Ross Brawn has said that he’s open to the possibility of extending the Formula One calendar beyond its current number of around 20 races per season.
But Brawn – now the Managing Director of Motorsports for the sport’s owners Liberty Media Group – said that it really came down to a matter of the quality of Grand Prix events rather than the quantity.
“We’ve got to make sure we don’t just have races because we can increase the number, the races have to be of good quality, in good places and in exciting places,” he told ESPN this week.
“We also need to think about the frequency of races because the nice balance of a race every other weekend is perfect.
“But teams can organise themselves to do more than the current number,” he continued. “”There is absolutely no reason why we shouldn’t have more races, but you can’t have more races with the same structure that teams have now, because it would just break it.
“20 or 21 [races] is pretty tough on the crews and tough on the engineers, tough on everyone who travels. But if you then set yourself up with two sets of crews and two sets of engineers and all the rest of it, which I believe is what NASCAR does, then you can do it.
“If we can have more races and find a way with the teams of giving them the capacity to do it properly then it’s certainly not a strain on the drivers, because they don’t do any testing anymore.
“There are other people within the organisation for whom it is not a strain, but it would be a strain on the crews and engineers and so on. But it’s addressable and it can be done. Fundamentally we need to decide if we want that number of races and if it makes sense for the sport and makes sense for the show.
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