McLaren driver Lando Norris has warned that the current length of the Formula 1 race calendar is “not healthy and not sustainable” for teams’ staff
The 2024 schedule is the longest in the sport’s history with 24 rounds including six sprint weekends and next year will see the same number of rounds.
The Briton explained during the press conference after the Chinese Grand Prix that adding more Sprint races to an already heavily crowded 24-race calendar is not sustainable in the long term.
Norris argued the main victims of these packed schedules are the hundreds of mechanics and team members who have to deal with scant rest throughout the season.
“I’d always prefer the old, original race format,” said Norris about the sprint weekends. “This is what I’ve grown up watching, it’s what I’ve always liked the most.”
“I do like just going in and having the pressure straight away. So the fact of having one practice straight into qualifying, I do like it.
“I think it gives people less chance to just get the car perfect and I think that’s when you just start to see [a sequence of] team, team, team, team rather than a mix. So I do think it works from that perspective.
“But the main point is just the toll it has on mechanics and engineers. I don’t think it’s too bad for us as drivers, honestly. I don’t think we can be the ones to complain at all. It’s the hundreds of mechanics and engineers that we have here that have to travel so much. It’s not healthy for them. It is not sustainable.
“The problem is not with us so it’s not something you should be asking us. It’s something that people should look out more for the rest of the team. And I think that’s a limiting factor, not the fact of can we go in the car every day, because I think we can but not doing too much for them I think is the priority.”
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso have issued similar remarks in relation to the calendar in recent weeks.
Alonso cited the tough, crowded schedules as cause for doubt when opting to extend his stay in F1 with a new multi-year deal at Aston Martin.
“I started and we had 16 races then it was 18 at some point and then I think when Liberty came you have like a message that you know we had 20 one season and that was absolutely the limit, 20 races, and now we are up to 24. This is not sustainable for the future. I think for anyone,” said the two-time World Champion.
Verstappen said he feels “F1 is way over the limit” and guaranteed he won’t be racing in Formula 1 for another 10 years doing 24 races per season.
However, for F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali, 24 races is “the optimal number with the events we have so far”
“The good news this year, I took it as a responsibility from the teams and to the promoter to announce the calendar much earlier than we normally do in order for everyone to be ready.
“That’s been another step in the direction of trying to regionalize the calendar.
“We cannot do it completely but I think that we did the right step, so [I’m] very happy with that.”
