Stefano Domenicali says he is open to rotating races on the Formula 1 calendar in the future if it is able to deliver an “incredible product”.
Following a truncated 17-race schedule in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, F1 announced it would contest 23 races this year in a bid to return to a normal calendar.
But with countries adopting travel restrictions amid the ongoing threat of the virus, changes have already been made to the calendar.
The season opener in Australia has been postponed until November, while China has also delayed its race, resulting in the addition of Imola as the second round of the season.
Australia’s postponement has crested a third triple-header in the second half of the year as the Brazilian Grand Prix’s date has been brought forward a week.
As this has led to concerns teams will be burnt out, new F1 CEO Domenicali believes it will be feasible to reduce the number of races and rotate grand prix’s in the future.
“23 races is a very important number of races, no doubt, in terms of quantity, in terms of attention, in terms of dedication of the people, Domenicali told Sky Sports F1.
“There could be two positions on that respect. Someone can say there are too many, some others that it is not a problem. I would say that this equation will solve itself by the fact that if we are able to deliver an incredible product, we may go to a situation where maybe we can go back to a number, a fewer number of races, having maybe the chance of having rotation possibility for certain grand prix, keeping a focus on different areas.
“This is something that is in our plan to think carefully this year, and get ready when the world will be normal again.”
Ex-Ferrari team principal Domenicali began his role as F1 CEO on January 1, replacing Chase Carey who relinquished the day-to-day running of the series.
While F1 has insisted it is committed to delivering its 2021 calendar, Domenicali said it would need a “flexible approach” revealing alternative races will be on standby should there be further changes.
“We are, and I personally am in contact on a daily basis with all of the organisers, because we know that the pandemic is still there, and we know very well about it,” Domenicali added.
“That’s why we changed the place in the calendar of Australia. But so far, the information that we have is everyone would like really 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 numbers of public. But what I can assure our supporters and our fans is that really we want to make sure that the season is there. We have a commitment, we want to take that onboard.
“We have possible alternatives in case of, but so far, no-one has given us different information from what we’ve shared. There’s no reason to lie, there’s no reason to say something that is not right and correct. 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.”
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