AlphaTauri Team Principal Franz Tost believes Formula 1 is in danger of losing fans if it continues to add more races to its schedule.
The 2022 campaign is set to see a record-breaking 23 races across the season from March to November.
F1 has slowly been increasing the number of races that feature in a season over the last handful of years, with the current maximum allowed by the regulations being 25.
Concern has been raised by some over the workload this will place on permanent paddock members going forward.
However, Tost says that F1 is risking losing its “premium product” should more and more grands prix be injected into the schedule.
The Austrian believes that 18 to 20 races per season is the ideal number for the sport, and has warned against making further additions in the coming years.
“Last year, we were lucky because the races were very interesting, there were always fights, but we can’t expect that this will always be the case,” Tost said.
“So, for me 23 races is the absolute limit, not from the workload point of view, but because I am concerned that with such a high number of races, in the end it could cause people to lose interest in Formula 1.
“For me, the best number would be between 18 and 20 races because Formula 1 should be a premium product and we really should think about maybe reducing the number of races to keep it special.
“Personally, I am fine with 23 races or more, but this is not the question. The question is what’s best for the future of Formula 1.”
This year will see the addition of a new event in Miami, which has signed a long-term agreement with F1.
16-17 races seems ideal, the way it used to be. Any more is overkill and waters down the importance of each race. As of now one can easily skip several races and not miss much.
Lots of things could happen……
Why don’t we worry about what does happen?