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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Craig
22nd April 2024, 8:27
They are beyond ridiculous at this point.
some racing fan
22nd April 2024, 8:44
The sprint races need to go altogether. They are kind of pointless.
Markp
22nd April 2024, 16:11
They could run 30 races but no 1 driver can participate in more than 20. Or 10 additional races with young drivers the main contracted drivers have to participate in 20 designated races weekends. Same applies to the race team staff.
Jere (@jerejj)
22nd April 2024, 8:49
24 itself is okay, but the overall toll would be lower if certain aspects in the scheduling were different, namely removing triple-headers altogether or at least minimizing their amount, but also having LV on consecutive weekends with a Middle East location, etc.
Ultimately, teams can only do so much staff rotation even at the very maximum rather than unlimitedly in any case.
S
22nd April 2024, 8:58
Basically the argument that everyone against a large calendar makes. It’s much more about the feeling or emotional aspect than the actual practicality of it. This is a big business – and indeed, an industry in and of itself.
Perhaps he’d prefer a massive pay cut to offset fewer races on the calendar?
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
22nd April 2024, 17:56
Perhaps he would. The toll of burnout on the teams is a real issue, with real human costs. If that interferes with your constant appetite for entertainment, maybe you should get another hobby for the off-season.
S
23rd April 2024, 2:57
Maybe I shouldn’t eat when the workers at the supermarket want a day off, too?
Smart businesses hire enough people to do all the work, when it needs to be done – F1 teams haven’t figured that out yet, despite their own employees supposedly telling them that there is too much work for them.
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
23rd April 2024, 13:08
Supermarkets don’t have an imposed price cap on how they run their business.
Maybe you should keep some food in a pantry so you don’t have to shop for it every single day.
S
23rd April 2024, 13:33
Supermarkets are absolutely constrained to budgets too – however they aren’t in the business of selling a massive sporting facade to a global audience via the media by holding widely-internationally-spread and logistics-heavy events every year. They face the exact same human resource challenges, though.
Most businesses in the world have learned to ‘keep some staff in the pantry’ – their operation relies on staffing rotation and healthy work-life balance as much as the employees themselves do. Burnt-out workers are neither productive, nor happy.
The solution is not to close down the business when people get tired. They take a holiday while someone else does the work. Nobody is irreplaceable.
The teams already do this, anyway – ff someone goes down sick or injured, there’s always another person ready to go. They also do shifts all around the clock in the factory with multiple crews.
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
23rd April 2024, 20:45
Reply to S- “Supermarkets are absolutely constrained to budgets too”
Not in the same way an F1 team is. If a supermarket spends more on hiring in a year they are not going to forfeit their earnings, as an F1 team would.
Also, supermarkets provide an essential service, and F1 does not.
Whilst you can compare apple and oranges in a supermarket, you cannot do so in this case.
Maybe you would enjoy researching past F1 campaigns in the off-season. It has fed my interest in the sport over the years.
S
24th April 2024, 3:17
I think I’ve gone over the budget stuff enough so I’ll move on….
That’s not how Liberty wants you to think of F1, though. They want you to consume their product as much as possible, and they want you to choose their product over the competitors if there is ever a choice.
I like being able to choose. Most people do.
Yes, I do watch many other car racing series all year round. Having watched F1 for 35+ years already, I want to see new ‘races’ that haven’t happened yet – despite the poor quality of the racing product overall.
If only they could make it a priority to raise the quality of F1 races – I’m confident there’d be fewer complaints about there being too many events.
Arthur C
22nd April 2024, 23:07
Did he get a pay rise when the number of races went up?
Tom Baker
23rd April 2024, 9:30
“Business”…. “industry”….. yes, F1 is all of these things, and yes they are important.
I just wonder, though, whatever happened to the word “sport”? Does that not still merit at least a smidgeon of consideration in how we view the thing?
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
22nd April 2024, 9:07
They’ll not be listened as long as it’s worthy money-wise.
User (@user576)
22nd April 2024, 15:16
Yeah, every time Liberty reports annual results it’s clear that the thing that makes the most difference is simply the number of races.
anuj chopra
22nd April 2024, 10:08
Pros of limiting one driver to a maximum of 18.
1 – Less pressure on driver
2 – More opportunities for new drivers as there are more requirements of drivers
3 – More strategy gambles as some drivers are more suited to specific type of circuits
4 – Competition for even 10th, 15th etc ranks.
5 – More entertainment.
S
22nd April 2024, 10:18
It sounds silly in a season-long championship – particularly with a (supposed) ‘drivers championship’ – but it actually makes a lot of sense to limit the number of events each person can participate in.
F1 is a team activity, and the driver is just one member of each team. All drivers would be under the same restriction, and most of them are calling for it (in one form or another).
Obviously, it must apply to all team members – nobody does every event. Just as nobody works every shift in a factory or a supermarket either.
Staff rostering/rotation exists for very good and proven reasons.
Yellow Baron
22nd April 2024, 15:43
What season long championship? With 24 races weekends and 27 gps worth of points available over a season, there’s a very low chance anyway for the title to go to the last race even if they were all driving the same car
S
23rd April 2024, 3:04
The championship lasts a whole season, even if the competition doesn’t.
Due to the nature of F1 running all different machinery and not balancing their performance, some would say there really isn’t any sporting competition at all.
With that in mind, it doesn’t matter how long the championship is or how many points are on offer – the winner was decided in the design phase many months, or even years earlier.
While having them all compete in equal machinery wouldn’t necessarily bring every championship down to the final event, the chances of that happening are certainly much higher than in existing F1.
Take Indycar, for instance, where they usually run down to the final event or two – and the level of competitive depth makes it such that holding more events wouldn’t make the championship any less competitive.
MacLeod (@macleod)
23rd April 2024, 8:00
I am sorry but your wrong as at this moment they do work all the time. Just check the pitbox every race you see the same faces!
Extra teams means a lot of more money to spend but if they increase the races team have to get more teams (work people not race teams) to do all those races.
S
23rd April 2024, 8:32
Uh, yeah. I replied to a hypothetical change to the way F1 operates, hypothetically in favour of that hypothetical change.
That the teams use the same people at every event now is exactly the problem this hypothetical change aims to eliminate.
And a note on budgeting and HR – it doesn’t take any more money to do anything in F1 – it only takes a reallocation/reorganisation of that money/HR resources.
Two people – a touring mechanic and a CAD designer, for example – are exactly the same number of people even when they alternate positions…
And even if the teams did choose to put more employees on, the team’s budget still wouldn’t increase – they’d just have to take expenditure away from something else. That’s what a budget is…. You can’t just spend more.
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
23rd April 2024, 20:50
S- I’m not sure if you realize how tight all margins are in F1, especially under a cost-cap. Maximum capacity is already the minimum requirement.
Qeki (@qeki)
22nd April 2024, 10:14
If they want to make it a business F1 should be racing every weekend. You would have 52 races and if somebody cannot do that there are “extras” for that. Business would run and there would be income every weekend and F1 would become a great industry. It wouldn’t be about who does the best job but just doing the job is the most important thing. It sounds incredible for me also but I wouldn’t be surprised if that would happen.
CarWars (@maxv)
22nd April 2024, 10:57
Yes indeed its purely business / money. It’s an American company after all..
They moved from 18 to 24 races and made 25% more revenue. Simple.
That it dilutes the experience and overworks people we will see in the financial quarter when we get there. And never look back to learn something that’s also important for American management. Only look 1 quarter ahead.
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
22nd April 2024, 17:58
How about just F1 racing all the time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? That way I will never be bored, and maybe have to shut off my television and go outside…
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
22nd April 2024, 11:04
I would like to have 15 to 18 races per season and if the Sprint stuff has to stay then either make it reverse championship grid or only for drivers with no points and rookie/reserve drivers.
24 per season is just watering the sport down and making it forgettable.
Nick T.
22nd April 2024, 11:34
It’s OK for the drivers. Not for the team personnel though.
Anuj
23rd April 2024, 11:08
I go to office 8-10 hrs/day 5 days a week. I have been doing this for last 12 years. I know people who work more than me. Top Footballers play 50+ games in a year. Sometimes I feel the drivers just do not want to work harder.
InterPaul (@interpaul)
22nd April 2024, 11:54
Given that there is always a very dominant car (as it has happened almost every year since 2010), and that top teams prefer to have a leader and a wingman, all the seasons will be over at race 17-18. Therefore we will have 6 useless spare races. A great opportunity to “improve the show” in a very american way. Let’s offer John Cena and Dave Bautista a seat!
Jeffrey Powell
22nd April 2024, 12:29
Lets take the 1968 F1 season, the championship was only 12 races but there were at least 3 non championship races in Europe and before that there had been 8 in the Tasman cup ( 2.5 litre F1 cars). many leading F1 drivers also took part in F2 in Europe. Not to mention some drivers in the Indy 500 ,1967 Wdc Denny Hulme was 4th. Obviously the F2 teams were different personal but it could all add up to 30plus races for the drivers. Now I must say this is the personal opinion of an old g.. but it was far more interesting and you could compare the leading drivers in different cars ,can you actually believe that !!!.
AlanD
22nd April 2024, 13:18
Jeffrey, you make some good points, but in those previous eras, most of the F1 and F2 races were centred around Europe and the UK. Drivers were not going on long-haul flights every other weekend, and they didn’t have an entourage of mechanics, race engineers, etc going with them. They also didn’t have the same fitness demands on drivers, or the same PR and media requirements for drivers. I think I remember reading somewhere that when TYrell started in F1, which would be about that time, the whole team used to fit into one transport truck and Ken Tyrell himself used to drive it to the European tracks because he was the only one in the team with a European HGV license.
Jeffrey Powell
22nd April 2024, 14:45
You are absolutely right modern F1 is far more intense especially for the teams my real points were how interesting and perhaps more exciting the 1960s were, I am of course a bit biased having had the great good fortune to attend British G.Ps at Brands and Silverstone plus F2 in the U.K. from.1967. Finances did not allow for continental Events until much later but the reports from around the world were eagerly anticipated. Wouldn’t it be great to see Max against Fernado et all in F2 on some of the old circuits ,just dreaming.!
Tom Baker
23rd April 2024, 9:44
Jeffrey, you are not speaking as an old g, you are bang on the money.
If you don’t know the book already, I heartily recommend “1965: Jim Clark & Team Lotus – The UK Races” by William Taylor, cataloguing the great man’s annus mirabilis (or one of them). Nothing could better illustrate the extraordinarily varied and busy season of the typical grand prix driver (or atypical, in Jimmy’s case) in those days. But as the book’s subtitle indicates, their racing possibilities were endless without even crossing the Channel.
One thing which struck me in 2020, when F1 was desperately trying to scramble together a calendar in the midst of covid, was that they were able to use three different circuits in Italy, but only Silverstone was available in the UK. In the 60s, 70s and even the 80s, they could have put together a worthwhile calendar across numerous British circuits alone. The dearth of such suitable circuits now is definitely not a change for the better.
Tom Baker
23rd April 2024, 12:30
Jeffrey, I had to curtail my post earlier but I also edited to say how much I agreed with your remark about the pursuit of various different racing categories making for a more interesting and exciting time in the 60s, for fans and drivers alike. I dare say the stress factors were lower for the drivers too, notwithstanding the increased dangers of course. But I’m sure when Jimmy, for example, went saloon car racing it was a chance as much as anything to let off steam and have fun, seriously though he took it. Much more so than the possible drudgery of yet another long-haul GP weekend.
I am certain Lando, for one, would have lapped it all up. Happy soul that he is, I think F1 should sit up and notice that these negative opinions are being voiced by a driver of his personality.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
24th April 2024, 18:58
Jeffrey Powell, the races outside the 12 were all voluntary. Yes, the big teams went to most of the available races, but the smaller teams picked and chose as they liked (and as they could be funded).
SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
22nd April 2024, 13:25
Seems like a solvable problem. Rotating team members that go to races so you have two teams that do 12 races a year and spend the rest of their time at the factory seems like a logical move.
Radoye
22nd April 2024, 15:13
That means double hiring, in an era with budget limits that required teams to move people out of F1 teams into different projects to stay under the cap.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
24th April 2024, 18:57
@sjaakfoo That means permitting more than 10 swaps in personnel per team per year.
Iosif (@afonic)
22nd April 2024, 18:06
Honestly, I feel the season is too big. It needs to be cut to around 20 races. I don’t mind the sprint races, for example in China the sprint was more entertaining than the race itself.
The biggest issue for me is the lack of competition. It makes it harder and harder to waste 2 hours of your Sunday on a race you know who will win for a championship that has already been decided. Unless Ferrari or McLaren close the gap I might even cancel my F1 TV subscription by the summer break. Yes I know Mercedes did the same, but at least in the Rosberg years you had three years of solid racing between them and then Ferrari and Vettel tried to challenge them. Honestly it hasn’t been that bad since the Schumacher days and probably Red Bull 2011 and 2013.
I know, pinnacle of motorsport, Red Bull should not be punished etc but Formula 1 needs to solve this. I don’t know how, but there needs to be mechanism that reins in a team if they are utterly dominating.
MacLeod (@macleod)
23rd April 2024, 8:11
You know that system is already in place how higher you finish how less development time you get. That is why Ferrari, McLaren and Austin gets closer to Red Bull. (Mercedes is just failing so i can’t explain that) But having very good designers is very hard to get overtaken.
As Adrian says Red Bull has difficult to gain time and if they design faster stuff it’s marginal 1-2% while the rest is gaining (for example McLaren last year they leapt the field with upgrade who generates a huge increase 50-75% but this year their improvements were much smaller 5-10% but still increase there performance.)
S
23rd April 2024, 8:37
It’s not a direct system to balance performance, though. It really only reduces the potential options for more successful teams to try. As Red Bull are proving – they can still get it right each time, despite having less resources to get it right.
Real BoP is hiding just around the corner, waiting for F1 to call it for the help it so desperately needs.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
24th April 2024, 18:56
Given that Red Bull’s still benefitting from compound interest from the extra spending it did against regulations, it’s hard to assess how the reduced development time fits into the equation.
Olivier
22nd April 2024, 18:18
A good pace would be to have two races per month. One of these races could feature a sprint race with a reversed grid.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
22nd April 2024, 18:44
The big problem is that the viewing schedule is used to run up the value of the teams, liberty media does give back to the teams, but the engine manufacturers quickly hoover that up.
The biggest losers are the non-constructors teams who have to pay a ridiculous tax of up to 100+ million a year on power unit expenditures. Especially the ones who are on frozen platforms which have no way to compete with the rest of the field.
F1 also takes it’s share off the teams, and drivers. Its a scam, that has too many greedy hands. Give it enough time, and the only people who own teams will be large investment firms who end up screwing the guys who work the most, in this pay to play to almost get paid scheme.
The only way this gets fixed is if every team gets 1 vote, and thats the only vote that matters. And there are no secret back room deals like with Toto and Williams to push these garbage power units that cost 50x as much as the previous. Robbery.
AlanD
23rd April 2024, 0:02
Good points PCX. The engine problem is made worse by the specs which mandate such complex expensive engines with nit-picking regs like min and max fuel flows instead of just simply specifying the amount of fuel each car starts with. I like the system they used to have in indycar when they had an engine crisis. They gave a contract to Honda to supply engines at a fixed cost to each team, (no special deals), if an engine blew in practice, Honda pulled a fresh one out of stock, and Honda serviced the engines, and reallocated engines to teams at random, i.e. you had no idea who had previously used that engine, teams couldn’t be favoured with upgraded spec engines compared to others.
I’d like to see F1 engines have a similar concept, that Ferrari, Merc, Honda, if they want to be engine manufacturers have to agree to supply engines to any of the teams and all at a fixed price per engine, no special deals, none of those conditions such as having to have a Japanese driver etc. Then you could let the engine builders spend whatever they want improving their engines, continuous development, without bankrupting the smaller teams or pricing them out of the chapionship.
SteveR (@stever)
22nd April 2024, 19:02
I Understood the price of supplied engines was fixed at Euro 15,000,000 by the F1 Technical Regulations.
AlanD
23rd April 2024, 0:07
Steve, you may be right, I’m not sure where they are this year, but still you find teams negotiating engine deals, and engine builders seem reluctant to supply. The engine makers seem to have too much influence over the customer teams. I don’t know if that is true or not, but that is the perception we get at the moment.
Jogo
22nd April 2024, 20:24
I’m sure drivers are ok. With all the money they got. But is there any research on depression and suicide rates among regular F1 workers? I still doubt it’s really that hard. I mean most people in the world have to work almost everyday, less money, no travelling.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
24th April 2024, 18:54
No, I have not seen any studies into mental health in the F1 paddock, nor any of the support series paddocks. Suicide levels in-post are probably low, simply because it’s a news item on the rare occasions it happens, but depression is often easy to hide from casual observers, and it’s nearly impossible to get good information about what happens after people leave .
The one good stat we have is that the employee turnover rate has increased from 10% in the mid-2010s to 25% as of 2022 (the last year for which I’ve seen figures). For the record, 10% is below average in UK employment overall, despite F1 having notoriously high standards and never being for the faint-hearted. 25% is the same as the non-food service industry (the 8th highest-turnover industry sector in the UK). This suggests that people are finding F1 a lot less desirable than 10 years ago.