“They all should be happy we have as many races as possible”– Franz Tost wants Formula 1 staff to be grateful for having so many races a season.
Many prominent members in Formula 1 have been vocal about the increasing number of races in a calendar year, causing fatigue within the paddock.
However, Franz Tost turns out to be a dissident among his peers by advocating in favour of an added number of races and even said that the staff who are having trouble with these many races can leave F1.
“We know we have 23 races, it’s fantastic, good job from F1,” Tost said. “I’m looking forward to it. Regarding the people at the track; first of all we are a race team and they all should be happy we have as many races as possible.”
“Of course, we take care of the people. For example the mechanics after a race weekend they have three or four days off where they can stay at home.”
“Also press, marketing, all the people at the racetrack have three days after the race weekend. The engineers are a little more difficult. But if I remember back in former times, they had to go after a race weekend to test, which means they also had to work there.”
“We all should be happy to be in a position to be in F1 and to have 23 races. If someone doesn’t like it, he should go.”
The concern is real
Tost is in a small minority who are perfectly fine with the swelling F1 calendar, but teams like McLaren have displayed their concerns with the added load; meanwhile, Ferrari is putting provisions to maintain its staff’s mental and physical well-being amidst the long schedules.
“We are building season after season a programme for the race team in order to stay in the best conditions possible,” he said. “And you add item after item so you start from the physical aspects and then you go to the nutrition aspect and then eventually we are also looking at the mental aspects to make sure that people have a good balance and stay in good shape and in good spirits.”
“I think all the teams are going to inevitably spend more and more energy on trying to keep their people in good shape for these long calendars.
“But it’s something that is very well embraced by all involved and I’m sure there will be further steps in the right direction.”
