“Everyone wants one”: F1 CEO insists sport could have 30+ races on the calendar ‘today’ due to popular demand

F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali recently stated that the sport could hold up to 30 races in a single season calendar. This statement was made during the 2023 F1 Australian GP, after which a three-week long break starts. The 2023 season already has 23 races, though 24 were initially planned.

Domenicali explained how almost every country in the world wants to host a race. Moreover, the popularity boom in the US due to Liberty Media and Netflix's Drive to Survive has been immense. He also explained how F1 was planning to move away from the US a few years ago. Now, however, there has been a huge influx of new fans. Domenicali said:

“We could have already today more than 30, even 32 Grand Prixs, because everyone wants one. Around three years ago we were considering if we were even going to stay in the US. [Now] one in three fans that go to the grand prix are going for the first time."

Several team members and drivers have already expressed their discomfort regarding the long race calendar in 2023. Hence, this statement from F1's CEO will surely not be taken positively by them. Moreover, thousands of F1 fans spoke out against the idea of hosting so many races in a single season.

Though cramming 30 races into a single season feels impossible, fans and people working in the sport are not happy with Domenicali's statement and are a bit worried about the sport's future.

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Max Verstappen against new F1 formats and Stefano Domenicali's idea of removing/reducing practice sessions

Reigning world champion Max Verstappen shared how he is against any changes introduced to race weekends. He likes the traditional race weekend format and even dislikes the number of races there are in a single season.

Verstappen mentioned how practice sessions are an important part of the sport. Furthermore, he even expressed how he is against sprint race weekends as well. He said:

“I don't think [Domenicali] meant exactly that [removing free practice sessions], because obviously you can't go to qualifying without free practice. But I'm not a fan of weekends with sprints, I'm not a fan of the number of races we do nowadays.”

He added:

“I'm also not a fan of changing the whole format [without practice sessions]. They have to be careful not to change the entire DNA of Formula 1. I think it's important not to play too much with this aspect, because then, obviously, at a certain point everything stops.”

From the very beginning, Verstappen has expressed his dislike for the number of races per season and the introduction of sprint races. However, it is safe to say that F1 will continue with sprint races and will not decrease the number of races per season, especially after its boom in popularity.