Carlos Sainz chose a quiet moment in Austin to say out loud what sits uneasily inside Formula 1’s business plan. The Spaniard, who serves as a director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, told reporters that the march toward a 24-race calendar is thinning the audience even as it fattens the schedule.

“When maybe you get so many races in a row, the sport can maybe feel a bit like a league, like Premier League rather than Champions League,” he told reporters at the Circuit of the Americas, as quoted by PlanetF1.

Sainz said he grew up watching 16- or 18-race seasons and used to miss Formula 1 between weekends. The sheer volume today, he argued, is working against the sport, with fans paying “a bit less attention to the matches or to the races”, he told RaceFans.

That is the GPDA director talking, not a disgruntled passer-by. Sainz said the drivers’ body has been informed that 24 or 25 rounds is the limit the championship is willing to go for. The 2026 calendar as published by RaceFans runs to 23 Grands Prix, with Imola’s Emilia-Romagna round dropped after 2025 and Spain gaining a second race.

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The staff pay more than the drivers

The sharper point in his remarks concerned the people who travel for a living. Drivers fly in and out; team members do not. Sainz said staff are left with only three to five days at home a month during the closing stretch, as the paddock runs through three triple-headers across nine events in eleven weeks, taking the season through Austin, Mexico City, São Paulo, Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi, which closes the year on 6 December.

“It’s the people in the teams that get it on the tougher end, rather than the drivers,” Sainz said, per PlanetF1.

Liberty is holding at 24

The warning lands on a Liberty Media that is standing firm. F1 chief executive Stefano Domenicali has said 24 is “the right balance” and the number the series should target to stay stable for a long time.

The current Concorde Agreement, which governs the commercial side of the sport, caps the schedule at 24 races, with provision for one more if the teams agree. Six countries are reportedly in line for a slot should the limit ever be pushed higher.

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The next race is the Mexico City Grand Prix at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez on Sunday 1 November.

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