Prost doesn't agree with all the choices in F1: 'I'm not in favour of it'

Formula 1 legend Alain Prost gives his opinion in the podcast 'Prost in the Paddock' about the amount of races this season. In his time there were about sixteen races in a season, now that number has increased to twenty or more. "I think the reason for more races is obviously to get more money. It’s always a question of compromise. We lost some big sponsors, when I was there we had the cigarettes, the alcohol, so we lost this big amount of money. We need to get some revenue, so that was the reason. Increasing the number of races is not stupid at all, but there is always a limit."

"We need to understand that some people in the top teams are there for a long time. They want to spend more time with their family. With travelling all the time, that is very difficult. I’m not really in favor of so many races. We have to be careful that we don’t have too much." F1's original plan was to run 23 races this season, but that number has been reduced to 22 due to the effects of the pandemic. As a result, a number of races have already been cancelled.

Prost wants more tests

The Alpine consultant wants to see fewer races, but more test days. Now the teams meet once a year during the winter test before the start of the new season.

"And going back to the number of races, I would say maybe twenty races? Twenty-one races maximum, but I would go back to testing during the year. I would make different regulations to have test teams because it is easy to do that. The advantage of testing is that you can test the things on the track, you make the drivers exercise. You can use young drivers to be able to see exactly what they have, you can invite sponsors to the testing," Prost said.