Triple-headers "a necessity" in 23-race schedule - Steiner

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner has conceded triple-headers are "a necessity" in order to make a 23-race Formula 1 calendar work.

This season's schedule featured four triple-headers, commencing with nine races in 11 weeks that were accepted within F1 because of the unusual circumstances of the year.

Despite recent calls from several team bosses to avoid the possibility of such a run in the future, the provisional 2021 schedule features two back-to-back triple-headers after the August summer break.

“I think the triple-headers are by no means ideal, but I think they are a necessity if you want to do 23 races because we also want to have a few weeks off in August," said Steiner.

"If you want to do that, we just have to live with the downside of doing the triple-headers."

With such an intensive calendar, several teams have suggested they may need to rotate pit crews, but Steiner feels improved time management is the key to maintaining morale.

“I think what we need to manage the people is by giving them time off when we are not racing, so basically - and some teams do already - the race team doesn’t come into the factory," added Steiner.

“Something like this we need to start thinking about. How can we minimise people going to factories because they are not really needed there anymore because the cars fly from one place to the other anyway?

“So it’s a little bit of reshuffling of the people we have and maybe they work more intensively for a short period of time and then they have a more intense time off, but I don’t have all the answers."

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