Chase Carey says there is still room “to add a couple” more races in the future
- Bevan Youl
Formula 1 CEO Chase Carey says that there is still room on 2020’s 22 race calendar to “add a couple more” with the demand to hold a race around the world increasing.
Since Liberty Media took over F1 agreements have been made with current tracks to continue hosting a grand prix throughout the year as well as introducing several new races to the calendar.
A return to Zandvoort in the Netherlands and new race in Vietnam coming in 2020 has increased the amount of races up to 22 with Carey believing there could be more added, but other tracks may be dropped if so.
“Demand [to hold an F1 race] has continued to be a real positive, really across the world, the number of places interested,” said Carey as quoted by MotorsportWeek.
“We have a pretty full calendar and long-term contracts, there’s limits to what we can do, we do think there’s opportunity.
“22 [rounds] is a pretty full calendar but we do think there’s room still to add a couple.
“We want long-term partnerships, but just as we changed this year, we will add races and we will selectively probably end up dropping races.
“There’s a couple of issues we touched on in the past about races we inherited, with agreements we inherited which clearly were not reflecting the value we feel should be.”
A street race in Miami around the Hard Rock Stadium has been agreed in principle for 2021, with Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez using his veto to overturn local opposition to the race.
“There’s some steps to go, they’re very short term, the reality is for 2021 we really do need to resolve this in the short-term, say the next few months, for it to be a 2021 race, so we have time,” Carey added.
“We have other options in the US that we think would be exciting, but we’re hopeful about Miami [and] we’ll see where it takes us in the coming weeks.”