Guenther Steiner, the Team Principal of the Haas F1 Team, believes Formula 1 could have up-to twenty-five races in the future, but insists this will only be possible if common sense about the running order of the championship is used.
The 2018 calendar has been revealed, with twenty-one races on four continents in eight months, with Formula 1’s first ever triple header set to take place with the French, Austrian and British Grand Prix running back-to-back-to back, but Steiner feels that with better planning, more races could be added to the schedule.
“I’m not opposed to a few more races,” said Steiner. “What I wish is that the races are more bundled – that we stay in one region and are not going back and forth to Asia, where you go back for one week and then back the next. How big the area you group together, I don’t really know.
“It needs to be studied of how many F1 races an area can take. For instance, I think it would be difficult to have a race in Abu Dhabi and then another one the next week in Bahrain because we are very close together there.
“But a few more races, if it is well organized, will not be that much more time away for the teams. In general, I have nothing against getting up to 25 races.”
The workload for engineers and mechanics may be a determining factor in the length of a calendar, but Steiner believes that this could also be managed, although he does appreciate costs may rise as a result.
“We just need to plan and maybe relieve some people,” added Steiner. “Maybe not all the people will want to do 25 events, but I think it can all be managed, and if we do it cleverly, it is not so much more.
“There is more cost involved because you travel more. You need more car parts because you run more. But, in general, if we’ve got enough time to get prepared properly, we always find a way to make things work.”
