Stefano Domenicali says F1 has the ‘potential’ to have 30 venues in a year going forward, as he adds on the new teams situation too.
The FIA Sporting Regulation has a maximum of 24 events in a year, but F1 chief Domenicali states that they have the potential to go up to 30 venues with the interest shown by various countries. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the sport will see 30 races in a year.
What Domenicali wants to convey is that they have countries in bulk who are interested to host a grand prix. At the moment, F1 runs majorly on single event per country basis, but the 2022 season will see United States of America host two events (Austian & Miami).
On European side, only Italy is to host two races (Monza & Imola), while the rest of the places is confined to one each. For the future, F1 could see America having three events with reports of a street race in Las Vegas only getting stronger day by day.
In fact, the latest saying is that the grand prix could be a night event which will be a big shift from F1 to have a race in the late hours in American timezone. Outside that, China and Africa remains on the priority list of one or two races.
“We need to be balanced, we need to see what are the other opportunities,” said Domenicali to Sky Sports F1. “And very soon we are going to tell everyone what is our strategy to develop that market.
“On top of America, on top of China, I think there is a potential also to be in Africa soon. There is a lot of interest there. For sure that’s another area that so far is missing in the geography of our calendar. I think there is potential to go to 24.
“I would say there is potential to go to 30! In terms of the interest we see all around the world. It is up to us to try to find the right balance considering what are the venues which would like to be in F1, what are the historical values we need to see on the calendar.
“There are some promoters who have expiring agreements, and probably some of the current grands prix will no longer be part of the calendar,” summed up Domenicali. With how the interest is spiking up, this definitely puts pressure on venues on lower pay scale.
This is one tactics to push the venues to invest more to stay in the running. While there is interest from countries to join F1, there is similar from various business outfits to join the sport as a team in recent times. Since Haas’ entry, the sport hasn’t seen a new entry.
There has been changes made to the existing teams like Alpine and Aston Martin, but the sport is still to see an influx of brand new teams to expand the grid from 20 cars to 22 and or 24. An Asian team ‘Panthera’ has been doing rounds for sometime though.
Joining that list is Andretti, who failed to secure a partnership with Sauber-run Alfa Romeo. Now they have applied with the FIA to join as a new outfit. But the interest alone doesn’t guarantee a spot, as Domenicali explains in an interview.
He notes that he will have to discuss with the FIA to ascertain if they wish to have more than 10 teams on the grid. “There’s not only Michael Andretti,” said Domenicali. “He is maybe the most vocal one, but we have more than four or five requests to consider an extra team to be a part of Formula 1.
“I have to be very honest, today F1 with 10 teams, with the competition on the track, is very, very solid. There’s complexities that need to be considered if other teams can be added. Therefore I don’t think it’s the most important element to grow F1, to be honest.
“At the end of the day, with two drivers and two teams fighting – the interest [in F1] was at the top. If we have, as we hope this year, more teams and more drivers to fight, that’s more than enough,” summed up Domenicali.
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