Formula 1’s calendar is close to full.
Existing race contracts have been extended well into the next decade, and the sport’s own leadership describes calendar stability as locked in through at least 2028-29.
Even so, two returning venues have already secured slots for 2027. Portimao and Istanbul are both back on the calendar, having previously hosted races during gaps forced by the COVID pandemic.
Stefano Domenicali, President and Chief Executive Officer of Formula 1, addressed the scale of interest directly when asked which markets were most advanced in talks.
“I think that, what I can say, negotiations are progressing very well in Africa,” he revealed.
“It is so quickly things are happening that next year we have again Portugal, we have again Turkey.
“We are having other discussions in South America. We have discussions in the Far East. One thing that I can tell you, that we have more requests in China and Japan, but for the moment, we want to stay with one race because we need to facilitate the market stronger before thinking to have other options there.”
Not just new territory
The expansion is not limited to markets F1 has never raced in.
Madrid joins the calendar in the coming months as the new host of the Spanish Grand Prix, a proposition Domenicali said would have seemed implausible only recently.
“I don’t want to forget that, after example in Monza, we’re gonna be in Madrid, another place that a couple of years ago was not possible to think that a race was happening, but now that place is attracting a lot of interest,” Domenicali said.
“It is going to be definitely an incredible event on which there is a lot of attention, and there will be a new track, a new concept that is something of which we are very keen to develop with a Spanish promoter, an event that would be different from the ones that have been organised before.”
Two examples in Europe
Asked to look beyond new territories, Domenicali pointed to two F1 legacy venues as established markets moving in different directions, with television broadcast rights also playing a role.
“Let me take two examples in Europe, Germany and France,” he said.
“We are not having a Grand Prix of France, not because we don’t want, but Canal+ is really looking forward to extend our deal because the numbers are really good and the sport is really in a great shape.
“Germany, for the first time, we are reconnecting with the possibility of having contact with the Hockenheim people to see if in the future, big term, not short term, they can have a race back.
“But now with the deal we have with RTL, the number is getting different. And in the new tender on the German market, we will have, for the first time, more than one operator that is interested to be part of this tender.
So it’s another sign that in Europe, that is our very important market, the attention is getting even bigger.”
Not every German venue is being treated the same way, however. Asked directly about the Nurburgring on the same call, Domenicali drew a clear distinction with Hockenheim.
“So far it was Hockenheim and they are the first discussion,” he said.
“If they (Nurburgring) want to discuss an F1 possible event, of course, the investment needs to be different, because our platform needs to have a different kind of investment.”
The names Domenicali didn’t mention
Some of the calendar’s most obvious candidates went unmentioned on the call entirely.
India and South Korea, both former hosts with dormant circuits and large, F1-relevant markets, remain absent from the sport’s own public list of active conversations.
I think that, what I can say, negotiations are progressing very well in Africa…we are having other discussions in South America. We have discussions in the Far East.
Stefano Domenicali
Malaysia may have opened its own door back further than intended, with Sepang International Circuit’s role hosting this year’s relocated Gulf AIr Bahrain Grand Prix could serve as a test case for the country’s own long-term return, while in the same region Thailand has been pushing for its own race.
A calendar with limits
Despite the volume of interest, Domenicali was clear that F1 has no intention of simply expanding to meet it.
“I would think, look, we have quite a solid base on which we will develop of course the future strategy,” he added.
“But I would say so far up to 2028-29 that the dimension of the stability that we have is very solid.
That leaves circuits and countries competing for a small number of openings on a calendar F1 intends to keep close to its current size, rather than growing indefinitely to absorb demand.
For every Portugal or Turkey that has found a way back in, there are several more circuits – new, old and not even built – left simply waiting their turn.
