Team Bosses Doubt Calendar Can be Expanded

Formula One is unlikely to see more than 17 races a year despite a suggestion that the calendar could be expanded, according to top team bosses.

Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone has suggested that expansion could save venues such as Austria, due to be axed after Sunday's Grand Prix to make way for new circuits in China and Bahrain. This year's calendar has 16 races after the Belgian Grand Prix was scrapped due to a row over tobacco advertising.

"Under the current agreement there is a mechanism to expand from 16 (races) to 17 but no further," said McLaren team principal Ron Dennis. "There isn't a race that we go to at which we don't lose money. Races cost us money to go to and there is no financial incentive for the teams to have more races.

"Of course, that is not necessarily the case for the promoters or the people who host the races. I think it would have to be exceptional circumstances for us to see the calendar growing," added Dennis.

Williams boss Frank Williams agreed.

"Most human beings in Formula One couldn't do 18 Grands Prix and a very extensive test programme," he said. "Another factor is the cost. It would have to be a lot of extra money. Bernie I'm sure will try and make a deal that includes that. There will be a lot of hard talking."

Former Jaguar boss Niki Lauda, the last Austrian to win his home Grand Prix, felt the A1-Ring was doomed.

"He's British, he's polite, so he knows what to say," he said of Ecclestone's suggestion that Austria might yet win a reprieve.

Lauda said the new races, in key markets for the car manufacturers, were more important for the sport's future.

"I do understand Bernie and if the next year's races or the year after come on line as he expects them to, then I don't see Austria coming back," said the three-times champion. "I know from my time as team principal that 17 was the number which is the limit...I don't think it will go much further. Teams want 17 races at the most. This I know.

"Anyway, I think it doesn't matter. We had 25 good years here, up and down. The politicians in Austria didn't help much so the support to keep it going from this side was very little."