Formula 1’s director of motorsport Ross Brawn says that exceptional circumstances forced Formula One to schedule a ‘triple header’ for teams in 2018. Next year’s calendar will include 21 races, three of which – France, Austria and Britain – will be held on consecutive weekends.
But F1’s sporting boss has made clear that the heavy schedule, and subsequent burden on the teams, was dictated by uncommon events outside of Formula 1, insisting the ‘triple header’ is an exception and shall never become the norm: “The (football) world cup presented us with a very unusual problem” – Ross Brawn said, as recently reported by Sky Germany – “The final is in the afternoon and it would have been very unfair to have run a race on that weekend,” he added – “We could only solve that by having three races in a row but it’s not something we want to repeat in the future. It was an emergency measure,” Brawn said.
At the same time, Ross Brawn has targeted three new car manufacturers to help drive the sport’s expansion program: “There are several premium manufacturers that I would like in Formula 1. Porsche is one of them. But also Aston Martin and Lamborghini.” Currently, the high costs of developing a bespoke engine conforming to the sport’s technical regulations discourage new entrants. But Ross Brawn is hoping that proposals for new engine specifications from 2021 will reduce entry costs and attract new interest: “I guarantee you, with today’s power unit, no manufacturer is interested in getting started,” Brawn admitted. “That’s why we have to make it cheaper and easier. That is why we need to create an environment that’s attractive to them.” – Formula 1’s director of motorsport concluded, as reported by the German media.
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