Former Alpine and Aston Martin team boss, Otmar Szafnauer believes the sport could handle up to 30 races a season.

"For me, if you plan it right, I think between 25 and 30 is the right number," he said, according to Reuters, as he sees out his enforced gardening leave since parting ways with Alpine.

"If you go to 30, you really have two teams (within a team) and each team does 15," he added. "That's an easy life compared to what you've got today.

"I get what Liberty are doing," he continued, "it's the right thing for the sport. We're a global sport, truly global and should we be going to 25, 26, 27 races?"

Fellow American, Zak Brown has admitted support for more races, while that is clearly the dream of F1 CEO, Liberty Media, however, other than the wear and tear on personnel, not to mention the extra costs the teams would endure, as the sport heads into the busiest season in its history, might not more races result in 'viewer fatigue'? And that is quite aside from the issue of quality over quantity.

As far as personnel are concerned, Szafnauer believes that the solution would be for teams to basically have two sets of crews, whereby, for example, at Alpine he was seeking to introduce a system that would see crew members work ten races at the track and ten at the factory along with four 'wild cards'.

"The wild card means you choose four races that you don't either do remotely or from the racetrack," he said. "People look at it and say it's just taking up too much of my life and therefore I'm missing birthdays and weddings and all the stuff I don't want to miss.

"There's a way around it," he added. "My way around it was 'OK, out of the 24 you do 20 and get four wild cards. Just tell us the wild cards in advance and we'll work around it.

"If you say 'OK, how about 26 races or 28 races in all the countries in the world?', that's sustainable. But the calendar has to allow it," he added.

"If you can overcome the logistics, which I think you can with a bit of planning, and then overcome the human element of it, which I think we're good at doing, you just have to look at it in a creative way."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by BillH, 28/02/2024 17:48

"The "sport" might be able "handle" up to 30 races however I don't think I could.

A Grand Prix is supposed to be a special event and some of that is down to exclusivity in terms of the amount of races, which is a lot better than just hiking the price of admission for spectators at the track or how to view the races on TV / Online.

The bigger F1 teams used to have two teams back in the day of a lot more testing, a test team and a race team. Team members would move back and forth between the teams, obviously some team staying with each team, so that part is not new.

What is new compared to then is the matter of the budget cap and ESG / Sustainability / Carbon Neutral (add whatever trend you like) and that is where the number of races will be capped."

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2. Posted by KKK, 28/02/2024 17:42

"Well, at least me know that you cant have more than 52 races in a season ! Far too many as it is now"

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3. Posted by HudMike, 28/02/2024 15:13

"I guess this is the outcome of money being the real driver of F1 and not the sport itself. Likewise the choice to go towards street circuits rather than thorougbred race tracks."

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4. Posted by Forza Minardi, 28/02/2024 13:40

"No thanks. I love the sport the packed calendar now means F1 fatigue still kicks in from time-to-time."

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5. Posted by Superbird70, 28/02/2024 12:08

"Do the drivers get to choose which wildcard they do remotely?"

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6. Posted by Mad Matt, 28/02/2024 10:49

"He's right in that the two team solution makes life OK for the teams... but I suspect 30 races would get to be too much for the audience... people would probably not bother with all of them."

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7. Posted by Burton, 28/02/2024 10:39

""overcome the human element"...well, if that's what Otmar wants, there's some guys already trialling a remotely-operated open-wheel series. Why doesn't he piss off and go there?"

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8. Posted by Team Hack, 28/02/2024 10:15

"What ever happened to 'less is more'?"

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F1 could handle 30 races a season, says Szafnauer

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