Formula One owners Liberty Media plan to expand season beyond record 21 races

Expansion | Liberty Media want to increase the calendar
Giuseppe CacaceAFP/Getty Images
Richard Parry5 June 2017

Formula One owners Liberty Media hope to expand the race calendar even further beyond its current format.

It was announced last week that the 2018 season would consist of 21 races – a record-equally amount for the sport.

Germany and France return to the line-up, with Malaysia making way.

But Sean Batches, the commercial managing director of F1, says that Liberty Media want to expand the calendar even further – providing the format works for the race teams.

"We want to work in partnership with our teams in terms of determining where we go, but our view is that we’d like to go above 21," he told Reuters. "And we want to be a little bit more proactive and go on the offensive in terms of the markets where we go."

"As we start identifying an optimal calendar in optimal regions, we can go down and sit with cities and make our case as opposed to what has been a little bit more reactive to bids coming in."

"What we do have to take all that into consideration and we have to work closely with our partners on the team front to find out what the high water mark is and what makes sense for everyone. We are very interested in doing what’s best for fans.

"Next year… there is a weekend where the Wimbledon final and World Cup final take place on the same day. It would be sub-optimal to have the British Grand Prix on that day. It’s a tight schedule."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in