Lando Norris has become the latest driver to warn Formula 1 it is asking too much of staff with its record-breaking schedule.
The 2024 F1 calendar is the longest in the history of the championship. Its 24 rounds include six sprint events, making a total of 30 races. Next year’s calendar will have the same.
Norris said he isn’t keen on the sprint race format and is concerned about the effect the long schedule has on members of his team.
“I’d always prefer the old, original race format,” he said Norris. “This is what I’ve grown up watching, it’s what I’ve always liked the most.
“I do like just going in and having the pressure straightaway. So the fact of having one practice straight into qualifying, I do like it. I think it gives people less chance to just get the car perfect and I think that’s when you just start to see [a sequence of] team, team, team, team rather than a mix. So I do think it works from that perspective.
“But the main point is just the toll it has on mechanics and engineers. I don’t think it’s too bad for us as drivers, honestly. I don’t think we can be the ones to complain at all. It’s the hundreds of mechanics and engineers that we have here that have to travel so much. It’s not healthy for them. It is not sustainable.
“The problem is not with us so it’s not something you should be asking us. It’s something that people should look out more for the rest of the team. And I think that’s a limiting factor, not the fact of can we go in the car every day, because I think we can but not doing too much for them I think is the priority.
Max Verstappen also called the new sprint format an improvement, but said the demands of the schedule have grown too much.
“The sprint format was better, I think. A bit more straightforward, I would say. But, let’s not overdo it as well.
“We are already doing 24 races a year, six of these sprint events as well. I get it, I guess, it sells better and better numbers on TV. But it’s also more stress on the mechanics and everything, to get everything every time tip-top.
“So we take it, you have to deal with it, but let’s not think that now we need 12 of those because it will take its toll on people as well.”
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