Formula One’s record 22-race calendar for 2014 is ‘beyond the limit’ for teams but looks likely to be trimmed before it becomes definitive, according to Red Bull team principal Christian Horner.

Three races on the calendar released last week have asterisks against them – South Korea, New Jersey and Mexico – and the prospects of the first two at least have been called into question.

Most teams are reluctant to go beyond 20 races, mindful of the added expense and the burden being shouldered by key staff such as engineers and race mechanics who cannot easily be rotated.

This year’s championship has 19 races, with the record standing at 20.

“I think we all recognise that 22 races is beyond the limit, the strain that it puts on the team and the entourage that follow F1,” Christian Horner said in Korea.

“If you are doing 22 races in economy class, flying around the world and you are going a week before the race and coming back a day or so after, it’s a long, tough season.

“For me the ideal number is 20, that I think is saturation point, but I can understand why he (Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone) is pushing to get more venues.”

The calendar approved by the International Automobile Federation includes a rare ‘triple header’ of Monaco followed by New Jersey and then Canada on successive weekends, which poses an added logistical problem.

“Of course it’s feasible. But it’s expensive,” said Horner of that challenge.

“Let’s see. The calendar’s changed a lot over the last few weeks and I’m sure before the end of the season there will probably be a few more tweaks to it.”

Horner said New Jersey, which was meant to make its debut last year but postponed for financial reasons, was on the calendar so “we have to assume it’s happening”.

McLaren’s Martin Whitmarsh was less convinced, however, even if all the teams want a race on the US east coast.

“As I understand it, there’s not much going on there,” he told reporters.

Formula One Statistics...

Statistics for tomorrow’s Korean Formula One Grand Prix at South Korea’s Yeongam circuit:

• Lap distance: 5.615km.

• Total distance: 308.630km (55 laps).

• Start time: 0600 GMT (0800 Malta time).

• 2012 pole: Mark Webber, Red Bull.

• 2012 winner: Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull.

• Race lap record: Vettel, 1:39.605 (2011).

• Tyres: Medium (white), supersoft (red).

Wins

• Four different teams have won the 12 races so far this year (Lotus, Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes).

• Red Bull’s triple champion Sebastian Vettel has seven wins in 2013.

• Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and Mercedes’s Nico Rosberg have won two races each. Lotus’s Kimi Raikkonen and Mercedes’s Lewis Hamilton have each won one.

• Vettel has won the last three races. He has 33 career wins, Alonso 32, Hamilton 22, Raikkonen 20 and McLaren’s Jenson Button 15.

Pole

• Mercedes have been on pole eight times in 13 races. Vettel has taken the other five.

• Vettel has 41 poles to his credit and is third in the all-time list (Michael Schumacher had 68 and Ayrton Senna 65). Hamilton has 31 and Alonso 22.

• Vettel’s Singapore pole was his second in a row.

• Mercedes have locked out the front row in qualifying three times this year.

• Alonso has not been on the front row in the last 23 races, with his last appearance being his pole in Germany in July 2012. He has not been on pole in a dry qualifying since 2010.