In fact, let’s just go the whole hog and enjoy a winter warmer while we’re at it… and the future of the grand prix calendar fully supports this as the sport could well end up chasing the sun for the majority of the year.
When discussing the future of grand prix venues, it’s important to know exactly where we stand right now. Gone are the days of the stagnant F1 calendars we had through the 2000s, where it was headline news if a single venue dropped off or popped up. In a pandemic-ridden world, F1 has had to adapt faster and more cleverly than ever before. Since Covid reared its ugly head, 23 different venues have hosted grands prix – impressive considering at one point the 2020 season looked like it may have become an eight-race mini-series.
And that’s not including those regular venues that haven’t been able to host a race during recent seasons. There’s five of those: Shanghai, Montréal, Singapore, Suzuka and Albert Park in Melbourne. Make that six if you count the GP-that-never-was at Vietnam. Its Hannoi track was pretty much ready to go for 2020, before Covid forced its indefinite postponement, and it was then dropped off the schedule entirely after Hanoi chairman (and catalyst for the race itself) Nguyen Duc Chung was convicted of corruption and jailed. There seems little chance the sport will ever actually be heading there. Regardless, that’s almost 30 venues to choose from.
And then look at this upcoming season. A record-breaking 23 races are planned, with a brand-new race around the Miami International Autodrome (read, Hard Rock Stadium…) and almost all of the aforementioned venues that have lost out in recent seasons are back on the list.
Lovely. But where do we go from here?
Good question. If we supposedly fast-forward a decade, what could the sporting schedule look like?
F1’s current commercial direction under owner Liberty seems to be plotting a very clear course: it wants more races, in more corners of the world, and it wants F1 to be seen as a truly global sporting spectacle. You’ll hardly achieve that with a rotation of Silverstone-Monza-Spa being washed, rinsed and repeated. Hence the drive to find new venues to host races. It’s just a happy coincidence that most of these new venues happen to be in sunny, and rather affluent, countries.
Jeddah in Saudi Arabia joined the schedule last year with an impressive high-speed street circuit. And no sooner had the bay-side track been revealed, we were told it was actually a temporary fixture until a purpose-built circuit is constructed, and that Saudi will be a fixture on the F1 schedule for “a decade, if not longer,” according to its promoters. Likewise, Qatar. Its MotoGP-friendly Losail track was drafted in as a bit of a filler for this year’s schedule, yet it too has already secured a 10-year deal. Even if it’s got a fair few football stadiums to be getting on with…. Bahrain is already a long-term fixture, and would we bet against the Dubai
Autodrome following suit at some point? Not really. It has the necessary track licence, facilities and, crucially, deep pockets…
Then of course there’s the American races. The Circuit of the Americas in Texas has been a smash-hit in recent seasons and worked wonders for spreading the word of modern F1 to a country that was largely indifferent about the sport just a few years ago. Last year’s COTA race broke all F1 attendance records, with upwards of 400,000 fans attending to watch Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton duke it out. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Miami packed to the rafters also. Liberty has worked so hard to get that race off the ground – it was first tabled at least five years ago yet has taken this long to come to fruition, so it’s unlikely to be going anywhere soon once it does get up and running.
So far so sunny: three (perhaps four) trips to the Middle East, two in America, plus a couple of warm European visits in the form of Baku in Azerbaijan – which has a contract until 2024 and has proven to be one of the more entertaining new venues for F1 thanks to its mixture of high-speed and Monaco-esque tight twists – and Budapest in Hungary, which last year secured its place on the calendar until at least 2037!
So, what of Asia? The pandemic has made racing in the Far East tricky. China’s Shanghai track hasn’t hosted a race since it staged F1’s 1000th Grand Prix in 2019, yet the sport’s bosses remain committed to the track until at least 2025. And, with Liberty’s current drive toward affluent areas it’s hard to see a future without a race in the world’s richest economy. Throw in a handful of car makers desperate to crack the Chinese market and you have an argument for more than one race in the People’s Republic. Chengdu would need a bit of upgrading to get the necessary track licence, as would Ningbo, Tianjin and Zuhai, but it’s not beyond the realms of reality for that to happen. Then there’s neighbouring Korea (well the more southernly one, anyway). While the four races at Yeongam were largely a failure, there’s been talk for some time about a street race being held around Seoul. Likewise Malaysian venue Sepang has been pushing loudly for a return.
Japan’s Suzuka is safe until at least 2024, and is one of the sport’s most iconic Asian venues, plus the home of a thriving car industry. Singapore was a question mark until this week. Its cancellation last year had left it without a deal, but talks on a renewal were successful and the race will now run until 2028. The race has become one of F1’s glamorous ‘bucket-list’ events since its debut in 2008, with the cars looking spectacular under the (frankly incredible) bespoke floodlighting.
So that’s America, Middle East and Asia sorted, but there’s a huge hole in F1’s claims to be a truly global sport without anything in Africa. Enter newly renovated Kyalami near Johannesburg, South Africa. It last hosted a grand prix in 1993 and would also need a bit of work to attain its FIA Grade 1 licence, but so much regeneration has been done to the track in recent years that it’s logically the next step to do so.
And finally, the question of Europe. Many fans gawp at the prospect of F1 losing races in its heartland. Europe is home to the two most historic F1 circuits: Monza, which has hosted the Italian Grand Prix ever year but one since 1950 (it ran at Imola in 1980), and Silverstone, which has also been a fixture since 1950 and has been the sole venue of the British GP since
1987. There’s been a lot of wrangling over the future of both races, with both walking a tightrope with ending contracts and hard-ball negotiations. However, history and prominence has wisely won out and both are secure until at least 2024.
One historic event with clouds hanging over it (both figuratively and literally) is the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa. With its current deal up this year – and last year’s washout hardly helping matters – there is a very stark possibility of a grand prix season without a visit to ‘God’s Own Racetrack’ in the Ardennes. Losing Spa, which has staged 54 world championship races in its history, would be a hammer-blow for European fans. The last time it failed to make the calendar was 2006, when it was closed for major repair works.
The Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort has been a popular addition (especially for Max Verstappen’s substantial orange army), and the seaside track has completed extensive works to help improve the racing. However, it only holds a deal until 2023. Russia will switch its race from the rather dull Sochi track to the Igora Drive circuit near St Petersburg in 2023 and has a deal until 2025.
Of course, not every venue can be on the calendar. F1 head Stefano Domenicali has already stated that a 25-race calendar is out of the question (mind you a few years ago people said a 20-race one was…), so ultimately one area of the globe will have to pay the price to make way for the newcomers, and ultimately that looks like Europe. The prestige races will surely remain (Monaco, Italy, Britain… perhaps Spain), but places like France, Imola, Austria, Portimão and Zandvoort could be on tentative ground. While the pandemic may have forced the sport back to its homeland in the short term, the long-term plan seems to be all about pushing F1’s boundaries further afield.
Regardless, best get that passport dusted off and the suncream packed. You’re going to have some sights to see…
Regardless of where the Formula 1 calendar may be headed in the future, you can guarantee that Motorsport Tickets can get you there to see all the action first-hand. Until then, you can secure your place at one of 2022’s races thanks to its range of race packages. And with many races already on sale and selling fast, now is the best time to book.
For more information and to book, visit motorsporttickets.com.
