Lewis Hamilton is sure Formula 1 will balance the number of “special” old circuits and “exciting” new venues on the calendar.
In recent years, F1 has introduced a wave of new races in the Middle East and America plus the return of two classic European tracks at Imola and Zandvoort.
But with the schedule nearing its maximum capacity of 24 or 25 races, it is putting pressure on other historic circuits like Spa, Monza and even Monaco to keep up or risk being replaced.
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In fact, Red Bull boss Christian Horner recently revealed F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has adopted a strategy of using the classic venues as a tool to further expand the calendar.
“Stefano turns up and they play the same trick every year and it’s like, ‘Oh, maybe we can’t go to Silverstone or Monza’s looking a bit wobbly’, and so on,” he told the Financial Times.
“And so he says: ‘Well, look, we can’t lose Monaco, we can’t lose Monza, we can’t lose Silverstone.’
“And then he’ll say: ‘What about Las Vegas?’ Okay, alright, we’ll go to Vegas. ‘What about Miami?’ Yeah, alright. We’ll go there too. And, you know, they just keep coming up with great venues and great races and it’s difficult to say no.
“But you do reach a point where you wonder where you get saturation and 23-25 races is an insane amount of racing and mileage that we have to cover in a season.
“I think it’s better to have competition for the existing venues [rather] than just keep adding more and more because you do get to a point of breaking point, which I don’t feel we’re that far from.”
Hamilton though has faith in the Italian F1 chief not to cast the classic circuits aside.
“Personally, I like the direction it’s going,” the seven-time champion said of the calendar via Motorsport-Total.com.
“I like the change we’re seeing and it’s exciting to get to other parts of the world and other tracks.
“It’s a challenge for engineers and drivers to visit these new places, but all the old classics like Hungary, Silverstone, Zandvoort and Monza will always be special.
“And I think it’s important that we continue to have them in the DNA of Formula 1. And as far as I know, Stefano has no plans to get rid of them. It’s good to have a balance.
“Of course, I love all the older tracks, and old tracks will always be the ones I prefer, [but] maybe 20 or 30 years from now a kid will look at [Miami] as a historic circuit.”
One aim Hamilton has been pushing for though is the return of F1 to Africa with a race at Kyalami in South Africa still in the works.
“We’ve been to all the other continents and I hope we go to Africa soon because that would be a great experience for the whole circus to get to know the culture there,” Lewis concluded.
