F1 teams at breaking point with 20 races

McLaren team chief Martin Whitmarsh believes Formula One's expansion to a record 20 races in 2012 will take teams to the limits of their ability to tolerate the stresses and strains of the sport. Whitmarsh thinks several teams are close to creating 'alternate' pit crews to enable them to survive next year's torrid schedule of events around the world from mid-March to late November. Races will take place in Australia, South-East Asia, the Middle East, North America, South America, the Asian Pacific rim, India and Europe with little respite apart from a European summer break in August. Whitmarsh said: "Twenty races and a lot of 'flyaways' is pretty hard on the team and we're at the tipping point. We shouldn't have any more than 20." Although some doubts remain about the races scheduled for Bahrain, Korea and the United States (a new race to take place at Austin in Texas), Whitmarsh said he and other team bosses are planning for and expecting a 20-race calendar. "We're getting close to the point where you do need to alternate crews, like in NASCAR," he said. "Obviously, the world championship is important, but every grand prix as a stand-alone event is very special too." Whitmarsh, who is chairman of the Formula One Teams' Association (FOTA), added that he believed the crammed schedule was created to generate more and more money for the sport. "I know there is always the chase for money, but 20 (races) is a lot and we're right on the limit of what we should be. "I think we can cope with it (next year) but it is very hard because by the time the team strips down and returns after Brazil (this season's final race, on November 27) then it will already be December. "In January those same guys will be building the car and then in February testing it -- and then they're into a flog around the world. It's an incredibly difficult, challenging job for the mechanics, technicians and engineers." The inaugural 1950 Formula One world championship consisted of only seven races, but has grown steadily. For several years, it was made of around 11 races in Europe and five beyond but in the last decade further expansion - and the globalisation of sport and media - have seen it grow again to 18 or 19 events. It became a 19-race season for the first time in 2005. The 2009 world champion Briton Jenson Button, of McLaren, said the intense and crowded season was not a burden for the drivers. "We love racing, and for us, that's what we're here for. For us, the amount of races doesn't matter, but you have to think about the guys who work non-stop -- the mechanics and the engineers. "It is a massive difference with regard to the hours they have to do over a race weekend -- and it's those guys that are definitely on the limit, not us." This year's season, dominated by the REd Bull team and German driver Sebastian Vettel, has two races remaining in Abu Dhabi next weekend (Nov 13) and in Brazil on November 27.