Formula 1 team bosses agree the inclusion of two tripleheaders in next year’s calendar is not ideal but must be tolerated.
Earlier this month, F1 owners Liberty Media revealed a provisional 23-race schedule for next season, with the inclusion of the Dutch and Saudi Arabian GP’s as well as another race TBC after Vietnam ran into political issues.
To accommodate the record number of Grands Prix, a stretch of eight races in just 10 weeks are planned after the summer break, including two tripleheaders.
And though that has frustrated some teams, Mercedes chief Toto Wolff believes it needs to be looked at objectively.
“I think the teams are the beneficiaries of growing revenue and income. In that respect, we all need to support it for the business to grow,” he told Motorsport.com.
“On the other side, a couple of tripleheaders will take a toll on the people [employees].
“I think there is an Asian tripleheader that will mean we are more than three weeks away from home and that is certainly not something that is great.”
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Teams are working on plans to rotate their garage crews to limit the risk of burnout as well as simply give them time with their families at home.
And Haas chief Guenther Steiner notes the busy period through September-October does at least allow the usual four-week summer shutdown.
“I think they are necessary if you want to do 23 races because we also want to have a few weeks off in August,” he told RaceFans.
“If you want to do that, you just have to live with the downside of doing the tripleheaders.”
The Italian though does believe F1 could at least help the situation by introducing more of the two-day weekends as seen at Imola.
“I think it will be tough and we will need to get organised on it. I think it’s doable,” he said.
“Hopefully maybe we can agree to have some races just Saturday and Sunday, a shorter weekend, things like this they would help a lot for what we are doing.
“Especially the second half of the season next year. The first half doesn’t seem to be frightening, the first half, but the second half is a little bit tough with the two tripleheaders in a row.”