Schedule overload

Is F1 at risk of burning out the brains the revolution will rely upon?

- LEENA GADE

There are going to be 23 Formula 1 races in 2021. That is a lot of travelling, a lot of being away from home and a lot of work for the F1 personnel.

A few years ago I was doing the Le Mans Series, the American Le Mans Series and the 24 Hours of Le Mans itself, which worked out at a similar number of races. What did I learn? Well, I learnt that it’s not particularly healthy.

The schedule ran from January to December that year and it was a killer. We were either in Europe or flying back and forth to the US, and to do those long-haul flights every couple of weeks was really tough. The F1 teams will be going from one event to the next and not going home in between some of them, which I’m sure will take its toll.

The alternative is to have much bigger teams so each person doesn’t have to do all 23 races. This is actually easier said than done as these are specialist roles and it will, of course, increase costs.

Money maker

Is it necessary? Do series really need that many races to survive? One GT team owner said if a team is making money at the races, put as many as you like on the schedule, but if they are losing money then do as few as possible.

The F1 teams are clearly making the money. Alpha Tauri has said it needs the events in order to be able to capitalise on what it has invested, which makes sense.