Chase Carey says he expects an announcement for the 2020 Formula 1 calendar to be imminent, with recent announcements seemingly pointing towards a record-breaking twenty-two race season.
Deals have already been announced for races in Vietnam and the Netherlands for next year, and the recent confirmations of new contracts with the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez to host the Mexican Grand Prix and Silverstone to host the British Grand Prix will ensure their presence on the schedule.
It appears the Spanish Grand Prix will also stay at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for 2020, meaning the only race on the 2019 schedule set to disappear is the German Grand Prix at the Hockenheimring, despite a highly entertaining race this season that was won by Max Verstappen.
“We expect to announce the 2020 calendar in the next few weeks,” revealed Formula 1 CEO Carey in a call with Wall Street analysts. “I think it’s largely finalised now.
“In general we expect the number of races in the next few years to increase a bit. There’s a limit to by how much, but I think we do expect it to go up marginally. As we announce the calendar we will provide more insights as to when and where that occurs.”
Carey says there is an expectation for overall revenue to increase over the coming years thanks to the levelling out of race hosting fees, with the CEO believing that some tracks on the calendar are not paying as much as they should to hold a Grand Prix, something he hopes to correct when contracts are renegotiated in the future.
“We do view this about an area of revenue growth for us, just to put it simply. It’s not consistent with every event, some events are different,” insisted Carey. “I think in some places the events are more mature, but I think we do expect and do look for this to increasingly be an area of opportunity for us.
“Adding a couple of races is a factor. I think we are very excited about the demand interest, the number of places that want to host a race, and obviously supply and demand is important.
“We value our historic relationships, but it is important to carve out opportunities to add a new race when the demand is there, and the appetite is there, for stepping up for that.
“I think there are some places where we are not receiving what we should be receiving when we came in. Between the supply and demand being in our favour, the increase in the race calendar, and addressing a couple of places where we’re not receiving what we can and should be, we do expect this to be an area of growth for us.”
