F1 at maximum capacity with 21 races - Brawn

Ross Brawn, F1's new sporting director, believes a 21-race calendar is the maximum number of events that Formula 1 can reasonably support.

The Formula One Group CEO Chase Carey has suggested that the sport's schedule could be boosted to 25 races, or even more, but Brawn believes the calendar should not be inflated.

"The priority is the quality of the events," Brawn told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.

"North America is important but so is Asia and Europe.  How many races should we have?

"We must not inflate the calendar, 20-21 is the maximum. France will be back next year and perhaps Germany as well. And Monza is very important," Brawn added.

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But the biggest task awaiting the former Ferrari and Mercedes engineer is defining the sport's future engine platform which will come into effect after 2020.

"We are thinking about the evolution of the hybrid engine," Brawn said.

In order to retain a link with road car relevance, F1 could indeed carry on with its current hybrid approach, although fine tuning the technology to make the engines louder and perhaps also less expensive.

Furthermore, among several options under consideration to spice u the competition is the eventuality of opening up F1's tyre supply contract to another manufacturer, like in the golden days of the great battles between Michelin and Goodyear.

"Competition is useful, but it's expensive," Brawn admitted.

"And Pirelli has done a great job -- it's too easy to criticise them. That said, we will analyse which tyres will be most suitable for the F1 we have in mind."

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