Liberty Media’s new managing director of motorsport, Ross Brawn, is open to having more races on the F1 calendar but insists that quality is more important that quantity.
There has been much speculation by fans over the new commercial rights holder’s intentions for the sport. One area has been about expanding the already lengthy season the sport currently has, 2016 saw the longest season ever with 21 races.
In a recent interview with ESPN’s Maurice Hamilton, Brawn spoke about his discussions with Liberty Media about plans for expanding the calendar.
“They asked me what I thought was the maximum number of races, and first of all I said we’ve got to balance quality and quantity,” Brawn said.
“We’ve got to make sure we don’t just have races because we can increase the number, the races have to be of good quality, in good places and in exciting places.
“We also need to think about the frequency of races because the nice balance of a race every other weekend is perfect.”
Brawn further explained that teams can re-organise themselves to cope with a higher number of races as other series like NASCAR do.
However, the topic over the financial situation of the sport will no doubt come back into those discussions in the future about such ideas.
“There is absolutely no reason why we shouldn’t have more races, but you can’t have more races with the same structure that teams have now because it would just break it,” Brawn added.
“If we can have more races and find a way with the teams of giving them the capacity to do it properly then it’s certainly not a strain on the drivers because they don’t do any testing anymore.
“There are other people within the organisation for whom it is not a strain, but it would be a strain on the crews and engineers and so on.
“But it’s addressable and it can be done. Fundamentally we need to decide if we want that number of races and if it makes sense for the sport and makes sense for the show.”
