Helio Castroneves calls for IndyCar calendar revamp

IndyCar squeezed 15 races into 26 weeks last year, and will run 19 races over 30 weeks in 2013, including double-headers in Detroit, Toronto and Houston.

The schedule also features a streak of seven race weekends in a row between the Indianapolis 500 in late May, and the Toronto double-header in mid-July.

While NASCAR teams are structured to accommodate long strings of successive races, Castroneves said that takes too much of a toll in IndyCar.

"I think [the off-season] is too long for everybody," Castroneves said. "I don't know the financial part of it, but when you have that kind of a long off-break, it's difficult to everyone. All of a sudden you have June, July and August, and a race every weekend.

"It's becoming rushed for everyone, including the mechanics. They have to turn over cars from street course to ovals. I think that's the toughest part of it.

"Sometimes mistakes end up happening because you don't have enough time. So I wish we would have at least started [the season] much earlier.

"I would rather start in February, have a bigger space in some of the areas, especially in the middle of the season, give a break to the mechanics.

"[For the] drivers it's actually not a problem. For the mechanics, it would be great. And coming back with those double-headers in those places that you have a break, that probably would make everybody fresh for those conditions."

The three-time Indy 500 winner is also convinced that a less compressed calendar would ultimately give the series more exposure.

"If you don't want to test [to save money], at least you have those spread-out races," he said. "You would have an opportunity to keep the ball rolling."

2013 IndyCar Series schedule

March 24     St Petersburg
April 7      Barber
April 21     Long Beach
May 5        Sao Paulo
May 26       Indianapolis 500
June 1       Detroit
June 2       Detroit
June 8       Texas
June 15      Milwaukee
June 23      Iowa
July 7       Pocono
July 13      Toronto
July 14      Toronto
August 4     Mid-Ohio
August 25    Sonoma
September 1  Baltimore
October 5    Houston
October 6    Houston
October 19   Fontana