LONDON: Formula One teams have approved the expansion of the F1 calendar to a record 22 races for 2020.
The decision followed a meeting between the team bosses and Formula One Group (FOG) chief executive Chase Carey on Saturday ahead of Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix at Hungaroring in Mogyoród, Hungary.
F1 commercial rights holder Liberty Media, which owns FOG, had asked the ten teams to consider the proposal to increase the calendar beyond the current 21 races.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff told reporters that as part of the agreement, following fears that spending would increase should the engine component allocation be increased to compensate for the extra race, it was agreed that the allocation would remain the same as this year.
“In a nutshell we basically agreed to have a 22nd race,” the Austrian told reporters. “We’ve got to let Liberty do their business, and their business is to grow F1.
“If they are able to attract promoters, we’ve got to support them,” he continued. “So we shouldn’t change the technical regulations because we have an extra race. That was the debate we had. It shouldn’t be seen as an opportunity to increase the number of components.
“But equally we’ve got to protect our people and all of us, because it could get to a point where it’s not manageable any more with one single crew. That becomes a factor that needs a solution.”
With teams supporting an extra race, FOG now needs to finalise a workable calendar.
