Twenty-four races from March to November around the world, next season the fans will be served.

Even if the canceled Chinese Grand Prix has not yet been replaced, a 23-round season would still be unprecedented.

"With 24, we are approaching the limit. But we can never say that it is over", explained to AFP at the end of October the CEO of F1, Stefano Domenicali, assuring that he "could sign with seven or eight other countries" if it could - but the "Concorde agreements" in force until 2025 set the maximum at 24.

About ten races in the 1950s and 1960s, fifteen during the following decades, then the twenty mark crossed in 2012... And now 30 on the horizon?

Since the acquisition of commercial rights in 2017 by the American group Liberty Media, modernizing the discipline via a Netflix series and richer content on social networks, F1 has dreamed big, flirting with a certain delusion of grandeur.

Liberty Media chief executive Greg Maffei and Formula One boss Stefano Domenicali at a ceremony in Las Vegas on November 5, 2022 © WADE VANDERVORT / AFP/Archives

"You have to calm down"

The double world champion Max Verstappen himself thinks so, it would take "fewer races".

The Dutchman 'thinks 16 (would be ideal), just keeping the good circuits and removing the others'.

Clearly, quality should prevail over quantity.

Especially if, as in 2022, Verstappen wins most races (15 out of 22 this season), leaving the risk of fatigue hanging over.

Domenicali doesn't think so and assures that the championship will be "tighter" in the future.

Whatever, "in any case, we have already sold an incredible number of tickets" for 2023.

F1 can take advantage of the crowds of 2022, with peaks in the United States (440,000 spectators during the weekend in Austin), Australia (420,000) or Mexico City (395,000), not to mention rising television audiences.

On the side of the stables, if we also take advantage of the windfall, we also call to slow down.

"Twenty-four races is enough. We must stabilize at the level where we are and not do more", explained to AFP Günther Steiner, head of Haas, in November during the presentation of the Las Vegas Grand Prix 2023. "Since Liberty Media took over there has been a lot of change, but at some point you have to calm down."

The starting grid for the last Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on November 10, 2022 © Ben Stansall / AFP/Archives

For Jost Capito, who has just been removed from his post as boss of the Williams team, "22 races this year and 24 next year, that's a lot for the teams and we can clearly see that at the end of the season all the world is exhausted".

If the physical challenge is not a problem for the pilots, it is for the shadow workers who are the mechanics and the engineers, who will have to organize themselves around a new rotation system.

A rotation made all the more essential by aberrant sequences of races (Azerbaijan-Miami-Italy or even Spain-Canada-Austria), which forcefully raise the question of the environmental limit.

"Nice slogan but not very credible"

How does F1 intend to meet its carbon neutrality target in 2030 while organizing more races?

"A lot of things look attractive, but are actually quite meaningless," said German Sebastian Vettel recently, for the specialized media Auto motor und sport.

The objective of neutrality "only works with compensation", raises the quadruple champion of 35 years, new-retired and converted environmental activist, who recalls that the fact of counterbalancing his emissions is not a viable solution and can s seem like greenwashing.

F1, which communicates at will on its future "neutrality", however remains discreet and nebulous on its emission reduction objectives and the mechanisms to achieve it.

One of F1's key arguments, the switch to sustainable fuel in 2026, is also brushed aside by Vettel: "This technology is already there, it's not new. Formula 1 likes to boast of being a technical precursor , but we would have been a forerunner if we had unpacked it ten years ago".

Finally, "Inspector Seb" wonders "who is in charge of controlling" this objective?

"If Formula 1 controls itself, it is certainly a beautiful slogan, but not very credible".

© 2022 AFP