Britain’s Lando Norris has expressed fears that the 2021 Formula One season may exert a heavy toll on the mental health of its teams’ personnel. With Naomi Osaka drawing attention to mental-health issues around professional sport, Norris voiced his concern before this weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix, a meeting that forms part of the longest season in F1 history. The McLaren driver is enjoying a hugely competitive season and is currently third in the drivers’ championship. He and McLaren may be riding high but Norris was moved to highlight his disquiet over the demands of a 23-race season by Osaka’s withdrawal from the French Open. Last year the 21-year-old revealed that he had hidden his struggles with anxiety and nerves during his debut F1 season in 2019 and that he sought help to deal with it. “We don’t talk about mental health as much as we should – and we really should,” said Norris, echoing Lewis Hamilton’s remarks on Thursday praising Osaka for bringing the issue to the fore. “I am sorry she is going through such things,” he said. “I have the utmost respect for her in coming out and saying these things and taking the action she has, putting herself first which is most important. I feel like I did struggle a lot but I am better now, I am in a much better place than I was.” On Friday the Singapore GP was cancelled because of coronavirus restrictions but F1 is confident it has options to replace it. The sport still hopes, Covid-permitting, to hold 23 races, presenting a punishing schedule. There are currently four triple-headers, including three sets with only one week off between each, amounting to nine meetings in 11 weeks. Norris had concerns for engineers and mechanics who work long hours across a race week, believing that F1 may be asking too much of its personnel. “F1 are doing more and more and they are going down the right path but 23 races is not a help toward that,” he said. “23 races is tough. The amount of racing is the only thing which can start to impact and take a toll on the team because they don’t get to see their families much especially with Covid and isolation. For me that is one of the biggest things.” Race-hosting fees are one of the three biggest sources of income in F1 and after the season was curtailed last year with the consequent loss of revenue, the sport wanted to maximise the returns from this season. F1’s first triple-header took place in 2018 and was not received well by the teams, the consensus being that it would not be repeated. Last year triple headers were accepted as the only way to complete the 17-race season but the challenge of 2021 is far harder. The teams are considering having to rotate personnel to ensure they have sufficient time off but that comes with an attendant increase in costs. Team bosses have expressed concern over the strain on their crews, as has Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. “In the end, the mechanics are the ones who are going to suffer a bit,” he said. “While the big bosses in Formula One arrive later and leave earlier, so of course there it doesn’t really change much.” McLaren have a partnership with the mental health charity Mind and Norris believes they have made great strides in creating support structures. “As a team there is a lot in place now,” he said. “Not just for us as drivers but for the mechanics, the engineers because they are away from their families a lot. We do a lot with them in order for anyone in the team to come forward and speak to whoever they need to, not thinking they have to stay quiet.” On the track in Baku, Mercedes struggled during practice. Verstappen, who leads Hamilton by four points in the world championship, headed the timesheets in first practice and his teammate Sergio Pérez was on top in the afternoon. Hamilton however was left floundering off the pace. He was 11th in FP2, over one second down with the car lacking grip, potentially struggling with tyre temperatures as they had in Monaco. The world champion had to hope his team could find a solution before qualifying on Saturday. “We’re definitely quite a chunk down,” he said. “I think everyone will be scratching their heads and looking into the data to try and figure out how we can improve.”