Formula One team bosses expressed concern on Saturday about the risk of burnout to mechanics when the calendar expands to 19 races next year without an August break. “I think the absence of the August break in the calendar next year is very tough. It really is tough on the mechanics,” said McLaren executive Martin Whitmarsh at the British Grand Prix. “It worries me how hard it is going to be on the teams but I think that's a management challenge; how we're going to deal with that and make sure we don't burn people out during the course of the season,” he added. The 2009 provisional calendar, issued last week, has the Turkish Grand Prix on Aug. 9 followed by the European Grand Prix in Valencia on Aug. 23. This year, with 18 races, there is a gap between Hungary on Aug. 3 and Valencia on Aug. 24. Abu Dhabi will make its debut next year as the closing event in November after four other long-haul races in succession in Singapore, Japan, China and Brazil. All of the 10 teams are based in Europe, with the majority in Britain. “The August break was introduced as a means of genuinely giving everyone a rest in the middle of tough seasons,” said Honda team principal Ross Brawn. “Now we want to expand the number of races and not do that (have the break), so we end up having to look at reserve squads and back-up mechanics and groups of people who can take over so the other guys can get a rest,” he added. “Without doing that, to have a whole race team that can't take a holiday from what would effectively be February until November is not easy.” Williams founder and co-owner Frank Williams said the extra race would be good for sponsorship revenue but there would be added costs from having to take on more mechanics. Formula One has only once before had 19 races, in 2005, but there has been talk of ultimately expanding to a 20-round calendar now that testing has been reduced significantly. – Reuters __
