Marko and Wolff raise F1 cause for concern

Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko and Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff share the opinion that F1 cannot further expand that calendar, and that more needs to be done to reduce workload and travel demands.

The championship has taken steps to regionalise the schedule in recent years, but with season growing to 24 rounds – with six sprint events – many feel the paddock is at breaking point.

Both Marko and Wolff agree that something has to give, despite F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali staunchly defending the current calendar.

The 81-year-old was quick to acknowledge that the stresses placed on him pale in comparison to the expectation on mechanics, arguing that split crews may be required moving forward.

“I think it is at the limit and I am only part of the senior management now,” Marko told Austrian broadcaster ORF in a joint interview with Wolff.

“One has to look at the mechanics, like during the Las Vegas Grand Prix. That race was run late in the evening, after the mechanics and flight of fourteen to sixteen hours had been behind them and just had to continue at the same pace.

“If we want to keep those 24 races on the calendar, the order really needs to improve. People are flying all over the world, that’s just the way it is. But if you ask me, more [races] are just not good, even if you look at the workload. Unless you start with two crews.

“The distribution of races just has to be balanced. You have traditional European races, but also new races that are good, but lack a certain motorsports culture.

“Races at Spa or Monza, for example, do have that culture, but that’s how we need to maintain the balance. But increase it [number of races] is not allowed, if it is up to me.”

Although F1 continues to make changes, including recently switching the placing of the Canadian and Monaco Grand Prix on the calendar to reduce travel and timezone jumps, more can be done.

A particularly point of contention is the season-ending triple header, which requires the paddock to move from a night race in Las Vegas to Qatar, before the finale in nearby Abu Dhabi.

Wolff reiterated the pressures involved, drawing upon his own experiences, including the “really brutal” end to the year.

“I talked to Helmut the other day about Las Vegas,” the 52-year-old said. “It was really brutal, because you only see a few hours of daylight before you go to bed and don’t know when to eat.

Everyone handled that differently, but that affects your rhythm so much that it’s hard to recover from that. Not to mention the flying!

“The other day I had a sponsorship event in Hawaii. I was there for a grand total of eighteen hours. I came in from Austin on a flight that took seven hours, and then back to Austin.

“That all sounds great, but when you’re sitting in your hotel knowing you have to go to an event and can’t just go to the beach, the situation suddenly becomes a lot less fun,” he continued.

“I already thought that was cruel, so as Helmut says, it’s all over the limit and we still travel comfortably.

“The mechanics travel economy class and are constantly up and down, so they have it even harder. You can see from all the faces that it won’t last long this way.”