Already facing a huge financial hit from the coronavirus, Alfa Romeo claims stacking Formula 1 races late in 2020 would also be “very costly”.
The sport is facing a dilemma when it comes rescheduling this season as they try to balance the risk from COVID-19 versus having as many races as possible to try and limit the revenue lost because of the virus.
Recently, F1 motorsport boss Ross Brawn suggested as many as 19 Grands Prix could still take place starting with six events in seven weeks from July, but Alfa boss Fred Vasseur says that could only exaggerate the financial risks.
“If you want to do more races in a row, it is more expensive,” he told Motorsport.
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“It is more expensive to do 18 races in six months than to do 18 races in 12 months because you need to bring more stock, you need to bring more parts and you need to work with more mechanics.
“This will be very costly and by the way, we will not be able to face this kind of situation and develop the new car.
“We don’t have the team to be able to do it.”
Already, measures have been put into place to cut costs such as delaying the new technical regulations for 2021 by a year and limiting development on this year’s car.
But Vasseur also has to worry about his staff and the toll of racing nearly every week could have on them.
“I will be in favour of all the decisions that could help to have as many races as we can,” he stated.
“I’m sure that if we have three races in a row as we had [in 2018], at one stage it could make sense to have two-day events.
“Also because of the workload to do between 15 and 18 races within six months, for sure it’s a challenge for all the teams.
“Probably more for the small teams because we don’t have a big team to rotate the mechanics and so on. We have to find a solution to reduce their workload also.
“I think everybody is being flexible on this. Everybody understands the situation and the fact that it’s crucial to find solutions.”
