May 25 (GMM) F1 chief executive Chase Carey has announced that there will be 21 grands prix next year.
That is just one race more than this season, despite the fact the sport’s new owners Liberty Media have hinted that the calendar could expand to as many as 25.
“There will be 21 next year,” American Carey told Auto Motor und Sport.
“But the list of places that are interested fills a page. The priority is to make the 21 races that we do have better.”
However, Carey said he does have his eye on adding at least another US race in a ‘destination city’, like New York, Miami or Las Vegas.
“We have five or six cities in the United States that are interested,” he added.
Another possibility is that existing race promoters could actually drop out, particularly after Bernie Ecclestone recently admitted he had overcharged them.
Carey, however, said the problem is that F1 has not been delivering value.
“It’s not enough to sign a contract and then say ‘See you next year’. There must be more coming from our side.
“So we need to sit down with the organisers who have problems. But we have no plans to renegotiate the current agreements,” he insisted. “Our product has a certain value and it’s not as if we do not have alternatives.”