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F1 expects “no problem at all” replacing Russian GP – Domenicali

2022 F1 season

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Formula 1 will be able to arrange a replacement for its cancelled Russian Grand Prix with little difficulty, the series’ CEO Stefano Domenicali has said.

The race was due to go ahead in September but F1 announced its cancellation earlier today, saying it would be “impossible” to race in Russia following the military invasion of Ukraine.

That leaves the calendar reduced to 22 races in a year which was supposed to include a record-breaking 23 rounds. However, Domenicali told a Liberty Media investor call today that F1’s recent experience of scheduling short-notice replacements during the pandemic means they are well prepared to do the same again.

“Talking specifically about the situation this year, because of the Russian situation, I just can confirm to you that we have already proven in the last couple of years to be very flexible and not to have any problem in finding possible solutions to that,” said Domenicali. “So I can just confirm that could be an option for this year with no problem at all.”

Domenicali confirmed F1 is looking into expanding its calendar further in the years to come. “Due to the great success that F1 is having the possibility of having new races in the future is still very big,” he said.

“With regard to possible venues for the future we can just say that there are a lot of discussions going on. We need to make a lot of choices for the strategic markets that we believe are the right ones for Formula 1.

“But for sure we can expand the calendar because technically speaking, as you know, we can go up to 25, that is written in our regulations, the Concorde Agreement, and the teams will follow our vision on that.

“Something we don’t have to forget is this year will be 23 races, the highest number of races in the history of Formula 1. So I think that we can watch that in the right way, taking the right decisions. We are not in the rush for that, it’s just a matter of tuning in all the different possibilities that we have in front of us.”

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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16 comments on “F1 expects “no problem at all” replacing Russian GP – Domenicali”

  1. A statement would be to call it Ukraine GP

  2. we should have a poll to see where people would like the replacement race held.

    My guess would be a double header in Europe.

    1. My vote is for Portugal

    2. @blueruck @dmeehan No European track fits on the original Russian GP weekend.
      This is only about replacing a single event rather than making more considerable shuffling over one cancellation.

  3. 24 is the (default) upper limit, though. More relevantly, concerning the replacement event:
    I see Istanbul Park as the most probable one, although should this option fail, I’m unsure what are viable options would be for that season phase.
    Sepang, I highly doubt, the Chinese GP already got cancelled, & even if that decision got reversed, running that race on consecutive weekends with any track is off for custom logistics based on my understanding.
    European circuits are out because truck events can’t form a pairing with freight ones (someone who works in F1 explained this to me once on another site).
    Fuji, unlikely, although any event in Asia (besides Malaysia), China included, would be viable only if Singapore & or Japan changed weekends to avoid unnecessary back-&-forth travel between weekends.

    1. Commonsense would NOT put Chinese GP on any calendar due to:
      * Noticeably didnot object to the Russian invasion of Ukraine

      1. OOPS!!! hadn’t finished.
        There is a valid theory that Chinese is monitoring world reaction for preparation of its imminent invasion of Taiwan [itself another reason].
        * its conduct in the South China Sea.

  4. I’m sure the FIA will have no problem exchanging a race for one totalitarian regime to another. The only difference will be that the second will actually be able to pay. It’s hard not to be a bit jaded by the FIA’s politics even when they get something right for a change (canceling the Russian GP).

  5. I suggest Oman or Kuwait, although there’s some potential in Brunei too. We must preserve F1’s identity.

    1. @Dex Neither Oman nor Brunei has a track, while Kuwait is both unfitting & unbearably hot at that time.

  6. Yeah, I am sure they have tracks lined up. I saw there was already some action on Turkish GP track reservations site, that might be a very likely candidate again.

    1. @bascb, I reckon the most likely. Pretty much the only viable option for the original Russian GP weekend.

  7. Just go with Algarve and get it done!

    1. @win7golf Unfitting logistically because teams use trucks for European tracks, & Singapore GP is a freight event.

  8. Jonathan Parkin
    26th February 2022, 7:41

    Do they have to replace it with something? Why not just reduce the calendar to 22 races

    As someone who watched F1 when the calendar was 16/17 races an upper limit of 25 is too much

    Yes I know it’s all about the ‘M’ word

    1. @Jonathan Parkin Indeed. Replacing for replacing’s sake isn’t a definite must, although not doing so would leave two consecutive race-less weekends.

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