Teams warm to cool regarding 22-round 2020 Formula 1 season

During the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, team bosses are said to have agreed to a 22-race calendar for next season with Liberty Media.

Asked about the development during the weekend in Budapest, most team bosses were up for the extension but managers of smaller teams appeared on board, albeit reluctantly or conditionally.

McLaren F1 boss Andreas Seidl said, "In principle, we support the direction of going for 22 races next year. There’s a discussion ongoing at the moment about what that means actually in terms of the number of components to be used and also the costs for a team like us, so that’s still ongoing.

"I think if you look at the bigger picture for us, it’s simply important now also to be a bit careful not to increase the number of races even further – for two reasons really.

"First of all, I think we really need to look after our people and make sure that we don’t ask for too much there, because I think if we go now for the next step of even more races we definitely have to change some things inside our organisations, for all teams.

"The second point, of course, we understand the commercial point of view but I think it‘s also important that we keep this exclusivity for each of the events, which doesn’t necessarily get better by adding more and more races."

His Red Bull counterpart Christian Horner explained, "The commercial rights holder has come to us to say, you know, that 22 races is a possibility for next year and would we support it.

"I think in principle, yes, is the answer, but it has to be combined with what other activities are going on in terms of: do we need to do as much in-season testing as we currently do; do we need to do as much pre-season testing?

"And I think if we are to introduce a 22nd race the majority of teams are taking penalties and using four engines anyway, so one would assume that it would make sense to increase the allocation on power units and components.

"From the next race there is going to be a whole raft of penalties coming through, and we’re only just halfway through the season, so introducing another race on top of that and expecting teams to get through on three engines and three sets of components is a bit of a tall ask."

Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto echoed his colleagues, "We are supportive on a 22nd race if that means some more revenues but we need to certainly be careful on the costs, the extra costs. If you look as well at 2021 at the moment we are discussing for 24 races but no extra engines, no extra units, so I think it’s only a path to 2021.

"Increasing the number of units for next year would be simply wrong, because it would mean, yes, more revenues, but then more costs, which would make no sense overall and so it should be on the power unit manufacturer to try to do an effort which is in the direction of 2021 to afford an extra race with the components we’ve got."

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff suggested the deal is already done when he told reporters, “We basically agreed to a 22nd race. We have to let Liberty do their job, which is to grow Formula 1 and attract investors.”

But was quick to add, "We should not change the technical regulations because of an extra race. That was the discussion we had. This should not be an opportunity to increase the number of components,”

The big teams seem to be well on board with the calendar extension, with smaller teams more concerned about the resources and sustainability of a packed schedule which 2020 looks set to be.

Williams deputy boss Claire Williams flagged her concerns, "From a financial perspective, we need to just make sure that it’s going to work, that it cover all our costs, and we are at that point now where we’d say yes it would. But I think most importantly from our side its consideration of our team personnel.

"I think pretty much they are pushed to the limit at the moment with what we are asking them to do with 21 races and the tests on top of that and then the work they have to do in the factory in between. In our team we don’t necessarily have the luxury of rotating staff in and out, we are at capacity on headcount."

Alfa Romeo's Beat Zehnder gave his team's stance on the matter, "I see it more from an organizational point of view. I’m not too concerned about PU elements; I’m more concerned about team members.

"As a small team, we’re at the limit with 21 races already. Any additional race will make it more difficult and we have to think about increasing the number of race team members and establishing a rotating system in a way."

Below is a provisional list of 21 races confirmed for 2020, notably absent from the list are the Spanish Grand Prix and the German Grand Prix:

https://www.grandprix247.com/2019/08/02/2020-formula-1-calendar-could-expand-to-22-races/