30 races in 9 months
There is just over a month left until the official start of the 2024 Formula 1 season. Year after year the Circus calendar grows and expands and what is about to start will be the most exhausting year ever. 24 Grands Prix in the space of nine months, plus six Sprint races. A rewarding commitment for all parties involved, but also exhausting and complex to manage on a logistical level.
Furthermore, the last three races of the year, Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi will take place one after the other within a week, in a hat-trick that promises to be extreme especially for those who work behind the scenes. A warning also launched by the 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuvewho underlined the amount of commitment that is required in situations of this kind from the mechanics and team staff.
A brutal hat trick
“It's going to be brutal – commented Villeneuve to the site PlanetF1 talking about the three races back to back at the end of the season – the teams eventually find a way to travel anyway. Staff rotation can work, but it is still difficult. The time zone is also in the 'wrong direction', because you waste time arriving instead of gaining it. It's very hectic to organize everything. It takes time and that makes it difficult.”.
The Canadian, Williams' last world champion, underlined how in reality in his time there was much more work to do for the drivers, while today this proportion has reversed: “If we look at the times when there were tests, there were fewer races, but a lot of tests – explained Villeneuve – Therefore track days for the driver were more numerous at the time, but there were two teams, one for testing and one for racing. Then the mechanics had time to go home. Now it has become brutal for them“.
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