The calendar for the 2022 season is worryingly long for some, and ‘here comes Sebastian Vettel’ with yet another moment of calling a spade a spade.
Formula One released the calendar for the year 2022. One salient feature which stood out from the new calendar was the number of races. The 2022 season is determined to host a whopping 23 races—something which has never happened before.
The development was met with mixed reactions from fans and teams alike. While some people are totally in for the 23-race calendar, a large portion of people is worried the record calendar will have a burn-out effect on all those involved with the sport.
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There have been mentions of adding even more races in the future with numbers going as high as 25 in a season, and Four-Time World Champion Sebastian Vettel is not very keen on the proposal.
His scepticism arises over many of the repercussions the new calendar may have in for teams. The biggest one being the increase in workload for all the team personnel. Secondly, he feels that adding more races to the calendar will take away from the spectacle associated with the sport.
“I think I arrived when Formula 1 was in a kind of transitional phase. Compared to the years before, there were not so many tests. And there were more and more races,” the former Ferrari racer confessed to Motorsport-Total.com.
Never afraid to speak up. 🤍#F1 #Vettel pic.twitter.com/p59R2QhDP1
— Sebastian Vettel #5 (@sebvettelnews) October 15, 2021
“Now this is just my opinion, and it’s not worth anything, but I think we shouldn’t have so many races. There are a number of reasons for that. For one thing, maybe there are too many races for the people who want to see them. It’s not special anymore when there are so many.”
The German driver then mentioned the load longer calendars would have on the teams. “Secondly, I feel sorry for them… We drivers are on the good side of things. We can arrive on Wednesday evening and, if we find a flight, leave on Sunday evening.”
“But the team has much more stress. They arrive on Monday or Saturday of the previous week, set up the garage, prepare the cars. And then they have to pack everything up again, send it back and prepare it at the factory.”
Vettel made a point to mention that nowadays, people have started to realise that people also have a life outside of their work and that “life doesn’t belong to the employer”
Sebastian Vettel advocates striking a balance
“I know it’s not within my sphere of influence,” the German concluded with his now-signature humility. But we have to make sure that people find a balance between their lives at home and the time they spend on the road.”
“It should be a number of races that is sustainable so that you keep your passion for many years and you’re not drained after two or three years.”
The multiple World Champion has been vocal about issues he believes require addressing, and this is just one example of the recent activist role Vettel has adopted.
