Szafnauer: Effects of F1 triple-header worse than feared

Force India chief operating officer Otmar Szafnauer does not expect the 2019 Formula 1 calendar to feature a triple-header, saying its impact on team personnel has been worse than anticipated over the past three weeks.

Sunday’s British Grand Prix will cap off the first run of three straight race weekends in F1 history following rounds in France and Austria as part of the record-equalling 21-race schedule in 2018.

Teams had warned of the logistical and physical challenge the triple-header would pose, but Szafnauer admitted he had not expected it to be as tough as it ultimately turned out to be.

“I think in 2019, from everything I understand, it will have about the same amount of races,” Szafnauer said.

“The significant difference that I was told recently was that we won’t have a triple header. We’ll have some back to backs, but not three in a row like we did this year. It’s the first one that we’ve ever had, and it’s a bit tiring on the guys to go from one to the other to the other.

“I can see it in the mechanics and the service personnel there. They’re pretty much exhausted. I didn’t anticipate that it would be this bad.

“People told me beforehand that it was going to be very difficult, but I just thought ‘yeah, sure’. But it really is.

“The people making the calendar have taken that into consideration for next year, but the amount of races should stay the same.”

Szafnauer estimated that around one-quarter of the Force India team had not been able to spend any time at home between the races over the past three weeks.

“All the people who transport this motorhome around for example, they don’t go home. The people who service the food, they don’t go home,” Szafnauer said.

“There’s about 70, and that’s a significant number for us. We’re only 400 people, so it’s almost a quarter of the people who experience that extra load. It’s quite a bit.”

Force India team owner Vijay Mallya added that while an expanded schedule in the future would be challenging for teams, it would be acceptable so long as their revenues increase accordingly to make it viable.

“If they want to increase it beyond 21, they have to compensate us, because we would need 1.5 times the number of people in order to give people time off etc. and cope with anything more than 21 races,” Mallya said.

“So whether there are additional costs of participating, logically, we need to get paid by the Formula 1 Group.”