Formulation 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali will go to Bangkok subsequent week as plans for a race in Thailand collect momentum.
RACER understands a delegation from the organizing committee for a race within the Chatuchak space are current at this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix to grasp how the race is placed on inside Albert Park. The Bangkok plans characteristic an identical monitor location with some metropolis road sections in addition to park utilization, and the delegation beforehand attended final 12 months’s Singapore Grand Prix on an identical go to.
The bid to host a race in Thailand has emerged because the most definitely new addition to the calendar at this stage amid a number of expressions of curiosity, with F1 introducing race rotation. The Belgian Grand Prix has already been confirmed as shifting to alternate years from 2027 onwards, with an identical mannequin being explored for Barcelona and Imola.
Beforehand the principle momentum was behind makes an attempt to race on the African continent, however curiosity in a grand prix in Rwanda has cooled in latest months because of the ongoing battle within the Democratic Republic of Congo, with additional uncertainty over whether or not a challenge to construct an F1 circuit may very well be accomplished inside a suitable timeframe,
South Africa has additionally been mooted as a possible location that would return to the calendar, however after failed makes an attempt to get a stable bid in place utilizing the Kyalami circuit, no clear challenge has emerged that has to date been deemed viable.
There has additionally been expressions of curiosity from former venues in Turkey – at Istanbul Park – and Malaysia – at Sepang – to rejoin the grid, however RACER understands these should not at present seen as occasions that carry as a lot potential because the challenge in Thailand.
Whereas Domenicali will go to Bangkok to see the Chatuchak proposal between this weekend’s race in Melbourne and the subsequent in China, sources with information of the state of affairs describe the probabilities of an settlement being reached in future as 50/50.
McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown not too long ago backed plans so as to add new races to the calendar, so long as rotation of current occasions capped the overall quantity on the present degree of 24 rounds.
“Clearly some issues have peaked (in F1),” Brown stated. “24 races, we will’t do extra.
“We’d prefer to see one thing spoken about prior to now to be able to develop the calendar, perhaps have a hard and fast 20 races and eight that rotate each different 12 months, in order that’s a solution to get into the 28 markets, however keep the 24 race calendar, as a result of the calendar could be very tough on all people. However that’s a solution to proceed to develop the game.”
