Carey denies targeting 25-race F1 calendar

Chase Carey has denied setting 25 races per season as the target for future F1 calendars.

A 21-race schedule for 2018 has already been revealed, but there are claims new events - particularly in the US - could drive the tally to unprecedented heights.

"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."

In fact, new F1 chief executive Carey seems to agree 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.