“It’s difficult to say no” - Red Bull boss Christian Horner speaks on F1’s ever-increasing races

Red Bull Team principal Christian Horner recently reacted to the increasing number of races in the Formula 1 calendar. He also spoke about Stefano Domenicalli's child-like excitement about adding new race circuits.

Horner believes that the F1 teams are operating on their upper limit with 23 races on the calendar. He stated that it is difficult to say no to these additions as they just keep coming up with great venues and great races.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Horner said:

"It’s difficult to say no, but you do reach a point where you wonder where you get oversaturation and 23 is an insane amount of racing and mileage that we have to cover in a season."

The Red Bull chief also felt that it would be better to have competition in the existing venues than to add more.

---

Red Bull team principal is unhappy with the chaos of adding more locations

The 2023 F1 season is set to be one of the longest race calendars in the championship's 70-year history. The calendar has been criticized for numerous reasons. For instance, the races scheduled are not perceived as environment friendly, and more races are being added in countries where human rights records are questionable.

Christian Horner also pointed out the conflicting ambitions of the F1 fraternity. They want to retain historical tracks such as Spa-Franscorchamps, Monza, and Monaco but also add more tracks to keep the calendar vibrant and upbeat.

However, popular race tracks like Silverstone, Spa, and Monza have nearly escaped from being dropped because of skyrocketing prices and lucrative offers from other countries. Tracks like Hockenheim in Germany have been scrapped from this year's calendar.

Besides, the increase in the number of sprint races this year, the F1 calendar has significantly grown since 2009. Back then there were only 17 races compared to 23 races this year.

Apart from this, the FIA is prioritizing increasing the number of street circuits as they increase the excitement of viewers watching the sport. Street circuits also bring out the best in drivers. In this year's race calendar, the newly included street circuit is the 2023 Caesars Palace Grand Prix in Las Vegas.

This isn't the first time that a team or a driver has opposed or criticized this move by the FIA. A while back, Red Bull's Max Verstappen threatened to quit F1 as he thought that the sport is losing its DNA by adding more sprint races.