Chase Carey: '25-race calendar not a reality'

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Formula 1's CEO Chase Carey believes that quality trumps quantity when it comes to building the sport's future.

Next season's calendar boasts a 21-race schedule, with The Formula One Group suggesting recently that the number of events is likely to grow.

But chief executive Carey insists that there are more important considerations than taking the number of races per year up to 25.

"We have never suggested that," he clarified.

"We have only discussed the possibility of more races, including an additional race in the US in New York or Miami perhaps.

"But 25, 23, 22 races is not the reality at the moment and not the point of the discussion," Carey explained.

"At the moment, our attention is on making the 21 races really great events, making more of what we have and putting the fan back in the middle," he added.

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Red Bull motorsport boss Helmut Marko agreed that the sport currently has more pressing matters to look after.

"25 races would be possible," Red Bull's Dr Helmut Marko told the Austrian broadcaster Servus TV.

"But then we would be at the point of working with two teams that are replacing one another.

"For us the number of races is not the point. We want to see the driver, not the engineer, at the centre, and this dominance of the engine must end," he added.

"We want to see things like Verstappen fighting with Hamilton and Vettel, not hearing the engineers tell the drivers how to save fuel or go to another engine mode."

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Phillip van Osten

Motor racing was a backdrop from the outset in Phillip van Osten's life. Born in Southern California, Phillip grew up with the sights and sounds of fast cars thanks to his father, Dick van Osten, an editor and writer for Auto Speed and Sport and Motor Trend. Phillip's passion for racing grew even more when his family moved to Europe and he became acquainted with the extraordinary world of Grand Prix racing. He was an early contributor to the monthly French F1i Magazine, often providing a historic or business perspective on Formula 1's affairs. In 2012, he co-authored along with fellow journalist Pierre Van Vliet the English-language adaptation of a limited edition book devoted to the great Belgian driver Jacky Ickx. He also authored "The American Legacy in Formula 1", a book which recounts the trials and tribulations of American drivers in Grand Prix racing. Phillip is also a commentator for Belgian broadcaster Be.TV for the US Indycar series.