Why an F1 summer break became essential

Some of you might well be asking, "Why on Earth does F1 need a summer break?", frustrated that you've got another agonising wait until the next grand prix. Here's why: we're all knackered!

I've been in this game for quite a few years now and it never used to be like this. There were no such thing as summer holidays in F1 and I'm sure I can hear some of you muttering under your breath, "So why now?".

Lots has changed in the world of grand prix racing and the demands on its teams over recent years. And whether you think it's better or worse, the role as mechanics and engineers has become less 'seasonal' and more 'all year round'.

Specific test teams used to take care of all the winter running in F1 © LAT

When I first started out as a cheeky young race team new boy, the season began in late March, after our dedicated test teams had spent the entire winter running around Spain, Italy and France preparing the new cars for the first race.

The race teams would pop out for the final test, do a bit of pitstop practice and come back to turn the cars around for Melbourne. The test team would, at that point, get some respite after their gruelling pre-season as we headed off for the first three or four races.

For the race team crews, GP weekends tended to come in a relatively manageable schedule of more or less fortnightly gaps, meaning we might even get to grab a few days on a beach here and there at some of the more popular locations, before heading on to the next one for when the cars arrived.

We worked bloody hard, don't get me wrong. The hours were long when we were at work, there was certainly no such thing as a 'curfew' or even much in the way of health and safety back then. But the down time in between races seemed more structured, so we knew what we were doing.

If we finished preparing the cars in the factory by Friday, a week ahead of the race, we'd load them up into the trucks and go home until we had to head to the airport the following Wednesday.

By mid October it was all over and we were gallivanting around Bali or Phuket after the Japanese GP, enjoying ourselves and looking forward to a long winter break before returning in the new year to think about doing it all again.

The F1 crews have been on a non-stop schedule since December © LAT

That kind of work/life balance, if you can call it that, seems to be a distant memory today.

The season's gone from 16 or 17 races to 20 (and potentially beyond) and now stretches between early March and late November. Not only that, but with test teams a thing of the past, the race team crews are needed from December onwards to prepare for and then do any pre-season testing.

Similarly for any mid-season tests, the same guys and girls you see doing pitstops on a Sunday are staying out to run the cars at the mid-week test days after certain races, instead of being able to go home.

Teams have found ways to transport the cars to races later, meaning they can be worked on up until the last minute in the factory. Because we can work on them longer, we do, and that means less time at home for the crews.

More races, fewer people, more long-haul events, less turnaround time between them, more complicated cars, and reduced team budgets in many cases. All things that mean the mid-season enforced shutdown comes as welcome relief.

Having said that, we all approach it from different perspectives depending on how the first half of the season went for each of us.

If it's all too clear you've got a dog of a car and little hope of improving it, this break can't come soon enough, but trying to re-motivate yourself afterwards can be very tough. I've been there before.

If you've ended part one on a high like the guys at Ferrari did at the weekend and rekindled glimmers of hope, then that's motivation enough to get straight back into it all in Belgium in a few weeks' time.

In-form teams will be keen to get back to action at Spa © LAT

The break gives the team some time to rest and recuperate, but also to hone plans for the next attack and that belief that the title's not over yet will be there for that entire period. It can be a really positive energy around the factory when the doors reopen.

Whatever state your season's in at this point, the downtime's crucial in today's F1. We used to scoff at talk of 'fatigue' and 'burnout' a few years ago, when the macho consensus was you weren't a 'real man' unless you'd done at least three all-nighters in a week.

Now though, it's reality. I've seen people fall apart, I've seen their families and relationships fall apart, in no small way because of the excessive demands of an F1 season.

Finally that leads me onto something I couldn't ignore in this month's column.

Jules Bianchi's death, following his horrendous accident in Japan last year, stirs up a number of feelings inside me, aside from the obvious overwhelming sadness.

It comes as a stark reminder to those of us building and working on racing cars at this level that this is a dangerous sport. As mechanics, just like with the young drivers on occasion, it can be all too easy to forget that in today's relatively safe era.

We're creating vehicles in very tight timeframes, under huge pressure, that race at over 200mph wheel-to-wheel in many conditions and they have a human being inside them.

I've been in top level motor racing long enough to have witnessed deaths before, both of drivers and marshals, and for all the fun the sport can be, the serious side has to be taken incredibly seriously.

When it comes to tiredness and fatigue, there's nothing much more instantly awakening than a tragic incident like this.

As mechanics, just like with the drivers, we have to be at the very top of our game at all times, so a couple of weeks to reset the mind and body can only be a good thing in my opinion.