McLaren are unhappy with the 2022 F1 schedule, particularly the jam-packed triple headers that will be commonplace in there.
The 2021 season drew criticism for having a record 22 races. While 22 races is still manageable, what was troublesome was the triple-header concept. The business end of the season saw two triple headers in a row, first in the USA, Mexico and Brazil, and then in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
The 2022 calendar will have two more triple-headers back-to-back, which means at one point there will be six races in seven weeks. A European triple-header of Belgium-Netherlands-Italy will be followed by a gruelling East Asia trip to Russia, Singapore and Japan with only one weekend off in the middle.
Many teams have expressed their annoyance with the extra races, with the Woking team joining the club now. McLaren stated that they were unhappy with the 2022 schedule, saying that the logistics would be an absolute nightmare to navigate.
As quoted by Planet F1, driver Daniel Ricciardo’s performance coach Michael Italiano said, “There’s been a bit of venting in the garage about next year.
“I think there are three triple-headers and only three races that are on their own – the rest are double-headers. We start in February but finish in mid-November, so that’s earlier, but we are still doing one extra race. They have condensed the season.”
How to cope
“There’s one triple-header where we go from Singapore to Russia to Japan, which will be absolutely crazy from a logistics and recovery point of view,” he continued.
“It’s exciting because the sport is growing so rapidly, but from a drivers’ perspective it’s becoming a lot more difficult physically and mentally based on the calendar F1 keep dishing out.”
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