F1 Rumor: Thailand, South Korea and/or Rwanda could land F1 race

BBC correspondent Andrew Benson talks about new F1 races under consideration and which ones could lose their F1 race.

F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has not said there will never be more than the current 24 races per year, leaving the door open for possible future schedule expansion.

“Thailand and South Korea are both under serious consideration for a date. And F1 is keen to hold a race in Africa. Attempts to find an agreement to return to Kyalami in South Africa foundered a couple of years ago, but F1 president Stefano Domenicali says he is evaluating a “serious” bid from Rwanda.

“The obvious race to fall off the calendar would be the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, as the second event in Italy.

“But there has also been talk of rotating some of the European F1 races – for example, Belgium and the Netherlands taking it in turns to host year to year.

“And Canada is under serious threat even for next year because the organization is considered to have fallen below standards in recent years, and Montreal is under pressure to improve that.

“Even Silverstone needs to be careful – it was the scene of traffic chaos again this year, bringing back bad memories from the past. There were problems leaving the track on both Friday and Sunday, and many senior F1 figures and media were caught up in jams for hours.

“F1 was not happy at all, and wants to make sure that does not happen again.”