Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali will visit Bangkok next week as plans for a race in Thailand gather momentum.
RACER understands a delegation from the organizing committee for a race in the Chatuchak area are present at this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix to understand how the race is put on within Albert Park. The Bangkok plans feature a similar track location with some city street sections as well as park usage, and the delegation previously attended last year’s Singapore Grand Prix on a similar visit.
The bid to host a race in Thailand has emerged as the most likely new addition to the calendar at this stage amid multiple expressions of interest, with F1 introducing race rotation. The Belgian Grand Prix has already been confirmed as moving to alternate years from 2027 onwards, with a similar model being explored for Barcelona and Imola.
Previously the main momentum was behind attempts to race on the African continent, but interest in a grand prix in Rwanda has cooled in recent months due to the ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with further uncertainty over whether a project to build an F1 circuit could be completed within an acceptable timeframe,
South Africa has also been mooted as a potential location that could return to the calendar, but after failed attempts to get a solid bid in place using the Kyalami circuit, no clear project has emerged that has so far been deemed viable.
There has also been expressions of interest from former venues in Turkey – at Istanbul Park – and Malaysia – at Sepang – to rejoin the grid, but RACER understands those are not currently seen as events that carry as much potential as the project in Thailand.
While Domenicali will visit Bangkok to see the Chatuchak proposal between this weekend’s race in Melbourne and the next in China, sources with knowledge of the situation describe the chances of an agreement being reached in future as 50/50.
McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown recently backed plans to add new races to the calendar, as long as rotation of existing events capped the total number at the current level of 24 rounds.
“Clearly some things have peaked (in F1),” Brown said. “24 races, we can’t do more.
“We’d like to see something spoken about in the past in order to grow the calendar, maybe have a fixed 20 races and 8 that rotate every other year, so that’s a way to get into the 28 markets, but maintain the 24 race calendar, because the calendar is very difficult on everybody. But that’s a way to continue to grow the sport.”
