“There’s been venting in the McLaren garage about next year”: Daniel Ricciardo’s personal trainer shares his concerns over a ‘hectic’ 2022 F1 Calendar

McLaren driver Daniel Ricciardo’s performance coach Michael Italiano says he’s not looking forward to the busy 2022 F1 Calendar.

The 2022 F1 calendar will have a record-breaking 23 races starting from March and ending in November. Bahrain will be hosting the first round and the season finale will take place in Abu Dhabi yet again.

The season will end earlier than it did this year to avoid clashing with the FIFA World Cup in Qatar. But, there is one extra race that has been added to the calendar, which makes the schedule more condensed.

A lot of employees within the F1 teams have expressed their disappointment over such a calendar. However, the organizing authorities insist that the season will go ahead smoothly, without any problems for the teams or their staff.

Earlier this year, 4-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel criticized the F1 bosses for scheduling such a calendar. He called them out for ‘not thinking of the staff as people.’

Recently, Daniel Ricciardo’s personal trainer Michael Italiano also admitted that the McLaren garage isn’t happy about the frantic 2022 season.

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It will be crazy from a logistics and recovery point of view, says Italiano

There are just three standalone races in F1 next season. The Australian, Emilia Romagna and Miami GP are the only races that don’t have one preceding or succeeding them. With so many double and triple headers, 2022 is expected to be a tiring year for all involved in the sport.

“There’s been a bit of venting in the garage about next year,” said Italiano when talking about the McLaren employees.

“I think there are two triple-headers and only three races that are on their own. The rest are double-headers. We start in February but finish in mid-November, so that’s earlier, but we are still doing one extra race. They have condensed the season.”

“There’s one triple-header where we go from Singapore to Russia to Japan, which will be absolutely crazy from a logistics and recovery point of view.”

“It’s exciting because the sport is growing so rapidly, but from a drivers’ perspective it’s becoming a lot more difficult physically and mentally based on the calendar F1 keep dishing out,” he added.

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