The rise of F1 street circuits: How many are too many?

With Madrid announced as the next spot to host the F1 Spanish GP from 2026 onwards, the reaction from the fans has not been the best. Come 2026, it does appear that Barcelona will make way for Madrid as another street circuit makes its presence felt in the current grid. The outrage against the increasing number of street circuits has grown over the years.

For a long time, street circuits in F1 were a novelty. There were two or three of them, which offered different challenges to the drivers and the teams and they were treated as such.

That ecosystem has seen a seismic shift. The number of street circuits on the F1 calendar has grown over the years and with Madrid expected to be one of the latest entries, there's a question that needs to be asked.

How many street circuits are too many before we start changing the fabric of the sport?

The rising number of street races over the last few years

Let's take a trip down memory lane and look at the 2004 F1 calendar. The calendar had just two street races, the first in Australia and the second in Monaco. Fast forward a decade in 2014 and we had three street circuits on the calendar, the first in Australia, the second in Monaco, and the third in Singapore.

On the 2024 F1 calendar, there would be as many as seven street circuits (Saudi Arabia, Australia, Miami, Monaco, Azerbaijan, Singapore, and Las Vegas). The number of street races has more than doubled over the last decade and it is only going to increase with Madrid making its presence felt in 2026.

Why so many F1 street circuits?

Arguably the most important question that many fans have asked is why the sport has been on a relentless push for more street circuits and the answer to that question is quite simple.

A street circuit is far more beneficial for the bottom line than a conventional track. The conventional tracks are built away from the street track and many times the resources needed to watch a race and the effort it takes to go there is a bit too much.

The accessibility proves to be a major question mark when it comes to a conventional track when one compares it to a street circuit, especially since the street circuit is right in the middle of the city.

In contrast, a conventional track would require booking a hotel that is still some distance away from the track. When one adds all of this, some of the reasons why F1 has been pushing for street circuits over the last few years become clearer.

Why the outrage?

One of the reasons behind the outrage is that in essence, F1 is not a street racing series. In terms of a true challenge for a car, a street circuit can tend to be very one-dimensional. More importantly, the current generation of cars are just horrible in the slow speed sections, and on street tracks, this does get accentuated.

Max Verstappen rightly put it across last season during the inaugural race weekend in Las Vegas where he said that the essence of F1 he grew up watching is not there anymore.

The bigger issue that many fans have pointed to is the 'sameness' of these tracks. The track in Miami, Las Vegas, or Saudi Arabia ends up looking so similar to each other that the uniqueness and the character of these tracks are missing. For the purists of the sport, this is a big concern and hence it gets voiced often.

How many are too many?

Finally, the most important question that Stefano Domenicali might have to answer is how much is too much? How many street circuits can a calendar accommodate before the sport loses its essence and its character?

Already there have been doubts circling over the future of Spa, a track that has been deemed the best by almost every driver on the F1 grid. At what point will this start to push the fans away?