F1 News
Is the long F1 calendar too tiring for drivers? 'Has a knock-on effect'
- Sandy van Wijngaarden
For the first time in Formula One's history, there were 24 Grands Prix held in a season, making it the longest one ever. McLaren driver addressed the impact of having so many weekends at the final event of the year in Abu Dhabi.
The long F1 calendar has a lot of impact
Oscar Piastri has finished his second season in the competition at the Abu Dhabi GP. Last year, a 24-weekend calendar was already planned, however, the 2023 season only lasted 22 Grands Prix after the ones in China and Imola had to be cancelled.
"Compared to my first season F1, it's been better I would say because I know what to expect this year," Piastri explained how an even longer season affected him this year. "These last couple of triple headers have been tough i mean not just for us but everyone in the room probably going from Vegas to Qatar with some pretty wacky time zones."
According to Piastri, the rest of the team has had a tougher time than him. "I think for us as drivers it's difficult, but it's more the teams and the mechanics that we were speaking about before especially turning up on Tuesday or Wednesday, building the car, making sure it's at the best level."
"Reliability these days is so good that any little blip you have costs a lot. So for us like we find it difficult but we have the team or our teams much more in mind with these long seasons and the amount of traveling that they do, the amount of time they spend away from their families."
According to the Australian, it is not possible for the whole team to be present every weekend of the season. "The teams need to employ more people because trying to do 24 races for a lot of people just doesn't make sense anymore. So it has some knock-on effects."
Still, he says the calendar has already improved. "I think giving F1 and the FIA credit, I think where we're going in terms of the calendar and trying to streamline it is making things better. But I think there's still some tweaking to go. And yeah, again, a lot of our concerns are about our much wider teams than for us personally," Piastri concluded.
This article was written in collaboration with Kada Sárközi
Want more Formula 1? Then follow GPblog on our various social media channels!