FIRST IN AUTUMN

FIA World Motor Sport Council announced the calendar of the Formula 1 championship for 2024. So, Baku will host the next Azerbaijan Grand Prix on September 13-15. The eightth Baku race will be one of the 24 stages listed for the next year. New season of Formula 1 will begin on March 2 in Bahrain and will end on December 8, in Abu Dhabi.

The Formula 1 calendar is tailored to the location of regions where the races will take place. Its purpose is to maintain the continuity of the racing and to promote the popularity and interest in Formula 1 throughout the season.

Efficient racing

According to the new calendar, races will be held in Japan in April, in Azerbaijan in September, then in Qatar and Abu Dhabi. The F1 organisers took into account the proximity of regions. The first two races of the season in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia will be held on Saturday. This is to avoid overlap with Ramadan. The Las Vegas race will also take place on Saturday. We are also going to see the Chinese Grand Prix - the first-ever since 2019.

Teams will have the traditional August break next season, too. There will also be an almost one-month pause in autumn between the races in Singapore and Austin, TX. This required increasing the number of double and triple stages.

Interest in Formula 1 is growing

During the unveiling ceremony of the 2024 calendar, Stefano Domenicali, President and CEO of Formula One, said that the competition would have 24 rounds around the world. "Interest in Formula One is constantly growing, same as the number of requests we receive to host stages. I believe this calendar ensures a right balance between traditional races and exciting new venues. I would like to thank all the promoters and partners for their support and efforts in making the calendar. Our move towards a more sustainable calendar will continue in the coming years as we optimise even more as part of the programme to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030. There are still many races to come in 2023, including the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix, but our fans are already looking forward to a more exciting next season," Domenicali said.

Holding the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in September will actually increase the duration of the tourist season in the country. It is expected that foreign citizens, who usually visit Baku in summer, will become guests of the Azerbaijani capital in autumn as well. At the same time, it is predicted that the Baku race will again be decisive in terms of determining the winner. According to the new calendar, the Baku City Ring will be ready in July-August 2024.

The willing and the violators

Two Spanish cities are expected to host Formula One races in the coming years. While Barcelona already has a contract to host the Spanish Grand Prix until 2026, Madrid also stated its intention to host the race. They believe that if the race is held in Madrid, the region will receive additional 500 million euros in revenue. But we yet to see whether the management of Formula 1 agrees to hold two rounds in Spain or to replace Barcelona with Madrid.

Formula One announced that three teams have failed to comply with the rules on budgetary constraints in 2022. There are reasonable suspicions that some teams have not acted in line with financial regulations. But the names of these teams have not been disclosed. But according to the outcome of the 2021 audit, the spending limit was then violated by teams Red Bull Racing and Aston Martin.

By the way, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile is going to announce the results of the competition to create a new F1 team. Current participants of the world championship signed a statement against increasing the number of teams. Formula 1 teams (with the exception of one) are against the expansion of the peloton. They believe that to compensate for losses in the prize fund due to the increase in the number of participants, entry fees for new teams should be increased three times - from $200m to $600m.

Forbes published the rating table of Formula 1 teams based on their value. Thus, Ferrari ranked first with an estimated value of $3.9b. It is followed by Mersedes ($3.8b) and the reigning champion Red Bull Racing ($2.6b). Forbes notes that the average value of Formula 1 teams has increased by 276% since 2019 - $1.88b each. Thus, the values of Ferrari and Mercedes have increased by 189% and by 274%, respectively.