Ecclestone: F1 wrong to grow calendar – should focus on 'prestige'

Former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone believes Liberty Media efforts to expand the sport's calendar will take their toll not only on Grand Prix racing's prestige but also on the teams.

Offers from race promoters from around the world continue to pour in for Formula 1, and commercial rights holder Liberty Media is capitalizing on the widespread demand.

Twenty rounds comprised F1's world championship in 2016, Ecclestone's final year at the helm of the sport.

This year's schedule initially included 24 events, but this was reduced to 22 races in the wake of the cancellation of the Chinese Grand Prix at the end of last year and the scrapping back in May of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix due to flooding.

Next season, 24 races are once again on F1's agenda, but that number could grow even further in the future based on the sport's 2026 Concorde Agreement.

• Read also: Formula 1 unveils 24-race 2024 calendar – includes China

Ecclestone reckons that 18 races constitute the ideal number, both in terms of focusing on prestigious venues and safeguarding the teams' wellbeing.

"My opinion is that 18 races is enough," told the Daily Mail. "We did 20 and I often thought that that was a bit too much. Because you have to think of the teams.

"Before long, they will have to employ double staff. With 22 or 23 races there will be too many divorces. It is a matter of when.

"I can understand the commercial people because they can say they are signing long-time agreements and that apparently makes the company they work for a lot more money.

"They can say they have 10-year contracts or whatever. So what they are doing is 100 per cent right for them at the moment commercially.

"But without any shadow of a doubt I would stick to 18 prestigious races. That’s because we don’t know, however long-term the contracts are on paper. We don’t know whether they will suddenly decide that it isn’t working too well and stop.

"Singapore were about to stop. They phoned me and asked me what I thought. I said they should see how it all works out but don’t stop now.

"I moved it from 18 to 20. I don’t want to make excuses for myself, but that was at a time we were moving it out of Europe to the rest of the world."

A growing calendar isn't Ecclestone's only gripe regarding F1. The 94-year-old also takes exception with how Liberty pumps its American races, with glitzy pre-race ceremonies and off-track entertainment.

"I think you can see that with the races in America that they are doing — which I think is completely mad," commented Mr. E.

"The one in Miami — the way they ran that was mad, trying to be American rather than the way I did it, which was trying to be pure Formula One as it was, rather than as it could be.

"Maybe they are completely right; maybe I was wrong trying to keep it more Formula One. I watch every practice session and every race and I look and I think, “My God are we trying to show Formula One or are we trying to show other things?”

"Netflix has captured them a little bit and they follow that a bit too much. Netflix is in the entertainment business as long as it suits them.

"It’s not like our old broadcasters who have been with us forever."

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