F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali outlines the future of the sport

Photo by Dan Istitene – Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images

Domenicali shares his honest assessment of Red Bull’s dominance, and the growth of the sport

Formula 1 appears to be having a moment.

With three races in the United States this season — including the much-anticipated Las Vegas Grand Prix — coupled with the success of Netflix’s Drive to Survive, F1 is seeing growth both in the United States, and across the globe.

The person in charge of maintaining that success, F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali, outlined what that success means for the future of F1, and more, on the latest episode of the Beyond the Grid podcast. In addition to talking about the future of F1, Domenicali shared a shocking bit about just how popular the sport has become, and what some are willing to do to find a way into F1.

During the discussion Domenicali outlined how under the current Concorde Agreement, which governs F1, any new team must pay an “anti-dilution fee” of $200 million upon entering the sport. That fee would be shared among the ten existing teams.

“If you look what has happened in such a short term, talking about the value of one team, that was not many years ago – I would say two years ago when the new Concorde Agreement has been signed – when there was the talk about what is the value of a team that has to come in F1, there was a number put on the Concorde Agreement that was $200 million. Which seems unreachable, because there were teams in the past that were sold for £1,” said Domenicali.

It seems, however, that some are willing to pay much, much more than that to get on the grid right now.

“Now the market is offering almost billions to teams and they are refusing that. Can you imagine that?”

Expanding the F1 field has been a popular topic the past few months. FIA, the motorsport governing body, invited prospective teams to apply for a place in the field, and that process is currently underway. One of the major players in that effort is a partnership between Andretti Autosport and General Motors, under the Andretti-Cadillac brand.

From Domenicali’s perspective, increasing the size of the field is an option, but he also wants to make sure the current teams on the grid are in a strong position as well, before the grid expands.

“In my role I need to consider that the sport can grow only if the majority of all the teams can grow. That was one of the fundamentals of the budget cap to give a credible financial stability to the value of the franchise of the team,” said the F1 CEO.

“The more you are able to have a competitive field, the more you may have interesting races, the more you can create the interest in the sport and that’s for sure very, very important.”

As Domenicali points out, F1 is at the start of the process, and there is a long way to go before we see Andretti-Cadillac, and/or any other new teams, on the grid.

“So we have still a long time to go, but it’s an evaluation that we need to take considering what I said in this period of time where in the past there were teams that were coming in, getting out with zero value. Now the teams are stable, very profitable and very strong in terms of also technical capability to be competitive on the track,” said Domenicali to Beyond the Grid.

“Therefore, the right answer is that in the next months it will be a very important point of discussion that we need to tackle,” he added. “That is, do we need to stay with 10, do we need to have more teams or we can give the exemption to a future possible team to be really very, very strong that can join F1? This is all a topic that will be part of the discussion for the future.”

Domenicali also addressed one of the other big topics regarding the future of the sport, and that is the dominance we are seeing right now from Max Verstappen and Red Bull. The team has won all seven races this season, with Verstappen himself winning five of those events.

That success has seen Red Bull to a commanding lead in the Constructors’ Championship standings, but called into question the growth and success of the sport, and whether F1 can continue to reach new fans. If the same team is winning each week, is that good for the sport?

Domenicali believes that the recent rules changes — including the imposition of a cost-cap, restrictions on aerodynamic testing based on success the previous season, and technical regulations — will continue to see the field bunch up.

“It’s clear that the aim of what we want to do is to make sure that this gap will stay as small as possible. I’m sure that the other teams are watching how they can catch up with their development in the context of the budget cap,” said Domenicali.

“It would be interesting to see if the development curve of the team that today is leading will slow down because at the end of the day they did a better job in the shorter term,” he added. “So that would be very interesting to see in the next couple of months.”

Domenicali also outlined that F1 has seen dominant teams in the past, and that the goal should be imposing rules and regulations that see shorter windows of dominance.

“F1 has been always a sport where there has been cycles where teams were very dominant and then some others came in into the equation,” said the F1 CEO. “So I would say our objective should be, if you take the strategic approach, to make sure that these cycles in the future will be shorter, because that means that 20 cars, or whatever they are, will be really in the competition. This is what I would say as a commercial rights holder, but also as a lover of the sport, I would like to see.”

Also looming as a potential shake-up for the field are new regulations, which are coming in 2026. As part of the sport’s push to become carbon neutral by 2023, new regulations are going into place for the 2026 season that will see greater emphasis on electric power and sustainable fuels.

That is also the year that Red Bull’s new partnership with Ford begins, under which Ford is becoming the power unit supplier for the racing team.

One thing that is clear, in Domenicali’s mind, is that changing the rules mid-season to bring the field closer to Red Bull is not an option. F1 is, in his word, a “meritocracy,” and just because Red Bull is doing a better job at the moment does not mean drastic action has to be taken.

“The gap is between one team and the others. While the others are very, very close, one team – and that is Red Bull – did an incredible job,” said Domenicali. “This is a job of meritocracy so we need to consider that they did an incredible job.”

This is an opinion shared, perhaps surprisingly, by Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff. While you might think that Wolff would love to see changes that put Mercedes in a better position to close the gap, Wolff shares Domenicali’s mindset.

“F1 is a meritocracy,” said the Mercedes team principal following the Monaco Grand Prix, and another Verstappen win. “It’s sport, whether it is good for the show or not. Obviously a strong fight between 10 drivers or at least two, is much better for all of us but it is not happening, that is why you have to just accept that and work to get back there.”

The Silver Arrows are working to “get back there,” in Wolff’s words, and might have found the right recipe. After Lewis Hamilton finished fourth in Monaco, with George Russell behind him in fifth, the team secured their first double podium of the year in Barcelona, with Hamilton coming in second, and Russell third, in the Spanish Grand Prix.

While Wolff is currently downplaying Mercedes’ chances in Montreal this week, it is clear that he shares Domenicali’s view that the sport is built on merit, and rules should not be changed to even the playing field mid-season. Instead, teams just have to work hard and improve.

“If we start putting in a balance of performance we will ruin this sport,” Wolff said. “The best driver in the best car, spending the same amount of money should win the championship and if you break the rules in either you should be heavily penalised but only then. Not for doing a good job.”

Growing the field, and finding the right competitive balance, are two big issues facing F1 in the weeks and months ahead. Still, Domenicali believes the sport is in a great place both at the moment, and going forward.

“So that gives you the perspective of what we are building as an ecosystem,” Domenicali told Beyond the Grid. “We are building important structure, important dynamics of which the more everyone is growing, the better and the stronger is the business platform which we are all working in.”