F1 CEO on feasibility of 23 Grands Prix: "There is no reason to lie"

For 2021, 23 races are on the calendar and that is extremely ambitious, partly due to the situation in the world. As the sport now starts considerably earlier than 2020, where 17 races were held, it immediately becomes more realistic. Nevertheless, Formula 1 must remain flexible with the calendar, because at the moment almost nothing is certain. That is definitely something they take into account, and 23 races is also considered realistic by the new CEO Stefano Domenicali.

Daily contact

Domenicali has taken over from Chase Carey and he spoke to Sky Sports F1's Martin Brundle for the first time in his new role. This included talking about the busy 2021 calendar and, with the pandemic in mind, it's a pretty tough promise that Formula 1 will make with all the parties involved and, in particular, the fans. But Domenicali is not worried about that, as long as they remain flexible.

"What I can share is that I'm personally speaking on a daily basis with all the organisers. 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 (we lose races)."

Alternative races

With the possibility of alternative races, Formula 1 has enough on hand to offer a full calendar. The signals so far are still positive, which gives a good starting point. Moreover, Domenicali argues that it makes no sense not to be transparent about this.

Domenicali: "So far no one has given us different information to what we have 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 to the season."