20-race idea gains support

At one time such a thought seemed to be popular only with F1 ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone who, as always, had an eye on bringing in additional revenue. For years it was dismissed out of hand by the teams, who always insisted 16 races was the maximum. That became 17, has now reached 18, and 20 is currently touted as a possibility hand-in-hand with much reduced testing and possibly more compact race weekends.

Frank Williams said in Australia: "On our side it means a lot more work for people who are always exhausted by October in any case. I think most people with the exception of one team (Ferrari) are pretty much ready to reduce testing materially, and the manufacturers have opinions not dissimilar from the ones I'm expressing.



"Twenty races, at the end of day, comes down to whether or not it is affordable and to what the recompense is. And to where the races are - Europe or outside."

With leading teams currently doing two to three times as much testing mileage as race mileage, BMW's Mario Theissen added: "From our perspective a reduction in testing would be very beneficial in terms of cost saving, especially for the small teams because they pay for the amount of engines they need for the season."

"I could imagine doing two more races if we significantly cut testing during the season. We are currently spending a lot of resources hiding the show for the spectators, which doesn't really make sense."