Steiner wants longer F1 calendar to be better organised

Guenther Steiner, Haas F1 team principal

Haas F1 Team principal Guenther Steiner has reiterated that he's open to more races on the Formula 1 calendar.

Since Liberty Media's takeover of the sport, it's been suggested that future seasons could consist of 25 or more races. That compares to 20 in 2017.

However, for that to happen Steiner wants the schedule to be organised more logically. He wants to see races in the same region grouped together to cut down on teams crossing back and forth across the globe.

"I’m not opposed to a few more races," Steiner said this week. "What I wish is that the races are more bundled.

He said he wanted to ensure that teams "are not going back and forth to Asia, where you go back for one week and then back the next."

How big these areas were - and whether a region can support more than one Grand Prix in quick succession - was another question.

"How big the area you group together, I don’t really know," he shrugged.

Haas open to 25-race plans, if 'commercially viable'

"It needs to be studied of how many Formula 1 races an area can take. For instance, I think it would be difficult to have a race in Abu Dhabi and then another one the next week in Bahrain. We are very close together there.

"But a few more races, if it is well organised, will not be that much more time away for the teams," he insisted. "In general, I have nothing against getting up to 25 races."

Steiner conceded that a longer season might mean that teams need more personnel to spread the load.

"We just need to plan and maybe relieve some people," he said. "Maybe not all the people will want to do 25 events, but I think it can all be managed.

"If we do it cleverly, it is not so much more," he insisted. "For sure, there is more cost involved because you travel more. You need more car parts because you run more.

"But, in general, if we’ve got enough time to get prepared properly, we always find a way to make things work."

Asked whether there was any particular country he would like to see added to the Formula 1 calendar, Steiner replied: "A race in South Africa would be nice!"

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.