McLaren’s sporting director Sam Michael has said that F1 teams could consider employing support crews if the 2014 calendar is stretched to 22 races.
A provisional calendar for next year was released recently by the FIA, with Russia and New Jersey debuting alongside returns for Austria and Mexico.
Michael doesn’t see the expanded calendar being a problem but does expect changes to be made.
He said during a Vodafone phone-in: "I guess anything is possible; we just need to adapt if that is what is required.
"We can do a double-header, so once you’ve done that you can do a triple-header in terms of logistics and moving freight.
"So equipment wise you can be covered, but equipment and planes don’t get tired; people do. It means you have to perhaps consider a support crew who would come and set up at a grand prix."
He continued: "At the moment you can use your race crew to do a lot of the set-up of garages and things. If you get into triple headers you may have to use a handful of people to go out and set up a structure before the race team arrives. You may eventually get to the point where you have separate crews, to crew or even engineer the cars, but I’m not sure we’re quite at that point yet."
Michael believes that the financial benefits of the expanded calendar far outweigh the additional staffing and logistical costs: "I’m not concerned, it’s a matter of F1 adapting and adjusting to whatever the business needs are.
"F1 is all about change. I’ve been through plenty of examples previously in my F1 career where I’ve thought ‘there is no way they can do that’, and they do.
"From a human point it’s where you put all your energy in to make sure people are fit and healthy and covered properly – not just to cope with jet lag and do and a normal 16-18 hour day, but also in the case of the pit crew they have an athletic job to do."
He added: "I think that the cost of using people from McLaren – they’re not necessarily additional employees – would be marginal compared to the income of additional grands prix. F1 is about achieving things that are not normally possible, and this is far from the worst challenge we have had."
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| (c) Octane Photographic |
A provisional calendar for next year was released recently by the FIA, with Russia and New Jersey debuting alongside returns for Austria and Mexico.
Michael doesn’t see the expanded calendar being a problem but does expect changes to be made.
He said during a Vodafone phone-in: "I guess anything is possible; we just need to adapt if that is what is required.
"We can do a double-header, so once you’ve done that you can do a triple-header in terms of logistics and moving freight.
"So equipment wise you can be covered, but equipment and planes don’t get tired; people do. It means you have to perhaps consider a support crew who would come and set up at a grand prix."
He continued: "At the moment you can use your race crew to do a lot of the set-up of garages and things. If you get into triple headers you may have to use a handful of people to go out and set up a structure before the race team arrives. You may eventually get to the point where you have separate crews, to crew or even engineer the cars, but I’m not sure we’re quite at that point yet."
Michael believes that the financial benefits of the expanded calendar far outweigh the additional staffing and logistical costs: "I’m not concerned, it’s a matter of F1 adapting and adjusting to whatever the business needs are.
"F1 is all about change. I’ve been through plenty of examples previously in my F1 career where I’ve thought ‘there is no way they can do that’, and they do.
"From a human point it’s where you put all your energy in to make sure people are fit and healthy and covered properly – not just to cope with jet lag and do and a normal 16-18 hour day, but also in the case of the pit crew they have an athletic job to do."
He added: "I think that the cost of using people from McLaren – they’re not necessarily additional employees – would be marginal compared to the income of additional grands prix. F1 is about achieving things that are not normally possible, and this is far from the worst challenge we have had."
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