Tost: 22 races “the absolute limit” for mechanics and engineers

Alpha Tauri team principal Franz Tost has said that a Formula 1 calendar of 22 races is “the absolute limit” for team’s mechanics and engineers, and that any more would mean a rotation of staff.

Since 2015 the number of weekends of F1 action has increased from 19 to a record 22 for 2020, with owners Liberty Media introducing new locations to the sport, such as Vietnam and a proposed Miami GP, as well as the return of the French and Dutch GP’s.
 
But Tost believes that if any more were to be added to the current calendar it would have an effect on members of the team, leading to a rotation of staff.
 
"I think 22 is now the absolute limit," he said to RACER. "If we have more races in future then I think teams have to rotate people — mechanics, engineers. Otherwise it’s too much for them.

"No, we haven’t made changes [this year]. It’s just one race more than last year. The timeframe is nearly the same as last year.

"There’s one race more during the season, but we do not need to change people on a rotating basis.

"We start in March and the last race is at the end of November, there’s not a big change.

"In 2019 we started the season on the 17th of March and ended it on the 1st of December. And in 2020 we start on the 15th of March and the last race is on the 29th of November. There’s not a big difference."

Under their previous name of Toro Rosso, Tost and his team managed to finish sixth in the standings as well as achieving two podiums, Daniil Kvyat’s third in Germany and Pierre Gasly’s second in Brazil.

The Austrian feels that improvements still need to be made to make “another step forward”.

“We need to improve everywhere a little bit, just to make another step forward," he added.

"If all the departments improve their work and come up with better solutions, then in the end you have a good complete package together to be competitive and beat the others.”