F1 is considering organizing several Grands Prix on the same circuit

What if certain circuits received not one, but several races of Formula 1 in 2020? This is the not-so-crazy idea described by Zak Brown, the CEO of Mclaren racing, on British radio BBC Radio 4.

“We are discussing it, obviously with a now more restricted calendar, what would be the best solution to complete the most Grands Prix. One of the proposals is to potentially organize several events at the same location. Silverstone (Britain) is one of the possible circuits », He explains.

Indeed, the track which hosted the first Formula 1 Grand Prix in May 1950 is not against this project, as is the Red Bull Ring in Austria. The country, who began a gradual de-confinement this week, announced through his vice-chancellor and minister of sports Werner Kogler thathe would not block the Grand Prix. 

Ross Brawn, F1's Motor Sports director, wants to organize a maximum of events in a minimum of time in the second half of the year. This desire does not fit well with the constraints linked to transport across countries. The former technical director of Benetton and Ferrari does not want downtime to disrupt the smooth progress of F1 once the first event has been contested. 

If the English and Austrian sports venues are tempted by the idea of ​​seeing the single-seaters driving in opposite directions in order to avoid redundancy between the different races, the promoters of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya (Spain) refuse this idea for safety reasons . 

“There are not many circuits whose clearances are designed to drive in both directions in complete safety, explains Joan Fontserè, the General Director of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya to the Hispanic media SoyMotor.com.

In Barcelona it's impossible unless you slightly change some corners. It's not a question of approval, because the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) would help us and reduce the paperwork, but for us, this is not feasible for safety reasons. »

On the other hand, the circuit directors concerned agree to imagine the feasibility ofevents without public presence. Zak Brown indicated that the scenario remains on the agenda.

“In fact, it seems that all the European events on the calendar that we could go to would be organized behind closed doors”, he states with great tweezers, while Christian horner, his counterpart at Red Bull Racing, confirms these statements with Sky Sports.

There are indeed some circuits that are talking about organizing events behind closed doors, focusing on TV (for income and exposure), with a limited number of participants and equally restricted staff, so that the championship can begin.

It's absolutely doable. When lockdown measures are lifted, how motivated will people be at the thought of sitting in a crowd of 150 spectators? » The first results of our survey (available on the site's home page) are quite evocative, with one in two Internet users who would not immediately return to a circuit once confinement disappears: