“It does drain people”: Liberty Media admits F1’s plan of hosting 24 races is exhausting

The 2023 F1 calendar features 23 races with the goal of hosting a record-breaking 24 races next year. While F1 has gained popularity across the globe, the series has finally admitted that the growing schedule is putting a strain on their staff.

F1 owner Liberty Media recently admitted that the grueling 24-race schedule will put extra demands on their staff. Regardless, the media corporation will continue with the planned schedule for the following season.

Gregory Maffei, President of Liberty Media, recently said:

"We have a calendar, some of which [for] historical reasons, [has] gotten to 24. It does drain people and there’s a lot of travel."

When the 24-race calendar for the 2023 season was announced, most of the teams weren't in favor of the new extended season. The calendar was also heavily criticized for the inefficient scheduling of the races with multiple trips across the Atlantic.

Formula 1 Stefano Domenicali(left) and Gregory Maffei (right)

F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali, however, said that achieving an ideal calendar wasn't possible due to the differing demands of the race promoters.

"Of course every single promoter has some reasons to have a certain weekend, a certain opportunity. We try to make sure that in the year after year we have a quite leaner approach, as much as we can, in order to minimise the movement. Because of course we have a very ambitious target with our carbon neutrality 2030, that has a big effect."

He added:

"We are a world championship, we are not doing it in the one single region, we’re moving it all around the world. So we take that very seriously."

Mercedes driver George Russell recently revealed that drivers are encouraging the organizers to schedule the races in an organized manner to reduce unnecessary travel.

Even with the cries from the teams and the drivers, Domenicali said that the goal for 2024 was to host 24 races.

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F1 CEO points out the key reason why races cannot be geographically grouped

While an F1 calendar with races geographically grouped together would be the ideal calendar, such a calendar would not be feasible economically. Stefano Domenicali explained that they strive to group races geographically, and he added that promoters wouldn't be happy with it.

He elaborated:

"We’re going to try to be as effective as we can in order to minimise the ups and downs from different regions, different countries. Of course, knowing that we cannot have, for example, four races in a row in the same continent because we’re going to have a problem commercially and for other reasons."

Domenicali added:

"But for sure there is a lot of attention in this subject in order to develop the calendar the best way that we can."

Even with these difficulties, F1 strives towards its goal of reducing its carbon emissions and reaching its ambitious goal of 'net zero by 2030'.