Vasseur calms concerns over 24-race F1 calendar

Ferrari Team Principal Frederic Vasseur has denied that Formula 1 must reduce its race calendar to ensure the well-being of its staff.

This year's campaign is set to feature 24 races, setting a new record for the sport.

The 2023 calendar was originally drafted to include 24 events but was reduced to 22 when the rounds in China and Emilia Romagna were cancelled.

Concerns have been raised over the strain such a long calendar has on travelling staff members.

However, Vasseur is confident that teams can discover their own solutions to minimise the impact of the record-breaking schedule.

“We need to have the best approach for the mechanics, because it’s part of the performance, it’s part of the reliability,” Vasseur told media including RacingNews365.

“It was not strange that there were more mistakes in the pit stops in Abu Dhabi than some [other races]. I think that everybody was exhausted.”

“It means that we need to think about perhaps having a rotation in terms of the mechanics, or to keep [some] mechanics to do the races and to have another group of mechanics at home, taking care of the cars when they are back at the factory.

“I think we have room to do something, we have room to manage it in a better way.”

Vasseur hails expanding schedule

F1 has been steadily increasing the number of races on its calendar over the last several years.

Vasseur asserted that the augmenting figure shows that the sport is in a strong position due to the interest in hosting a Grand Prix event.

“We have to keep in mind that a couple of years ago we were struggling to find tracks and to find events,” he said.

“Today we have a lot of proposals, that we have a situation to [be able to] do 24 events, and also to be probably a bit selective on the events.”

The Frenchman added that grouping together certain parts of the schedule next year will ease pressure on staff members.

“We have to work on the calendar, for sure,” he said.

“Next year, we’ll have the first part of the season on the far east with Melbourne, Japan and China in a row, so we’ll allow some mechanics and drivers to sometimes stay in this side of the world, it will be helpful.

“Then we have to manage properly the team, to give them some rest, but I don’t think we have to reduce the number of events.”