With twenty-four races from March to November around the world, fans will be well served next season. Although the canceled Chinese Grand Prix has not yet been replaced, a season with 23 major events would also be unprecedented.
“With 24, we are approaching the limit,” F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali explained to AFP at the end of October, assuring that he “could sign with seven or eight other countries”, although the ‘Concorde agreements’, in force until 2025, they set the maximum number of races at 24.
A dozen races in the 1950s and 1960s, a fortnight in the following decades, and then the barrier of 20 surpassed in 2012. And now a horizon with 30?
Since the purchase of commercial rights in 2017 by the American group Liberty Media, modernizing the discipline through a Netflix series and more complete content on social networks, F1 dreams big. But too big?
‘You have to calm down’
Even double world champion Max Verstappen thinks there should be “less racing”. The Dutchman believes that 16 races would be ideal, “keeping only the good circuits and removing the others.” In other words, that quality should prevail over quantity.
Especially if, as in 2022, Verstappen won the majority of the races (15 of 22), leaving the doubt of a hegemonic dominance and no room for emotion and uncertainty. Domenicali is not of that opinion and assures that the World Cup will be “closer” in the future.
F1 can boast of the influx of 2022, with peaks in the United States (440,000 spectators on the weekend in Austin), in Australia (420,000) or in Mexico (395,000), not to mention the television audiences at rise. But some teams also make calls to raise their foot.
“Twenty-four races is enough. We have to stabilize the level we are at again and not do more,” Günther Steiner, head of Haas, explained to AFP in November at the presentation of the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix. “Since Since Liberty Media took control, there have been many changes, but there comes a time when you have to calm down.”
For Jost Capito, who has just taken over the Williams team, “22 races this year and 24 next year is a lot.” Although the physical challenge is not so much for the pilots, it is for the shadow workers, such as mechanics or engineers, who will have to organize themselves in an unprecedented rotation system.
A rotation that is essential in aberrant race chains (Azerbaijan-Miami-Italy or Spain-Canada-Austria), which raise the question of the environmental limit.