“I do what I love, and in a way the more the merrier,” says Mercedes driver George Russell about the Formula 1 calendar for the 2024 season published this week, which has a record number of 24 races should include.
“I would like to drive more races, but have fewer commitments outside of the race weekend,” the Briton specifies his statement and explains: “If we had no other commitments, we would certainly like to drive every weekend.”
But Formula 1 also consists of numerous media and sponsor appointments for the drivers, for example. And the mass of these commitments bothers Russell more than the sheer number of races. Especially since he knows that the drivers are still among the “privileged” people in the paddock.
“The journey to and from the races will be pretty brutal for all of us – especially in the first four races,” said Russell, and Lando Norris also explained that despite the postponements, “it’s still a tough calendar” and 24 races be “a lot”.
Fernando Alonso explains: “We riders have all the comforts and the teams try to take care of us as much as possible, so we can’t complain too much. But I understand that it’s difficult for everyone else. “
“I understand all the advantages of 24 races and why so many races are taking place. There is a lot of interest in Formula 1, there is a lot of demand,” explains the Spaniard, emphasizing: “It’s great to open the sport to new countries open. And there is more revenue […] for all.”
Steiner: Then nobody wants to work in Formula 1 anymore!
“So I understand that. But I think for team members, 18 is already a good number. If it’s more than 18, 19 [Saisonrennen] it gets stressful,” says the Spaniard. Because mechanics and Co. are on the road for much longer than drivers or team bosses on race weekends.
Günther Steiner explains, for example, that he usually arrives on the Wednesday before a Grand Prix. However, many of his employees are already sometimes “on the road for a month at a time” and away from home, which is why “the limit” has now been reached with 24 races.
At least “with the business model that we currently have,” explains Steiner. Because with even more races you effectively need “two teams” because otherwise the stress of travel etc. would no longer be manageable for just one crew.
“Otherwise, in my opinion, it will be very difficult to get people to work in Formula 1,” he warns. Consequently, further races would have to flush significantly more money into the coffers. Steiner also explains that in a racing team it is not possible to rotate in every position without any problems.
“Some people want to rotate a little and we try to do that with some, like in the IT department, because they have more opportunities to rotate. But with mechanics and engineers, it’s difficult to rotate,” explains Steiner.
Races need unique selling propositions
With performance engineers it’s still possible, but with the race engineers a rotation will be “difficult for the driver”, says Steiner, who also suspects that quite apart from that, at some point a “saturation factor” will occur among the fans.
“If you had 24 identical races, it would be too many,” he emphasizes. Such a large calendar is only possible because the races have various unique selling points that the spectators look forward to. For example, there is sometimes a sprint, sometimes a night race.
“And now we have two Saturday races next year, that’s a bit of a mix,” explains Steiner, who emphasizes that nobody wants 24 identical races on Sunday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. “You would say that after 20 you’ve had enough,” says Steiner.
The fact that there will be longer breaks between the races in 2024 does not play a major role for Steiner, because the season on the other hand lasts from February to December. “Personally, I don’t think it makes a big difference,” he clarifies.
The regional merging of some races is more of a “sustainability” issue because the weekends are still intense even for the teams. “With 24 races, you can never please everyone,” says the team boss. But how many races would be ideal?
Smaller calendar with race rotation?
While 18 races would be enough for Fernando Alonso, Lando Norris explains: “If I had to give an exact number, I would say that it is probably closer to 20.” For this he proposes once again a rotation of different races.
“Sometimes you want to go to certain places in different years. You can’t go to all the routes that people want to go to,” he explains. The idea is not new, but the trend is currently towards the routes sometimes signing extremely long-term contracts.
This makes a rotation in the coming years, at least in bulk, impossible. Max Verstappen is also not a fan of the big calendar and has already explained in the past that at some point you have to ask yourself when a limit will be reached.
“I think he’s complaining because he wants more money,” says George Russell with a smile and explains: “He’s the best-paid driver on the grid, and rightly so for his successes.” But he sees the statements more as “a great tactic” by the world champion.
Even so, Russell admits, “There has to be a point where something falls away when something comes in.” For many, this point has been reached after 24 races – or even long since passed.