Barcelona retains its place for 2020
Turnaround for Spain: just when it was thought that the last Grand Prix in Barcelona had been held, an agreement has finally been reached for 2020. The calendar should therefore include 22 races, a historic record.
But where will it stop? For a long time, the F1 calendar had 16-17 races per season. Then a certain inflation, driven by the prospect of additional revenue in countries with strong financial contributions, pushed this total to 20-21.
In recent years, teams have constantly reminded that this represents an increasingly unmanageable burden for their organizations. Indeed, unlike Nascar which has 36 races per year only within the United States, F1 travels around the world and does not have a double team. Therefore, all engineers and mechanics complete the entire season.
With the successive announcements of the arrivals of Vietnam and Zandvoort next year, it meant that two events had to disappear from the calendar to keep the total at 21. The fate of Germany seems decided since even the owner of the German circuit indicated that the 2019 edition was certainly the last in the near future.
The other candidate for a departure was Spain, in an economic and political context between Barcelona and the central government that has been very complicated in recent years. However, in recent weeks, rumors suggested that the Catalan government would be willing to make a financial effort to retain its place. This has just been made official, with an agreement signed with Liberty Media. The statement by Quim Torra, the President of Catalonia, is thus highly political since he refers to Catalonia as a country and makes no reference to Spain: Catalonia is hosting the Formula 1 Grand Prix for the 30th consecutive time. Catalonia is a country with a long tradition in motorsports. We are therefore delighted to have strengthened our position as a historical event on the calendar for fans around the world.
Two scenarios are therefore on the table for defining the 2020 calendar: either one of the new events is ultimately not ready to host F1 (rumors suggest that the modernization work at Zandvoort could take longer than expected), or Liberty Media is able to impose 22 events on the F1 teams. This requires the agreement of at least four teams on the grid. It will be a big topic of conversation in the Spa-Francorchamps paddock this weekend.
With the participation of www.racingbusiness.fr
