Charles Leclerc is unhappy with the increased workload.

      For the second year the Formula 1 season consists of 24 rounds, and their number will not be reduced. On the contrary, the burden on championship participants can only increase, since the issue of expanding the number of Saturday sprints is already being discussed.

      But if it were limited to just the races: the more rounds there are, the more corporate events, meetings with sponsors and fans — although often that’s the same thing — various promotional activities, photo shoots, not to mention dealing with the press. Of course, drivers receive huge fees, but even they are beginning to grumble, and perhaps Charles Leclerc expressed the general sentiment.

      “We’ve reached the point where you have to wonder whether all this is affecting results. After all, we are athletes and we need rest too,” the Ferrari driver said in Singapore. “We need to find some balance. Obviously we couldn’t compete in Formula 1 without sponsor support, so we have to give something back for that. But it’s just a bit more than usual this season.”

      Alex Albon, who races for Williams, agrees: “Obviously different teams have different demands in terms of the number of corporate events, and involvement in them varies too. But we drivers are always fighting to have more free time.

      I think these kinds of issues are felt even more this season than in previous years. So we always try to reduce the number of days scheduled for sponsor meetings. I think I can speak for any one of us on that.”

      Of course, the total number of working days that make up drivers’ annual schedules must also include the time they spend traveling from one circuit to another. And when Leclerc says that drivers need to rest too, he is generally right, because after all the stresses time is needed to recover strength, both physical and mental. Despite the hardening they get over the course of their careers, they need breaks too.

      However, Ferrari’s poor results this season are still not connected to the increased volume of this “off-track” workload, but to the SF-25’s lack of competitiveness, mistakes by the team, and mistakes by the drivers as well.