F1 goes to its second race of the Mexico-Brazil-Qatar triple header this weekend, with the chiefs of Grand Prix racing having decided to go for an ambitious triple intercontinental tournament.
With the travel and stress at this end of the season marginalizing the endurance of the F1 staff, Alonso says it’s a bit strange to have a two-week gap between the United States and Mexico and then sign up for the three of them decide consecutive races.
“This triple header is not exactly the most convenient,” said the alpine pilot before leaving Mexico. “Each race is separated by 12 hours [on a] Plane or something. And we have to race three weekends in a row.
“It is important for the team, for the mechanics, to save energy. You are in the garage, packing everything, you are late, you will take a plane, arrive in Brazil, pack everything and assemble the garage is certainly at the limit for you.
“Hopefully we’ll find better solutions for the calendar because Austin is an hour and a half from Mexico. And we were in Austin two weeks ago.
“It feels strange that some races are two weeks apart and some of the races that take place on a different continent are back to back.”
Fernando Alonso, Alpine F1 signs autographs for fans
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
While the decision to have a long gap between Austin and Mexico seems unusual, it was originally made because of concerns about travel restrictions due to the COVID pandemic.
When the schedule was set, both Mexico and Brazil were on the UK red list of countries that required mandatory quarantine on return, which could have been problematic for the teams.
By receiving Brazil and Mexico in back-to-back fashion with Qatar, it meant F1 staff could have avoided the quarantine restriction on their return from the Middle East.
In the end, the UK abandoned the red zone restrictions so that F1 teams would have no problem returning to the UK after Mexico or Brazil.
The challenges of the current calendar stem from F1’s drive to increase the schedule in the future which has caused some discomfort in certain sections of the paddock.
Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll thinks it’s important that F1 account for staff downtime, not just add races without worrying about the consequences.
“I understand that there is a financial motive to increase the number of races and expand the sport,” he said.
“But I think there has to be a balanced way of thinking between the mechanics, the engineers and all the employees in Formula 1 who have families at home who travel the world and devote a lot of time to racing.
“I think there still has to be a balance where F1 takes a break and gives people the opportunity to go home, see their families, spend some time doing other things, and then we come back and take racing very seriously.
“I don’t think it should turn into a ridiculous 25 racing calendar seasons. It looks like this is heading in that direction, but I think F1 should think about the staff and their families too.”
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