George Russell gets support over his calls for F1 bans as pressure ramped up
Sergio Perez has backed George Russell’s calls for action after staff were left exhausted at the end of the 2023 calendar. The sport visited 22 different venues this season, and next year that number will increase to a record-breaking 24.
Russell had previously called for team members to be banned from attending every single race in a season, forcing teams to rotate the staff that they send to different race weekends. This would allow for some rest and recuperation time during busy spells on the calendar.
The paddock was left visibly exhausted during the final race of the year in Abu Dhabi and as a result, an event that is usually an eye-catching, lavish season finale was relatively understated as drivers and teams made clear their intention to simply get through the weekend.
2023’s calendar ended with five races in the space of six weekends and if this wasn’t enough of a challenge for the paddock, the final two races were based in almost polar opposite time zones in Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi.
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Russell made his feelings clear after the weekend, stating: “People [are] in the engineers’ office just really struggling with the constant timezone shifts, the body not knowing where you are, eating at different times, staying in different hotels, different environments, different climates. The body’s getting confused.
“I think there are talks for next year about personnel being regulated that they can’t do every single race. I think that would be a good thing. I don’t think it’s sustainable to 4,000 people, I think to do 24 races a season. Especially when you see how geographically [diverse the calendar is], it still doesn’t make a huge amount of sense.”
These comments have now been backed up by Perez, who has suggested that repeating such a packed schedule on an annual basis could impact the longevity of the careers of both drivers and team personnel.
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“Yeah, surely,” he said. “But obviously it’s something that we’re going to raise it up to try and see what can be done. Probably now it’s late for next year but for the year after to really try to maximise it. I don’t remember seeing people so exhausted in the last race.
“I think it’s something that we’ve got to be taking very seriously because it’s important for the sport. For the drivers, too. To obviously keep having these long careers that we’ve seen from the staff, from the mechanics… we want them to have very long careers as well. So I think it’s something we must consider.”
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