Formula 1 has just completed for the first time in its history a record calendar of 24 races, including 6 Sprint events.
And the limit has clearly been reached. Three leading figures in Formula 1 insist that the calendar should not be extended beyond the current 24 Grands Prix, with the Concorde Agreement allowing a 25th to be held, which the FOM refuses (for 'moment) to do.
F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has indicated that a new system of alternating races will be implemented to meet demand from new countries like Rwanda, without adding more races each year to the calendar.
Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff agrees the sport cannot grow further, even though the Concorde Agreement theoretically allows a maximum of 25 Grands Prix.
“We have already exceeded the limit in reality. The Concorde Agreement is one thing, reality is another.”
“People like me travel comfortably, but the mechanics who assemble and disassemble the car travel economy class. You can see it in people's faces now: this can only go so far.”
GPDA president and former F1 driver Alex Wurz agrees: “Personally, I think it's too much. I would prefer 16 races, simply because of the sporting saturation.”
Another Austrian, Dr Helmut Marko, advisor to Red Bull, shares their opinion. When he was racing in F1 in the early 70s, there were only about a dozen races.
“I think 24 races is absolutely the limit. We as managers are privileged, but we have to think about the mechanics. Look at the Las Vegas Grand Prix. This race took place late in the evening, after a flight fourteen to sixteen hours behind them and we just had to continue at the same pace afterwards in Qatar.”
“I think F1 also needs to better coordinate the whole sequence in order to keep these 24 races on the calendar. But in my opinion, more than 24 Grands Prix is not possible due to the tension. Unless you start to have teams with two separate, alternating racing teams.”
“The distribution of races just needs to be balanced. You have traditional European races, but also new races that are good, but lack a certain motorsport culture.”
“The races at Spa or Monza, for example, have this culture, but this is how we have to maintain the balance. But increasing the number of races should not be allowed, if it were up to me.”
Wolff adds: “Yeah, I talked to Helmut the other day about Las Vegas. It was really brutal, because you only see a few hours of daylight before you go to bed and you don't know when to eat.”
“Everyone handles this differently, but it affects your pace so much that it's hard to recover from. Not to mention the flights!”
“The other day I was at a sponsorship event in Hawaii. I was there for a total of eighteen hours. I flew in from Austin on a seven-hour flight and then flew back to Austin. “
“This all sounds great, but when you're sitting in your hotel knowing you have to go to an event and you can't just go to the beach, the situation suddenly becomes a lot less fun.”
“I already thought it was cruel, so as Helmut says, it crosses the line even for us, while we still travel comfortably.”