The 2024 F1 season sees a historic 24 races, with the addition of six sprint races now on the calendar. The 2025 season will see the same.
The Shanghai weekend was the first sprint race of the season, and once again it became topic of conversation.
F1 CEO, Stefano Domenicali has been open about wanting to add more sprint races to the calendar. He told Sky Sports “why not? I would say this is great because it keeps the tension on every day and this something that will be discussed in the future.”
However drivers have been quick to point out the flaws with this proposed plan. Norris recognised the benefits of the sprint weekend while making it clear the importance of moderation.
He said “I do like having the pressure straight away. So the fact of having one practice straight into qualifying I do like it.” even going as far as to say “I don’t think it’s too bad for us as drivers.”
Although, the Brit felt strongly about how it effects the teams and specifically the engineers and mechanics. “It’s the hundreds of mechanics and engineers that we have here that have to travel so much.
Norris admitted “It’s not healthy for them. It is not sustainable.”
He’s not the only driver to feel negatively about the amount of races we now have. Fernando Alonso also said the tough, busy schedule was a place of doubt for him when signing his aston martin contract.
Max Verstappen has also been very vocal on his distaste for both sprint races and the currently length of the season saying F1 should avoid “overdoing it.”
Thinking about mechanics saying increasing the amount sprints to 12 a season would “take its toll on people.”
‘people should look out more for the rest of the team’
With the season being busier than ever the wellbeing of the teams who work all hours of the day during race weekends should be at the forefront of F1’s mind.
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