New venues no guarantee of exciting racing

 The Manhattan skyline: soon to become a familiar sight on the F1 calendar?

The Formula One calendar will be extended to a record 20 Grands Prix next year, Bernie Ecclestone announced recently, with the addition of a new race at the Jaypee Group Circuit in Uttar Pradesh, India. At the same time, F1's commercial rights holder made it clear that further expansion is on the horizon, to the extent that the season might soon comprise as many as 25 races.

A seven-year contract has recently been signed for a new Rome Grand Prix, which is scheduled to make its debut in 2012. There has long been talk of a future event in Russia, and this week there have been suggestions that the USA might make a return by once again hosting two events. The prospect, then, of the season being extended to 25 races is very real. But unless the proposed new venues can guarantee that they will deliver exciting racing, are more events really what F1 needs?

Streets behind

On the whole it is road courses that have been the focus of attention in these discussions, not purpose-built venues. The Rome Grand Prix will take place in the Esposizione Universale Roma district on the southern outskirts of the city; the Russian event will likely be run through the streets either of Moscow or of the resort city Sochi; while much of the recent talk of a new US Grand Prix has focused on a New York or New Jersey race, with the skyline of Manhattan as a backdrop.

Without a doubt street circuits are more attractive and television-friendly than some of the new purpose-built autodromes such as those at Bahrain, Sepang and Shanghai, while also allowing fans to get much closer to the action. Indeed Bahrain, Malaysia and China have all come under fire for their poor attendance figures, and for their lack of aesthetic and personality. But what each one of them has done in the last few years is prove its ability to deliver competitive racing, which, after all, is what television spectators tune in to see.

By comparison, F1's recent track record on street circuits is less than glowing. Neither of the latest ones to be added to the calendar - Valencia and Singapore - have thus far shown much potential for exciting wheel-to-wheel battles, unless the order happens to be upset by a safety car. How likely is it that the proposed new circuits will be any more conducive to overtaking?

Simulation of the proposed Rome street circuit.

Not very, if the video preview for the Rome event is any indication. It reveals a track with no less than 28 corners, including several 90-degree turns and five chicanes - presumably to keep speeds down given the lack of run-off areas - and only one obvious overtaking place, into the hairpin at the end of the start/finish straight. On such evidence, it is hard to imagine this becoming a favourite either with drivers or with spectators, or providing any more of a spectacle than Valencia or Singapore have done.

Sadly, modern Formula One cars are not designed to take to the streets, as viewers who have watched years of processions through Monte Carlo will know. The Monaco Grand Prix is a special case due to its glamour, prestige and popularity and its long history, and will remain on the calendar for years to come for those reasons rather than because it is a great motor racing track. It is a unique sporting and cultural fixture, not a model for other events, and attempts to replicate it elsewhere - for example in Rome or New York - are misguided.

Expansion is not the answer

F1 is an industry as well as a sport, however, and therein lies the problem. Like all industries, it is under pressure to expand and to spread its brand across the world. But the danger in chasing fresh markets and shiny new locations is that F1's commercial bodies could lose sight of what is most important - the racing - and in doing so will lose the interest of fans. The brand can just as easily be devalued if the result of expansion is simply more processional races.

Further extending the calendar is merely a way of diverting attention away from the sport's real issues - it does not solve them.

Photo reproduced from a panorama originally composed by Jnn13 and LiveChocolate and uiploaded under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license to Wikimedia Commons. Video originally uploaded toYouTube by romaformulafuturo.