Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali says the sport will announce “very soon” the details of its plan to rotate European races from 2026.
While the trend is toward races with long-term deals, in many cases extending into the 2030s, contracts for several European events that expire in 2025 have yet to be extended.
An alternation agreement for Spa and Zandvoort has been discussed for a long time. The future of Imola is unclear, while Barcelona are still hoping to secure a date after Madrid arrives on the calendar in 2026, and could also be part of an alternation package with other races.
“As you know, Madrid will be part of the calendar in 2026. And we have long-term agreements which represent the vast majority of circuits in our current situation.”
“And that allows us, of course, to work with them to promote better quality, to make sure that what we want to offer our customers is of the highest standard.”
“For 2026 and beyond, of course, we will have news to share very, very soon, regarding the mid-term possibility of holding rotating European Grands Prix, and other new options to come later. This is something which will, of course, be clarified in due course.”
“It is true that we have a high demand from potential new venues who want to come to F1, and our choice will always be balanced between the economic benefits that we can obtain as a system, and also to take advantage of the growth of the market, which we can see the potential which will benefit us to further develop our activity.”
“So this is something that we are handling in the right way. And thank God, today we have a problem of difficult choice to make in the quality of projects, that was not the case just a few years ago years.”
Domenicali said there were no plans to go beyond the current total of 24 races, despite interest from many potential promoters.
“We believe that the balance that we have in terms of numbers is the right one, so 24 is the balanced number. And I believe that all the proposals that are presented to us simply give us the opportunity to make the best choice for our future. “
“As always, we need to be balanced, knowing that we cannot follow just the pure direct financial proposition, as it is different from region to region, but it is up to us to offer our stakeholders the right choice.”
“And I think we're at a good time to make sure that the strategy for the future is even stronger, and that's why we're so confident that this will help improve our platform in terms of sporting, social and commercial.”
Domenicali also added that there was no urgency to sign a new Concorde agreement, which expires at the end of 2025.
“First of all, it is very important to remember that we still have a lot of time under the current Concorde, so there is no urgency. The discussions are progressing very well. And as we have already said , it's very, very positive, because at the moment the ecosystem is very strong.”
“And also all the teams and the wider sport have had a huge benefit from that. So the financial security for the future and the stability that we have today, that comes through in the work that we do.”
“And as soon as we have everything prepared for the future, 2026 and beyond, of course, we will inform everyone. But as always, as I said, we want to do the right thing. There is no rush. Everything is progressing well, as we said, and we look forward to confirming it to you when we have concrete things to announce.”
