Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has laughed off suggestions the series does not respect heritage races amid new events being added to the calendar.
F1’s recent surge in popularity has seen the championship grow in parts of the world it previously struggled to gain attraction, particularly in the United States that is scheduled to host three races this year.
This has left several European races at risk of dropping off the calendar to make way for new venues with a high amount of interest from promoters.
Spa is the only round on the 2023 schedule that is out of contract, while the British and Japanese Grand Prix will both see their deals run out at the end of next year.
But despite F1’s expansion globally, Domenicali insists historic tracks “will be always part of the calendar”.
“For sure it’s very important that the historical races have their own personality,” Domenicali told F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast. “And I’m laughing when I hear people that are saying F1 is not respecting the historical races. It’s absolutely the other way around.
“What I have always said is that the word historic has great responsibility, but historic cannot be seen as an old and out of fashion place. This is not historical, it’s old. I think that what we want is to use this incredible moment where F1 is growing to make sure that everyone is doing the right thing, and that’s it.
“It’s a matter of understanding that the world is evolving. When you hear, and you maybe can be shocked, that a certain new generation of guys or people that are now in love with F1 do not have a clue who was the driver of five years ago, not [even] 55. And they don’t have a clue on a certain technical element of what we are doing. It would be wrong not to recognise it.
“I’m not saying they’re right. I’m saying that we need to understand what is the right balance of the [historic] things that we need to take in order to take the right decision for the future.
“So historical races will be always part of the calendar, but there is the need for some of them to recognise the step change that they have to do to, for example, work on the infrastructure.
“That is not changing the layout of the races. But the fans are coming more and more with their different needs and if you don’t give them what they deserve, it’s not any more historical, it’s an out of context place where we shouldn’t go.”
The Belgian Grand Prix only earned a place on this year’s calendar after plans to revive a race in South Africa were shelved, but Domenicali said Spa’s willingness to adapt to F1’s demands was key to its contract extension.
“If you remember, there were two years ago when there was the discussion of Belgium [being off] the calendar,” he said. “And the [result] was Belgium is in the calendar. But they reacted very well.
“They invested in infrastructure that is related to the best experiences that we want to give to the fans. That’s the right thing that we want to see from the place where it has this historic approach, or historical approach in terms of being always there.”
Domenicali also revealed a desire to have a stable calendar of 24 races in the future as he believes this is the right number for F1 to aim for.
F1 was scheduled to host 24 races this season before the Chinese and Emilia Romagna Grand Prix’s were cancelled, reducing the number of rounds to 22.
“The number that we were targeting this year, but due to the reason that you know very well we didn’t achieve, but what we want to do next year is 24. And I think 24 is the right number,” said Domenicali.
“It’s the number that is required with the market. It’s really, I would say, the right balance between that and between the complexity of the logistics of the people that are working. But I would say this is the number on which we should target to be stable for a long time.”
