The 2024 F1 calendar is unprecedented, with a new four-week break between races, which will then lead to two triples of races. Yuki Tsunoda is sceptical about the six races in seven weeks, especially with the mechanics and staff having to arrive at the circuits very early.
“There’s also a four-week gap after Singapore, so there’s some time to rest and recharge before we do three weeks of racing back-to-back.” said the RB F1 driver.
“So I feel good, but it will definitely be difficult, especially for the mechanics, you know, the engineers, because for them it will be much more difficult than for us. So, yeah, it’s more important for them, I think, than for the drivers.”
Max Verstappen feels ready for the calendar to remain, but he is nevertheless critical that all the triple races are not grouped together more geographically: “I’ve always said that it’s a big number of races, of course, that we have in the calendar.”
“But I think for me it’s mostly the time difference between traveling in Vegas and Qatar. I think we could do a little bit better if we had the tripleheaders a little bit closer together. To me it would make a little bit more sense.”
“If we’re going to have so many races, we should at least make sure they’re closer together. But again, of course, it depends on ticket sales. But yeah, I mean at the end of the day you have to find a happy medium, right? It’s a long flight from Vegas to Qatar.”
“But then of course you are in Qatar, you fly to Abu Dhabi, which is fine. For me it’s not a problem. But yes, at the end of the season when you are a bit tired it is easier to get sick. And flying for a long time doesn’t help.”
Lance Stroll joins Verstappen in believing that the geographically-based calendar, which is a final project for Liberty Media, is a good solution.
“I agree. I think we could probably do a better job, as Max said, of geographically linking the races, so we do Asia, then America, and then you know, the Middle East.”
“There are still a lot of jumps, jet lag and other things in the teams, whereas I think as drivers we have it pretty easy compared to some of the team and staff who have a hard time getting around.”
