until then, stood since 2014. Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas qualified P1 and P2, respectively, finishing the race on Sunday in those same positions, with Alex Albon claiming the final podium spot for Red Bull.