The rise in popularity of F1 globally has pushed the Formula One Management (FOM) to increase the number of races per season to 24. Although drivers and the teams are far from happy with the calendar getting more and more hectic, F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has defended the move to expand. In fact, the Italian boss believes that the number of races in a calendar is not that many.
According to Marca, Domenicali said, “We want to leave it at 24 Grands Prix. But it’s wrong to say 24 is too many – too many why? When the sport is as good as it is now with many possible winners, fans count the days until the next race”.
24 races in 2024 with big steps forward in regionalisation
Introducing next year’s Formula 1 calendar ️#F1 pic.twitter.com/JTSWJL29yH
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 5, 2023
Domenicali believes that instead of complaining, all the stakeholders in F1 must remain “humble” and be grateful for the love they are receiving from fans. The former Ferrari boss believes that when things are going well, F1 should not look to tweak the status quo too much.
However, drivers have complained about the hectic schedule they have to follow in terms of travel and their routines during a tightly packed 24-race calendar. Last year’s Las Vegas-Abu Dhabi double-header took a lot of toll on drivers like George Russell and several team personnel at Mercedes falling ill.
Such closely scheduled double and triple headers or one-off flyaway races are increasing tiredness for everyone including drivers and mechanics. For instance, the Canadian GP oddly takes place in the middle of the European leg of the season, instead of being a double-header along with Miami.
Now, Domenicali admitted that they can structure and regionalize the calendar better. One solution he hinted that F1 is considering is a rotation of the European races. And when it comes to the drivers’ complaints in particular, Domenicali has already made his stance clear.
Stefano Domenicali claims it is not mandatory for drivers to race
With F1’s organizers receiving immense complaints from the drivers about how hectic the schedule is now, Domenicali once told them that it is not mandatory for them to race. He revealed that as per the terms of the drivers’ contracts, they can skip a few in between to get a break.
For Domenicali, “it’s a question of respect for the fans”. The Italian revealed that F1 has increased the number of races in a calendar to 24, which according to him is not much, is because fans are keen on seeing the drivers race more often.
While Domenicali believes that 24 is an optimal number of races in a calendar, one cannot ignore the drivers’ complaints as well. Fernando Alonso revealed that after the first five races of the 2024 season, he had already traveled for a whopping 153 hours.
Another concern that emerges with this amount of traveling is that of sustainability. With F1 having revealed that their intention is to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2030, such a high amount of travel is unlikely to make them reach their goals.
