[BUG] 2026 Monaco Race - No Position Data Available

[formulatimer]

Describe the issue:

While loading data for the Monaco Grand Prix (Race) on v3.8.3, the process fails with:

ERROR: Failed to fetch race data: "None of ['Date'] are in the columns"

Reproduce the code example:

session = fastf1.get_session(2026, 6, 5)
session.load(telemetry=True, weather=False)

State your Fastf1 version number:

3.8.3

Error message:

core           INFO     Loading data for Monaco Grand Prix - Race [v3.8.3]
INFO: Loading data for Monaco Grand Prix - Race [v3.8.3]
_api           INFO     Fetching session info data...
INFO: Fetching session info data...
_api           INFO     Fetching driver list...
INFO: Fetching driver list...
_api           INFO     Fetching session status data...
INFO: Fetching session status data...
_api           INFO     Fetching lap count data...
INFO: Fetching lap count data...
_api           INFO     Fetching track status data...
INFO: Fetching track status data...
_api           INFO     Fetching timing data...
INFO: Fetching timing data...
_api           INFO     Parsing timing data...
INFO: Parsing timing data...
_api           INFO     Fetching timing app data...
INFO: Fetching timing app data...
core           INFO     Processing timing data...
INFO: Processing timing data...
core        WARNING     Cannot load lap times for first lap from Ergast. Timing data is not available for this session.
WARNING: Cannot load lap times for first lap from Ergast. Timing data is not available for this session.
_api           INFO     Fetching car data...
INFO: Fetching car data...
_api           INFO     Parsing car data...
INFO: Parsing car data...
_api           INFO     Fetching position data...
INFO: Fetching position data...
_api           INFO     Parsing position data...
INFO: Parsing position data...
_api           INFO     Fetching race control messages...
INFO: Fetching race control messages...
core           INFO     Finished loading data for 22 drivers: ['12', '44', '6', '81', '30', '41', '10', '23', '31', '11', '14', '5', '63', '27', '43', '55', '16', '18', '1', '87', '77', '3']
INFO: Finished loading data for 22 drivers: ['12', '44', '6', '81', '30', '41', '10', '23', '31', '11', '14', '5', '63', '27', '43', '55', '16', '18', '1', '87', '77', '3']
ERROR: Failed to fetch race data: Failed to fetch race data: "None of ['Date'] are in the columns"

[ChemiF1]

Timing data looked normal, but no telemetry or positioning data is available.

This message is what i´m getting

[formulatimer]

It looks like the timing data is present, but FastF1 is throwing an error because it can’t find the Date column, and I’m not sure this field is important enough to break the entire data‑loading process

[theOehrly]

Looking at the live timing replay in the official F1 app, the telemetry data freezes right at the beginning of Lap 7. So it seems that this is an issue with the source data and not a problem with FastF1.
If I look at how things like this were previously handled, it is unlikely that the data will be updated/fixed, if that is even possible.

[theOehrly]

@formulatimer also, the Date column is the base for all the sample timestamps. It's kind of the most important one.

[theOehrly]

Ok, final quick update. The source data for position has huge gaps. The car telemetry data seems complete.

None of ['Date'] are in the columns originates from the telemetry merge function. It is not an error that you should see during data loading itself. For me, data loading itself indicates no issues.
But since the telemetry data is missing largely, when you call .get_telemetry for many functions, position data will be empty while car data exists. Thus, the error is raised when attempting to merge car data with the empty position data frame.

You should be able to use .get_car_data() for all laps.
You will not be able to use .get_pos_data() or .get_telemetry() for most laps of this GP since position data is largely missing.

Since this is caused by missing source data, there's nothing I can do about it in FastF1.

@formulatimer "Failed to fetch race data" is not an error message that is printed by FastF1. This is coming from some other script/tool that is using FastF1.