Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali says that the organisation will announce “some new venues that could be very attractive” in the next couple of years.
F1 continues to insist that the schedule will not increase from the current 24 races, which means that established races will have to make way to allow new venues in.
While many promoters have been signing long term deals that go beyond 2030 some events, mainly in Europe, still have shorter contracts.
Thailand is the countries that has emerged as a potential future F1 host.
“In the course of the last few years, because of the strong demand of our product, and because of the standard we are asking to work with our promoters, we have seen everything going up in terms of quality of demand, of course economical input for both the promoter and our side,” said Domenicali.
“And the strong demand we are receiving just shows really the strategy is right. Now the point is to keep the balance between the different counties that are requesting the different Grands Prix.”
He added: “Race promotion, before COVID, everyone was worried about the fact in terms of revenue stream, this could have been a very flat line.
“And actually, the fact that we have a lot of demand, of course, is pushing up also the possibility of maximising in the best way that we can the race promotion fees.
“But it has to be connected to our strategic development in different markets. So everything is progressing very, very well. And I would say in the next couple of years, I’m expecting to see – and we are expected to announce – also some new venues that could be very attractive to grow the business of F1.”
Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei admitted that strong demand from competing venues allows F1 to generate more income from race hosting fees.
“I think for a long time it was perceived that the growth and promotion would come from incremental races,” said Maffei. “And we obviously went from 18 or something to up to this 24 level, which is where we do not anticipate growing any more races.
“But it actually creates a great incentive, scarcity, to be able to play promoters off against each other and not to try to, not take advantage of them, but just given the amount of demand we have both among fans to attend and among promoters to host an event, we’ve been able to find attractive pricing and good uplifts.
“And we continue to find new venues and new locations which find it very attractive, given the amount of demand we have and given the opportunities they’ve seen others pursue. So far, so good on promotion, and I do think it continues to remain a growth area.”
Adam Cooper F1 