Sauber Against 19-Race F1 Calendar

Peter Sauber believes the British and French Grands Prix should stay in Formula One, but the team chief says he is against increasing the calendar to 19 races.

"I think it is important that we have both British and French Grands Prix," Sauber told Atlas F1 in an interview. "But, I am not at all in favour of 19 races. It is not a good scenario to have so many but we must keep those two.

"There are other races that could be cancelled; I don't wish to say which, but there are unnecessary ones if one looks at the bigger picture."

Both traditional Grands Prix were listed as provisional, subject to contracts being agreed, but a deal was reached in a meeting this week to save both races, which will likely see a bigger than ever 19-race calendar.

The deal, however, was agreed by only nine of the ten teams, and World Champions Ferrari are still to approve it if the races are to happen next season.

Ferrari were shut out of a similar meeting at the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix last month when the nine teams announced their own radical cost-cutting initiative.

That move was rejected by Ferrari because of its aim to eliminate most testing during the season and seek a single tyre supplier.

The other nine teams had decided to reduce testing, under a voluntary agreement, by 50 percent next season and push for a single tyre supplier from 2006.

Sauber said it was a challenging situation for the sport.

"I don't want to describe Formula One as critically ill, but it is going through challenging times," he added. "We should not forget, though, that Formula One has been through some boom times, so we've seen a bit of levelling off. That's normal and also happened in other sports.

"The boom was driven by two things: first, [Michael] Schumacher, second Mercedes. Don't forget when Steffi Graf and Boris Becker were on top in tennis, they created massive interest in tennis worldwide although they were German.

"These two (German factors) led to an explosion of interest in Formula One, and now we have a slight levelling. It is realignment, nothing else."

Read the full interview with Peter Sauber in this week's issue of Atlas F1.