New bosses plan to better arrange F1 calendar

F1’s new owners Liberty Media have proposed setting up the calendar by region rather than the current system of jumping around the globe.

At present the Formula 1 calendar is somewhat confusing, involving a whole lot of travel for the teams that some would deem unnecessary.

Despite racing in China in April, Formula 1 next heads to Asia in September for Singapore, Malaysia and Japan.

Added to that, Canada takes place in June while the United States GP and Mexico are in October, followed by Brazil.

“We have a vision in terms of where we see the next tranche of races,” F1’s head of business Sean Bratches explained to Sky F1. “It would be premature to suggest any cities in particular.

“From a broader sense, I think we’d like to create a balance between Europe, the Americas and Asia.

“In a perfect world we’d like to have all the races take place in a region and then move to the next region and then the next.

“Obviously, [the pluses are] efficiencies from a team standpoint in terms of moving this circus around the world, but also from navigating fans.

“So telling fans ‘for the next two-and-a-half months, you’re going to have to get up early to watch the grands prix, and then the next two-and-a-half are going to be at midday, and the next will be at night’.

“We think that’s really important.”

Bratches would also like to see more “city circuits” in Formula 1 as they have the ability to attract bigger audiences.

“We want to play a bit more offence going forward and identify cities around the world where we can have more city circuits as opposed to traditional tracks. We still want a balance,” he added.

“We want city centres that have massive fan audiences to drive interest in the tracks and attendance in the tracks. We want promoters that understand the art of promotion – which is an art in terms of elevating the story and putting the fans in seats and creating experiences that are unique.

“We’re going to partner with them on that so I’m optimistic about that side of our business.”