Haas wants F1 to avoid triple-headers in future

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner has urged Formula 1 to assess the benefits of hosting triple-headers and feels they should be avoided in the future if there are no outstanding gains in terms of revenue or fan interest.

F1 has completed its first-ever run of three consecutive races which started at the French Grand Prix followed a week later by the Austrian Grand Prix before concluding at the British Grand Prix this weekend.

While Steiner was pleased to see Haas manage the challenge successfully from a logistical and team management approach he has been concerned about the impact on the human resources within his team.

Consequently, he’s eager to see F1 measure the value of running three consecutive races before deciding to do another in the future.

“We should try to avoid this [triple-headers],” Steiner said at Silverstone. “It’s not only that the teams are challenged with it but we need to also see what the fans see of it, if there is not a saturation factor coming in where nobody is watching a third race in a row every Sunday, you are just getting over-raced basically.

“We need to see the figures as well after this weekend, to see if its good or bad for Formula 1. Maybe its the same but something will come out.

“We need to be careful that we don’t over stress it. We can do anything. We can do four or five in a row but do we really want to do that? Is it worthwhile? That we will have to see. There needs to be something positive out of it and what I am indicating is let’s see what is coming out the races, if there are any positives or if its the same or opposites, why would we do it?”

Steiner did concede the intensity of the workload moving from race to race did put a strain on his team members but was impressed by how they reacted to it.

“It’s the intensity to keep on going,” he said. “Sometimes people want to go home and see their family, if you have a family and if you are 30-years-old and you have children you want to see them sometimes and if you keep on working and working.

“There are some people that don’t care about that but I think the majority of people have a family. That’s something you try to have and it’s put a strain on it.”

F1 is eager to avoid a triple-header on the 2019 race calendar which is likely to be navigated with the German GP dropping off the schedule due to Hockenheim’s current alternate year hosting deal. With one race fewer it should allow organisers to spread out the races between June and July.