Formula 1’s CEO Stefano Domenicali admits that he is open to the idea of rotating grand prix venues from year-to-year going forward.
The sport is scheduled to see a record-breaking 23 races occur in 2021, however doubt lingers over the total number of events due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
Domenicali revealed that if F1 is able to deliver an “exciting product” in the years to come, it may return to fewer races while introducing alternating circuits from one season to the next.
“23 races is a very important number of races, no doubt,” Domenicali told Sky Sports F1. “In terms of quantity, in terms of attention, in terms of dedication of the people.
“There could be two positions on that respect, someone can say there are too many, some others that that is not a problem.
“I would say that this equation will solve itself by the fact that if we’re able to deliver an incredible product, we may go to a situation where maybe we can go back to a fewer number of races and then maybe the chance of a rotation is possible for certain grands prix, keeping a focus on different areas.
“This is something that is in our plan to think about carefully this year, getting ready for when the world is normal again.”
Domenicali added that F1 is taking a “flexible” approach to the 2021 campaign amid the pandemic, after the coronavirus forced F1 to delay the 2020 season and reduce the calendar to 17 races.
This year’s schedule has already been impacted, with Australian Grand Prix postponed to November and Imola returning in China’s place, with no specified date set for the Asian event.
“What I can share is that I’m personally speaking on a daily basis with all the organisers,” Domenicali said. “We know the pandemic is still there – that’s why we changed the place in the calendar of Australia.
“But so far the information we have is that everyone really would like to go ahead with the plan.
“Of course we need to be flexible enough to understand that maybe in the first part of the season we may have some events with no public or with restricted members of the public.
“But what I can assure our supporters, our fans, is that really we want to make sure that the season is there, we have a commitment and we want to take that on board, and we have possible alternatives in case – but so far no one has given us different information to what we have shared.
“This is what we know today, but we know how the pandemic has evolved so we need to be ready for a flexible approach on the season.”
