Formula One on Friday published a proposed program of a record 23 Grand Prix for next season, including one in Saudi Arabia.
The previous record for races in a season is 21. Twenty-two races were slated for this year, but COVID-19 lockdowns reduced that to 17.
Next year’s program reveals several sets of three races in successive weekends, something that is likely to stretch the teams.
Photo: AP
“It would represent a huge job for the mechanics,” Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said. “This is 23 weeks away from home. We are approaching saturation point at which we would need two teams.”
While the drivers would need to be at every race, other teams are also thinking of switching their mechanics.
“We hope to set up a rotation system so that no one has to go to all the races,” Williams team principal Simon Roberts said.
Meanwhile, a proposed cap on driver salaries is under discussion, but still some way away, although teams are supportive of the idea, bosses said.
The idea has been bubbling away for some time and was put forward on Monday in a virtual meeting of the Formula One Commission.
It proposes a US$30 million cap from which teams would pay drivers starting from 2023.
They can spend more, but the excess would come out of what will be a US$135 million annual budget cap for all teams by 2023.
The budget cap, to be introduced next year at US$145 million before dropping to US$140 million for 2022, does not include driver salaries.
Horner said that nothing had been voted on regarding driver salaries and contracts agreed before any change in the rules would need to be respected.
“There’s no firm rules or regulations, it’s not been voted in, it’s not become part of either sporting, financial or other regulations,” he told reporters at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Italy’s Imola circuit.
On the track, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton (1 minute, 14.726 seconds) finished ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen (0.297 seconds back) in the only practice session today’s race.
Additional reporting by AP
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