The 2014 Formula One calendar may be comprised of as many as 22 races, with three new Grands Prix likely to be added to the schedule.
The return of the Austrian Grand Prix and the inaugural Russian Grand Prix will join the existing 19 races on the calendar next year, following separate announcements this week, while a third new event, a second race in the United States, is also planned.
On Tuesday, Red Bull announced that an Austrian Grand Prix will be held at the circuit it owns in rural Spielberg, the same venue which hosted the event until 2003, next year.
Red Bull, which already owns two Formula One teams and has a growing influence on the sport, acquired what was the A1 Ring in 2010 and has invested heavily to improve facilities there.
With Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz having agreed terms with Formula One Management chief executive Bernie Ecclestone, a Red Bull statement issued to the Austrian media said the event would take place on 6th July next year.
Meanwhile, Russian organisers have confirmed a date of 19th October 2014 for the first Grand Prix in the country. The race, which was announced by Ecclestone and Russian president Vladimir Putin in October 2010, will take place on a circuit created around Sochi's winter Olympic Park, a location also featuring a new soccer stadium which will be utilised when Russia stages the 2018 Fifa World Cup.
Oleg Zabara, the deputy general director of OJSC Center Omega, which is building the circuit, said the project was progressing well, despite huge construction work on-site ahead of next February's Olympics. He said: “The date fits perfectly into our plans for the Grand Prix organisation: construction of the circuit is nearing completion; preparations for the first Russian Grand Prix are well underway.”
Zabara added: “The hosting of the Formula One race opens up fresh commercial perspectives [and] the opportunity to attract more Russian and foreign tourists by extending the holiday season in southern Russia.”
The promotional company, which is backed by funding and political support from the Russian government, has made the formal application required to run a Grand Prix to the Russian Automobile Federation, the national sanctioning authority.
Preparations are also said to be continuing in New Jersey, which was slated to host its first street race this year before the event was postponed due to political and construction delays. Should the event, which will take place in the shadow of the Manhattan skyline, happen it is likely to take a June date and be twinned with the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal.
The new events increase the pressure on existing Formula One hosts, many of whom are already walking a financial tightrope. At the majority of Grands Prix, Formula One's central organisation takes all sponsorship, trackside advertising and hospitality revenues, leaving ticket sales as the only means for local promoters to try and get a return on the substantial annual race fees. Races in Europe have been particularly hard hit, unable to match the government funding available to support newer races in Bahrain, Singapore, Abu Dhabi and India.
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This season's 19-race calendar includes only seven events in Europe, following the loss of the European Grand Prix in Valencia which staged a race from 2008 until last year. Germany's two Formula One-standard circuits, Hockenheim and Nurburgring have taken to alternating as a Grand Prix host each year, a solution which has eased, but not entirely prevented, the financial burden on both venues.
In previous years, there has been a limit on the number of races per season in the form of a clause in the Concorde Agreement, the document which has traditionally tied together Formula One teams, Formula One Management as the commercial rights-holder and the FIA, world motorsport's governing body. However, it is thought likely that there is no such clause in place to cover the 2014 season, with no Concorde Agreement currently signed. Ten of the 11 teams on the 2013 grid have bilateral agreements in place with Formula One, tying them to the series commercially, but there is no single unifying document.
With no sign that any existing races will be dropped, apart from lingering doubts over the longevity of the troubled event in Korea, it is increasingly likely the 2014 world championship will feature the most crowded calendar in the 64-year history of the sport. The return of in-season testing – four post-Grand Prix tests are planned for next year – in 2014 will also add to the congestion.