Is the calendar getting too long?

Andrea_Moda_Rules

Podium Finisher
In 2011 there will a record 20 races and with contracts signed already that looks to expand in the future.Talking to Welt Online (German News Site) Max Mosley has has said that 20 races this year is too much.

I was wondering what what people here think about the amount of Races there are going to be this season, Weather its too many? what should the limit be? and perhaps even if F1 should of stuck with 16 races once a fortnight.

Me personally, I think 20 is the absoulte limit, Now the season will be streching towards the end of Nov, any more races and it the length of a season would start becoming ridiculous.
German

Hopefully this works...
Translated into English
 
My heart wants a Formula One race every weekend, 52 weeks a year just as long as they don't clash with the 52 MotoGPs. However my head tells me that this would be a recipe for disaster on so many levels as to be unthinkable even in dreams... :nah:

I am pretty sure that adding more races to the calender has had a dramatic impact on testing and that this is having the disastrous effect of depriving young drivers essential experience. I therefore could only sanction more races if they were to bring back the Friday testing for the third driver.
 
I think there's space in the calender for 20 races but I wish they would get rid of the mid-season break. I understand there is a of travelling for the teams, long hours etc, etc so perhaps I'm just being selfish. Back in the day though (oh god I'm getting soooo old) as well as the F1 season there were non-championship races and the drivers took part in other series as well. Didn't Jim Clark win the F1 championship, British Touring Car Championship as well as taking part in the Indy 500 and the RAC rally?
 
It would be great to see these guys contesting all sorts of different championships in all sorts of cars. Just because the F1 engineers get shagged out doesn't mean we shouldn't get our moneys worth out of these super fit driving athletes. :thumbsup:

It's all about insurance and sueage.
 
I'd be happy with 20 races, maybe push to 22?

But I would get rid of the Summer break too, if anything have 2 shorter breaks in late Spring & Autumn. I'd also have within this 3 weekends testing @ agreed tracks Bahrain, Barca & A N Other.

I believe Bernie would have 24 if not more if he could it's just the costs and teams that probably push this back.

Hey NASCAR have 36 races, and some of these are 3 to 4 hours long, I'd love to have a F1 race almost every weekend, but fear it would be a little Hollywood like NASCAR is.
 
Depends on the tracks and on track action.

20 tracks like Canada would be fun, but the way things are, it's gonna be more boring Tilkedromes or Tilkedromed tracks (think the current ultra boring Hockenheim).
 
I remeber somthing posted elsewhere, what if we have say, Australlia, Malaysia, China back-to-back, then a two week break. Then three more races near each other back-to-back. This would solve the pointless flying all over the place that the team currently do.
 
snowy said:
I therefore could only sanction more races if they were to bring back the Friday testing for the third driver.

Just to take that idea further, MotoGP hire there GP tracks out on a monday for a test seassion. I think F1 should do the same through out the season, lets say a mondy Test very quater of a season, say you from 10:00 till 17:00 to test and just let the teams do what they want, runs as many cars they like and test who they like.

FB said:
I think there's space in the calender for 20 races but I wish they would get rid of the mid-season break. I understand there is a of travelling for the teams, long hours etc, etc so perhaps I'm just being selfish. Back in the day though (oh god I'm getting soooo old) as well as the F1 season there were non-championship races and the drivers took part in other series as well. Didn't Jim Clark win the F1 championship, British Touring Car Championship as well as taking part in the Indy 500 and the RAC rally?

Didn't fully say why i think 20 is the abosoulte limit in my OP, but i think you can have too much of a good thing. As well i think the logisitics and cost of it may be too much, But personally i think there should be a break, with Le Mans 24 hours planted right in the middle of it. Know a couple of drivers have expressed a desire to race in it, but couldn't due to F1. Like you i would love too see drivers take part in other events, Im too young for the 'good ole days' seen a couple of F1 drivers try ralling though, would love to see drivers try LeMans, Indy n stuff.
 
Personally, I think we have already gone beyond the optimal number of races. I liked it when the F1 calendar was only 10 or 12 races and the drivers participated in other series on the no-F1 weekends. Drivers would do a Grand Prix one week, race sports cars (at Spa, or Nurburgring or Brands) the next, then a Can-Am (at the likes of St. Jovite), and then another F1 race. Drivers really got to display their versatility back then.

The length of the current season (and, no doubt, contractual stipulations) precludes the current drivers from showing their skills in any other series. I think the world of motorsports is a bit diminished because of this.
 
I think about 16 races is the optimum. The season is then about 32-36 weeks long (assuming mostly 2 week intervals between races). Leaves 20 weeks for developing the car for the next season.
 
They can have more races if they group countries together to ease travel

eg.

Bahrain, Abu Dhabi
USA, Canada, Brazil
China, Japan, Korea
Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, India
Turkey, Russia

etc.
 
I liked 16 races. 18 is ok at a push, but I worry about 20 or more.

Apart from the strain on the crews, as viewers / supporters it is possible to have too much of a good thing. The anticipation of, and impatience for, a new season is an integral part of the enjoyment (as well as reflecting on the season just past). Too many races would risk watering down the excitement.
And fans have other lives too; as a family man, I find that to spend several hours watching a Grand Prix, along with practice and qualifying, every fortnight through a reasonably long season is acceptable. More races and it begins to get difficult to justify, which leaves me with the options of either being selfish or missing races, neither of which I like.
 
More racing and more action is great IMO, as long as it doesn't detract from it.. if that makes any sense. The teams at some weekends seemed to be struggling. Id say pretty much every BBC Forum session you could see the entire outfits disassembling round them in a mad panic, 30mins after the race.

Ill echo others though and say the biggest hurdle IMO is the travelling and it is daft for the teams, media, FIA etc to fly what, 8 times round the world each per year is it??? group the dam locations for goodness sake.

Car development is now also part of the race weekend so i like the idea of the FIA bearing this in mind somehow..
 
The more races, mathematically speaking the less chance there is of the championship going down to the final race, other things being equal.

I felt that this season we may have got close to reaching saturation point (for me, at least). I would happily see the winter break shortened if it meant I got a few summer weekends back.

I wonder about the old calendars, when races in South Africa would be in January, and teams would use the previous year's machines and save their new cars until the start of the European season. Could you have a few southern hemisphere races clustered together in Jan/Feb, then a bigger gap before the European season in, say, late April - at which any rule changes would come into effect?
 
I think 20 is about the maximum from my point of view or you risk a dilution of the sport (ha!) with more rubbish tracks on the calendar (probably in a desert somewhere) that will provide dull races for the VIPs to be seen at.
 
I think that 20 races is probably 4 too many. It will drive up costs even beyond the astronomical level they are at right now. They will force teams to continue developing the current seasons cars much further into the season, ensuring that the teams performance the next year will suffer. Or teams will abandon development relatively earlier in the season to begin developing the next season's car. Neither alternative will do anything good for "the show".

The need for additional money will further separate the "haves" from the "have less". It will also make it even harder to entice new teams into the formula, as their "up front" money will undoubtedly have to be greater than is now the case.
 
20 is the absolute most I reckon, as long as they halve the mid season break, that is too long really, ideally it should be every 2 weeks, every week is too often and 3/4 is too much
 
MCLS said:
20 is the absolute most I reckon, as long as they halve the mid season break, that is too long really, ideally it should be every 2 weeks, every week is too often and 3/4 is too much

Think they have 3 or 4 back to back weekends to reduce travel costs don't they? I'm happy with 20.
 
LifeW12 said:
Just get rid of all the races that have no spectators

Sadly that wouldn't work as they would just replace them with more races that have no spectators.

For me, 20 is the absolute max. I think 18 was about the right number but so long as there are venues that are prepared to pay a kings ransom to host an F1 race there will always be pressure on the calendar to expand.
 
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