Formula 1 on brink of "saturation factor" - Steiner

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner has warned Formula 1 it could be reaching its "saturation factor" with a record-breaking 23-race calendar in 2021.

That figure includes a brutal second half of the campaign of 11 races in 15 weeks, comprising two triple-headers and two double-headers on three different continents.

While concerns have been raised as to the demands of such a schedule on the well-being of team personnel, Steiner has also suggested there might now be too much of the sport for the fans to consume.

“I believe there is a saturation factor of anything and I don’t know where that one lies [for F1], for the people, for how much they want to consume," said Steiner.

“It’s also difficult to get more out of, say, 16 races and keep the exclusivity. It’s not as easy as saying ‘Okay, let’s go to people [and say] this is exclusive and you pay me more’.

"That normally doesn’t work as well because not everybody wants to be exclusive this much, to pay more."

Despite his reservations, Steiner feels next season should serve as experimental to see if there is the demand for such a volume of racing.

“I think this is the promoters job, to find out when is the saturation factor, how we can get the most out of it for us and for the people that watch it because I think that goes hand in hand," added Steiner.

“I’m not in the promotion world, so they will look at it and I think, for them, it is better to have more races and they are convinced that the people are not saturated yet.

“So let’s see how it works next year. It’s a good thing to try, but we are still living in a very strange world with this corona, so I don’t think we can judge it just with what we see today.”

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