Steiner wants shorter weekends, not fewer races

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Guenther Steiner wants shorter weekends rather than fewer races

Guenther Steiner wants shorter weekends rather than fewer races

Guenther Steiner says he would support shorter race weekends, revealing he would prefer that to fewer grands prix.

This year’s calendar will once again see Formula 1 head to 21 venues while next season it could increase to 23.

Not only does Vietnam have a contract for 2020 but Miami could still slot in as well.

Not everyone in F1 is in favour of extending the calendar with Lewis Hamilton saying he will quit the sport if it reaches 25 grands prix.

“I’m someone that really likes racing, but the season is long. It’s a long, long season, it’s a long, long commitment for all of us,” he said last year.

He added: “I’m not going to be here when it gets to 25, that’s for sure.”

Steiner’s solution to that is to have shorter race weekends, dropping Thursday from the programme and having just one practice on a Friday afternoon.

“Over 23 [races] I think it gets difficult,” the Haas team boss told RaceFans.net.

“But what I would look into it is maybe shorten the weekend, instead of coming here on Thursday… coming in on Friday.

“Just do one long session on Friday afternoon.

“I understand that the promoter want to have cars on track on Friday but we could do that all on the Friday afternoon.

“I would more go with something like this than to reduce the races.”

Liberty Media are looking at ways to shake up Formula 1 come 2021 with shorter race weekends on the cards. According to reports, the F1 owners are hoping that less practice time means less predictable races.