F1 team bosses back move for regionalised races in 2023

As revealed by Motorsport.com, F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali confirmed the plan to the teams in a meeting in Barcelona on Saturday.

While improving the championship’s sustainability credentials is ostensibly the driving force behind the move, streamlining the schedule will also reduce costs for the F1 organisation itself and the 10 teams at a time when inflation is hitting hard.

This year’s calendar includes several anomalies, such as the trip to Miami earlier this month as a standalone flyaway, and the upcoming double-header involving Azerbaijan and Canada, which are far apart geographically.

To make it work some races – possibly even Monaco – could be obliged to move away from their traditional dates, and promoters may have to be convinced that the move works for them.

“I think if you look at the calendar, it makes sense to group some of the races together,” said Red Bull team principal Christian Horner when asked about the calendar plan by Motorsport.com.

“Whether it’s some of the American races, some of the Asian races, Europe, obviously. Some of the calendar this year when you look at the geographics of it, Azerbaijan to Montreal, going to Australia for a weekend, it’s about as expensive as you could make it.

“So I think Stefano is sympathetic to that, but of course, he’s got many challenges with the different promoters to get a calendar that you want.”

Haas boss Gunther Steiner agreed that it was a good idea if it could be made to work.

“As always there’s a lot of people involved, and there’s a lot of work to be done to make everybody happy,” he told Motorsport.com about the challenges around organising the F1 calendar.

“But in the end I think for sustainability it’s a fantastic thing. And then if we achieve that, a lot of things go with it, positive ones. There are no negatives to it….