A 24 race calendar is “too much” says Verstappen

43 comments on “A 24 race calendar is “too much” says Verstappen”

1. 

   Djangles LeVaughn (@royal-spark)
   22nd December 2023, 0:39

   “24 races is clearly not enough so we will be adding a bunch more to satisfy our shareholders and anyone who’s too weak to handle our forward way of thinking can politely shove-off or drop dead.” – Stefano Domeni-gaslight
   1. 

      some racing fan
      22nd December 2023, 0:44

      Perfect translation. Shareholders and balance sheets are all that matter to them.

      But at the same time, I’d rather have Liberty run the sport than CVC. They were the wrong owners for any competitive entity.
      1. 

         Rhys Lloyd (@justrhysism)
         22nd December 2023, 2:49

         Yeah the CVC-era were dark days indeed. Felt like the sport was frozen in time and technology from an accessibility POV.
         1. 

            Ciaran (@ciaran)
            22nd December 2023, 13:06

            I’m glad some people remember what CVC were like. I’d rather some silly glitzy nonsense than them sucking the life out of the sport from behind the scenes.
            1. 

               S
               23rd December 2023, 5:11

               I thought it was sarcasm…
               Bernie was all for leaving certain regs as open as possible and allowing for diversity – however, now under Liberty, they’ve become so much more prescriptive.
   2. 

      Jere (@jerejj)
      22nd December 2023, 6:11

      @royal-spark That isn’t what he’s said, though, or even implied, so you’re just twisting words into something contradictory.
      1. 

         Alex
         22nd December 2023, 9:28

         Nah – different person. His point is that Verstappen might think 24 is too much (and it’s refreshing he speaks his mind), but the people making the decisions don’t share his views.
         1. 

            some racing fan
            24th December 2023, 3:07

            Of course they don’t. They don’t have to commit themselves as much to their work and be away from their loved ones as much as the teams do. It’s all about money. Money money money money money money.
      2. 

         Djangles LeVaughn (@royal-spark)
         22nd December 2023, 21:55

         If only I could embed a clown emoji to emphasise the yolk.

         A joke.
2. 

   some racing fan
   22nd December 2023, 0:42

   In a perfect world, we wouldn’t have races in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain (Losail is a circuit I actually like, never liked Bahrain), or China. So that’s 21 races. About the right amount IMO. Miami is pretty badly flawed, yes but with some layout adjustments it can become better. The layout as it stands is not so good.

   There should only be 1 or 2 Gulf races, not 4- but money talks, and that’s what Liberty is interested in.
   1. 

      S
      22nd December 2023, 1:33

      In a perfect world

      Perfect for who?
      Bahrain has consistently been one of the better circuits for F1 since it was built (much better than most of the ‘traditional’ circuits, which modern F1 has outgrown).
      China is also a decent circuit, as is Saudi Arabia – in their own ways. I certainly prefer both of them over Monaco.

      If you only want 21 races, then only watch 21 races.

      There isn’t a single entity involved in all of F1 that isn’t primarily interested in money and maximising profit.
      This is the foundation of what F1 has become.
3. 

   Derek Edwards
   22nd December 2023, 0:50

   Ugh – thank you for reminding me of the Ferrari F93A. Been trying to forget that and its predecessor for over thirty years now.
4. 

   S
   22nd December 2023, 1:27

   “A 24 race calendar is “too much” says Verstappen”

   Then race somewhere else. Every other racing series involves fewer media commitments too, along with the smaller calendar.
   Could easily forego personal sponsorships too – it’s not as though he needs the money.
5. 

   SteveR (@stever)
   22nd December 2023, 2:36

   Yeah, and Las Vegas is one that should be dropped. Here’s a video about what Vegas really is….
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fr3vtZwztNQ
6. 

   Brell-9W
   22nd December 2023, 3:53

   The DAMS Formula 2 team used to be one of the top teams. With poor driver choices over the years, they have slipped back.

   However, the pairing of Juan-Manuel Correa and Jak Crawford is a head scratcher. Well Crawford is not bad, but he’s not a blindingly quick star either, and it became obvious during his two seasons at FIA F3 that Correa has lost a lot of pace since recovering from that nasty accident in 2019. In fact he had quite a few clumsy moments in 2023 to make me wonder if he’s still able to compete competitively at this level.

   This seems like another step down the ladder for a once great team.
   1. 

      Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
      22nd December 2023, 16:24

      Remember their F1 car?
      (Probably best not to)
7. 

   Sam
   22nd December 2023, 4:47

   14 to 20 would get my vote for ideal number of races. Current numbers are a nail in the coffin for me.
8. 

   Jay
   22nd December 2023, 4:58

   I think 24 races is great! I’ll watch every quali, sprint, and race. Just as I did last year and the year before and pretty much every season for the last 20 years.

   I wonder if american baseball fans are so down about 162 games a season. 81 home games, nah its just too many. LOL

   Or NHL/NBA, 82 games a year. Think of the families!
   1. 

      Jere (@jerejj)
      22nd December 2023, 6:10

      Travel logistics in NHL, NBA, & MLB are nothing compared to motorsports, but especially F1 with global travel, so regular season game amounts are totally incomparable to GP amounts.
      1. 

         Jay
         22nd December 2023, 8:28

         I’ve never seen fans so bent on having less content. I’d watch a season with 30 races, or even more. It’s up to the teams, and maybe the drivers, to make a case to limit the number of races. You think Liberty wouldn’t race every weekend if they could make money? And I’d watch it!
         1. 

            notagrumpyfan
            22nd December 2023, 8:44

            I’ve never seen fans so bent on having less content.

            It seems F1 fans (here) like to complain about almost everything regarding their sport.
            Not sure why. But my theory is that there are more regulatory changes and impacts than in other sports. ‘Fans’ support an athlete or a team and love to complain about the regulatory stuff, as that can be seen as impeding the success of their driver/team.

            I’m a fan of the sport, rather than a driver or a team, and I like to see even more of it rather than be grumpy about everything.
         2. 

            plop
            22nd December 2023, 9:48

            I’ve never seen fans so bent on having less content.

            Some fans just have a sense of reality. All the money in the world can not change that they (the teams) are just human beings and there’s a limit to what they can do. Go over that limit, and it will add more danger to an already dangerous sport. So being a fan means you care about the sport and the teams, and thus do not want to see them get hurt or break down.
         3. 

            Craig
            22nd December 2023, 10:04

            Call me old fashioned but I’d much prefer fewer good races worthy of my time then more dull race I turn off within a few laps, if I even bothered with at all.
         4. 

            Coventry Climax
            22nd December 2023, 15:28

            That’s because the quantity of it is detrimental to the quality. And that’s both the actual quality and the perceived quality.

            For the actual quality: It used to be that between races, teams had the time to come up with things, in a bid to improve. That’s why it’s also a constructors championship. Sure, the teams that managed to get the biggest sponsors could spend the most, but that did not necessarily mean they were always better at it than others. Just look at Ferrari (historically biggest budgets for years, but certainly not always the results) and Jordan/Spijker/Midland/Force India/Racing Point/AM (historically one of the lowest budgets, but frequently punched above their weight, especially if you consider a certain mediocre driver named Perez frequently scored points for them, and then ever since Stroll injects big money and despite former worldchampions for drivers, as yet results are just so-so.). And that was always part of the sport too, being clever.
            Ever more races and ever more restrictions on cardesign (the 2026 rules mandate practically a spec car), like we’re seeing these days, results in what is best described as repeat moves. 2023 the perfect example. You can wonder if RB and Verstappen would have managed the same result some 20 years ago. But because it’s now boring, we constantly get these silly suggestions of introducing artificial elements to spice things up, while anything that made the sport a sport and interesting, is being stripped away, facilitating and in favor of a shallow repeat show.

            As to the perceived quality: Would Christmas be the same if we had it each and every week, or even twice a week, for those who keep saying they can’t get enough? Would some people maybe start to get bored? Including you, after -say- a month or 6?
            I remember the thrill just before a start of a Grand Prix, the buzz and tension in the air.
            But if you bungee jump three times a week, it’s just routine by the time you go into your second month, and no thrill anymore at all.
      2. 

         some racing fan
         24th December 2023, 3:04

         Absolutely. Half of games in all those leagues are played at home, where their families are, and half are on the road. Baseball has 162 games because it is possibly the least athletically demanding major sport there is.
   2. 

      Asd
      22nd December 2023, 11:27

      “I wonder if american baseball fans are so down about 162 games a season. 81 home games, nah its just too many. LOL”
      Firstly, the world doesn’t care about MLB Baseball. So start with that. And secondly, whenever I see clips of MLB, the MLB stadiums look like the fans don’t care about those games either. But the argument is not about the number of games per se anyway, but about the results of having so many games.

      “Or NHL/NBA, 82 games a year. ”
      – Very many NBA fans have been complaining about there being too many regular season games. So much so in fact that exactly for that reason that the NBA introduced the In-Season Tournament this year, because people have been simply bored with the games, as have the players, who don’t seem to care about winning or losing single games since they don’t really matter.
      So yes, the NBA fans are down about the results of having 82 games in a regular season and this has been a known fact for a very long time.

      Also, the most popular sports league in the USA – the NFL – has 17 regular season games.
   3. 

      Khürt Williams (@khurtwilliams)
      22nd December 2023, 11:43

      Jay, did you notice that this was a driver complaining right? And that unlike baseball, football and F1 is an international sport that involves international travel for the drivers and all the support personnel in the teams.

      You’re comparing apples to oranges. You’re comment suggest you don’t care about the drivers and the team. You seem to care only about your entertainment.
9. 

   Jere (@jerejj)
   22nd December 2023, 6:09

   Nothing new about him saying that anymore, but personally, I don’t mind having 24 GPs, albeit I wish FOM & FIA would bother scheduling in a way that avoids triple-headers altogether to easen travelling people’s strain a bit, considering realistic ways exist.
10. 

    Alex
    22nd December 2023, 9:38

    Thinking just of me I’m fine with 24 races a year, but we’ve definitely reached the point where it’s stretching the teams.

    I wonder if it would be possible to limit the number of days worked by people involved in F1? Eg mandate that nobody is asked to work on more than 220 days in a year, *including* travel days.

    (in numbers of days that similar to many Monday-Friday workers, probably more generous, but bear in mind many of those are long days on GP weekends. Still, you could look at the number.)

    It might mean hard decisions for teams around someone who is a core part of the race crew and also a core part of winter development, but it’s a level that should be possible to meet, and would help with the wellbeing side.
11. 

    Ludewig
    22nd December 2023, 9:41

    No one forces Max to have a personal sponsor, or to make a deal with a personal sponsor that includes more obligations than he is comfortable with. He gets no sympathy from me if he chooses to prioritize getting even more money than his already very generous salary, over having more free time. It’s not like he is forced into it to make ends meet.
12. 

    Stephen Taylor
    22nd December 2023, 11:25

    17-20 races would be ideal
13. 

    Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
    22nd December 2023, 16:32

    Take a year off, Max, you’ve earned it. Away from those horrid marketing people.
    I’d love to see what Lewis and Charles and Fernando could do against two pretty average drivers like Perez and Ricciardo in the Red Bulls…
14. 

    EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
    23rd December 2023, 0:33

    I can’t feel sorry for MV or most of the drivers. They are well compensated, and will be able to enjoy many comfortable days for themselves for most of thier life.

    Some of the other team members, however, I do sympathise with.
15. 

    floodo1 (@floodo1)
    23rd December 2023, 4:18

    16 or so would be nice

    “A sense of occasion” as Darren Heath put it
16. 

    Jeffrey Powell
    23rd December 2023, 14:36

    Most of you will of course not remember F1 in the 1960’s there were of course only 9 or so races but there was F2 and the Tasman series plus maybe 2 more non championship F1 races. Most F1 drivers took part in most of these races which added up to at least 24 events, they were not as intense as the current GP’s but still involved considerable travel.Fortunately there was not the Tv coverage so the opportunity to become bored senseless did not arise , just saying !.
    1. 

       Jeffrey Powell
       23rd December 2023, 16:12

       So in 1969 11 championship grand prix , 7 European f2 championship events, 7 Tasman races (2.5 instead of 3 litre F1 cars) and 3 non championship f1 races in England all of these with A list F1 drivers taking part. , Jackie Stewart, Jochen Rindt , Jack Brabham.all WDC’s so 28 events. I did go to the English events but like Max I wanted more me time but unlike him couldn’t afford any more travel.
       1. 

          some racing fan
          24th December 2023, 3:10

          But back in those days those drivers didn’t have to go and thank their sponsors and do all the behind the scenes marketing work they have to do now.
       2. 

          Coventry Climax
          27th December 2023, 11:03

          So you found out who of the then F1 drivers are among those that took part in one or more event outside the official F1 calendar.
          Have you also made a list of how many of those events each driver took part in?
          I think it was fairly common for some of those ‘guest’ drivers to skip some of those events.
          I also seem to remember that some of the coffee table books that are reviewed here, mention the reason for drivers not partaking in these non-F1 points events were … travel and calendar.

          Back then, which is even before the the days of massive testing, there was also no simulator work.

          Then finally, teams in those days consisted of a fraction of the people that make up a team these days, which makes organising the whole thing much more difficult.

          I think it’s not even apples and pears but cherries and watermelons you’re comparing.
17. 

    Four Four Seven (@fourfourseven)
    23rd December 2023, 17:29

    Don’t race then simple!
18. 

    Phil Norman (@phil-f1-21)
    24th December 2023, 10:58

    It should be about 20 and no more. Would anyone really miss the extra 3 or 4 races? It would be much more comfortable for everyone. There would be less fatigue as well. More excitement about each event as well.
19. 

    Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
    25th December 2023, 18:07

    How many times does F1 have to prove it can’t handle 21+ races before F1 reduces the length of its calendar according to its capabilities?

    The question of how many races fans want to see is irrelevant if the amount being proposed is beyond the capacity of those

    Since I have yet to see evidence that the FIA is capable of carrying out its duties with reasonable consistency and accuracy when the calendar has been over 20 races, it should not have taken a driver complaining that 24 is too many to get action. It seems that, despite considerable effort to reduce the amount of travelling FIA officials have to do, they’re still the weak point. This suggests that, however tempting measures like rotating staff are, they’re not enough of a solution. Maybe the people involved just need fewer things to focus on. Fans and drivers who still want more motor sports can add other series to their racing rosters.

    Unfortunately, action is unlikely even with such blatant evidence as one of this year’s races likely having a different winner due to multiple clear FIA errors near the end of a season that was too long for its officials (yes, I’m referring to Las Vegas) – says a lot about the disinterest the organisation scheduling the calendar has about F1 as a sport. That, or Liberty officials are also over-scheduled.
    1. 

       Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
       25th December 2023, 18:08

       * – The question of how many races fans want to see is irrelevant if the amount being proposed is beyond the capacity of those people necessary for a race to occur in the first place. This includes drivers, yes, and also race staff – but the weak point here appears to be the FIA (and arguably Liberty).
    2. 

       S
       26th December 2023, 1:09

       How many times does F1 have to prove it can’t handle 21+ races before F1 reduces the length of its calendar according to its capabilities?

       But F1 is proving that it can handle more than that.
       A 24 event calendar doesn’t just create itself, nor is it forced on the competitors out of the blue – the teams are part of that process. The Concorde Agreement is a real thing…

       Fans and drivers who still want more motor sports can add other series to their racing rosters.

       But ultimately, everyone in F1 wants that motorsport viewing and supporting money to go to themselves – not to other series.
       Very few businesses of any kind (including race teams) encourage their customers to shop elsewhere. It’s especially risky in F1’s case as those customers may never come back once they’ve seen other series’ real on-track competition.

       The question of how many races fans want to see is irrelevant if the amount being proposed is beyond the capacity of those people necessary for a race to occur in the first place. This includes drivers, yes, and also race staff – but the weak point here appears to be the FIA (and arguably Liberty).

       Of course it’s relevant. There is demand, so F1 (collectively) provides supply. Why wouldn’t they?
       Not sure how you think that the FIA is any ‘weaker’ with 24 events on F1 calendar than they were when there were 16. If anything, the opposite is true.
       As far as per-event decision-making goes – they’ve never been particularly consistent, and that aspect hasn’t gotten any worse.
       And Liberty – well, it’s always healthy to remember that they only purchased F1’s commercial rights to make money from them. As much money as possible, and then a bit more.

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