Irish-American Chase Carey, the chief executive officer and executive chairman of the Formula One Group, admitted that Liberty Media will press ahead with plans to expand the sport’s calendar beyond its current record levels of 21 races and at the same time added that some of the existing events will be dropped in order to make way for new ones. Historic venues like Silverstone, Monza and Interlagos face uncertain futures in Formula 1, having been financially hamstrung by exorbitant deals signed with Bernie Ecclestone before he sold up to Liberty Media back in 2016.
Silverstone’s owners the BRDC enacted a break clause in their contract with F1 that could see the first grand prix circuit drop off the calendar in 2020, with Monza and Interlagos also facing the prospect of 2019 being their final years on the calendar.
With a Vietnam Grand Prix already confirmed for the 2020 F1 season and plans in place to add races in Miami and the Netherlands, Carey’s vision for a 25-race calendar is coming to fruition, but he says existing races are not necessarily safe: “We expect to expand our calendar beyond our current 21 race schedule,” Chase Carey said at Liberty Media’s AGM – “Expansion will be modest but we have been excited by the number, quality and diversity of new locations interested in hosting a race. We expect to replace a few existing races where we inherited unattractive agreements with new events or agreements that are better for racing and provide more value.” – Formula 1’s CEO Chase Carey concluded.
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