“I’m sure we could have 35 races, if the promoter got his way”– Christian Horner wants F1 to find balance in ever stretching race calendar

“I’m sure we could have 35 races, if the promoter got his way”– Christian Horner would want to find F1 to find the right balance.

Formula 1’s increasing number of races every year is becoming exhausting for the F1 contingent; with multiple triple-headers, the travel is tolling.

The last triple-header especially is going to be extremely hectic for the travelling groups, as they would have to fly from Mexic0 to Brazil and then Qatar in two weeks span while serving a total of nine days in three Grand Prix.

Moreover, not to forget, a backbreaking logistical task, reacting to this, Christian Horner claims that F1 needs to find a balance between increasing the sport and preventing burnout of F1 teams.

“Yeah, it’s a gruelling calendar. It’s like in any sport, the thirst and the demand for Formula 1 is what it is,” Horner told media, including RacingNews365.com.

“And it’s always trying to measure that balance. I’m sure we could have 35 races if the promoter got his way. So it’s finding that balance between not needing to have, effectively, two crews, that you can do it manageably with one crew to do an entire season.”

“It is gruelling, it’s demanding, and particularly through these COVID times with the calendar changing and triple-headers coming in, and you look at the logistics of part of the tour later on with Brazil, Mexico, and then to the Middle East.”

It’s tough, but nobody remains negative

An average team crew’s work during the race week is known to everyone, but Horner says that his team remains optimistic despite the innumerable working hours.

“It’s tough; it really is tough,” he said. “But I think the way that all the teams have dealt with that has been phenomenal. And we’re still certainly not getting people that say, ‘I don’t want to be at a race’. And it’s balancing that.

“If you look back 15 years, even 20 years, and you look at the amount of testing that used to take place in between the events and the amount of time that engineers, technicians, drivers would be sitting in a Grand Prix car between events, it’s significantly different now.

“But it’s always a matter of getting that ratio right, geographically getting that calendar with balance in it.”

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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