Carey: This is the calendar

Editor

After last year’s numerous calendar tweaks, F1 boss Chase Carey says the 2018 scheduled that was released this week is the one that will be used next season.

Last year Formula 1 put out a calendar, revised it, revised it again and then did so again.

This year Carey says the calendar that was released on Monday will, barring the two races with asterisks, stand.

“I wasn’t there last year so I actually don’t know about the four calendars [last year],” he told Racer.

“This is very much our expectation that this is going to be the calendar, but again, we put the asterisk to be clear, at full disclosure on where we are in the process.

“But we wouldn’t have put the calendar out, we wouldn’t have submitted it, if it wasn’t the calendar we planned to move forward with.

“We’ve had discussions with all the relevant parties. This isn’t like putting it out and now waiting for everybody to react. We’ve engaged, we got feedback, so I think the parties that are most directly affected by it… again, this didn’t come out as a surprise.”

As for the two venues with asterisks, China and Singapore, both are currently negotiating new deals for 2018 onwards.

“Our expectation and goal is to have a race. We’re engaged with them. The reason is the contracts were up this year, so we’re negotiating new agreements, so those agreements aren’t completed,” he explained.

“We’re having good discussions and our expectation is to have it, but obviously we don’t have a signed agreement, so it’s just a reality of life with a lead time that still exists.

“We haven’t even had this year’s Singapore race, let alone next year’s, so it’s just the reality of having agreements that have come up. We’re negotiating new agreements, we’re having good, constructive discussions and expect to get there, but we want it to be accurate.

“We don’t expect it to be 19 [races], we expect it to be 21. We wouldn’t have put it out if we didn’t expect it to be 21, but the reality is we don’t have a completed agreement.”

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