More races on the F1 calendar?
A calendar year is made up of 52 weeks and therefore 52 weekends. Currently, almost half (23) are occupied by Formula 1 races, and very soon there could be more. This is stated by Stefano Domenicali, President and CEO of F1, who admits that with the growing interest in the sport, the calendar could increase its appointments in the coming years.
Although there is interest from numerous promoters and circuits that are not on the calendar, Domenicali also admits that there are other grands prix whose contracts expire soon and could come out of future calendars.
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“I think there is potential to reach 24 (races) and I would say there is also potential to reach 30. As far as interest is concerned, we are seeing it all over the world,” said the F1 president, according to reports. media such as Sky Sports.
“We have to find the right balance considering the races that we would like to have in F1 and what are the historical values that we want to see on the calendar. There are some promoters whose contract is expiring, and there are probably other grands prix that will not continue to be part of the calendar,” he added.
There are currently doubts about races such as the Chinese GP, which has not been held since the COVID-19 pandemic began, and there are also doubts about the French GP, which has disappeared from one of the provisional calendars for this year. Likewise, other historic races such as Monaco, Belgium or Mexico have not yet made public the extension of their contracts beyond 2022.
As possible replacements or new additions to the calendar, in recent times it has been rumored that Las Vegas is very interested in returning to the championship, which coincides with Liberty Media’s desire to increase its presence in the United States. There has also been talk of Kyalami, in South Africa, where F1 last competed in 1993.
Furthermore, Domenicali believes that China, with the arrival of its first rider in the premier class (Guanyu Zhou), could aspire to host new races. This means that, yes or yes, you could reach 30 races without too much effort.
The current Agreement of Concord, in which all F1 commercial agreements and the economic distribution with the teams are reflected until 2025, limits the maximum number of races per season to 24. Increasing that figure would entail a review of the agreement. It is very likely that many teams and drivers would not agree with raising the figure to 30.
