Despite suggesting earlier last year that he wanted to see the maximum number of Formula One races per season remain at twenty, Bernie Ecclestone has hinted that this number might possibly rise in future seasons.
The 2011 season was originally set to feature twenty races, though this number has dropped after the cancellation of the troubled Bahrain GP.
Last year, Ecclestone suggested that 20 was an ideal maximum for the F1 schedule, which has expanded from 16 races over the last decade.
The provisional calendar for 2012 originally saw 21 races listed, but this has now been scaled back to 20 thanks to the Turkish GP being dropped.
But Ecclestone has suggested that the schedule could expand beyond 20 races in the future, especially if any new races threatened a more historic F1 venue.
"We could have 21 [races in a season]," Ecclestone blustered to his favourite UK sounding board, the Daily Express.
He added: "If we say we have got to get rid of Monaco, [the teams] would say we would rather not."
Ecclestone previously courted the ire of F1 fans in mid-2010, when he suggested that Formula One "could do without" their annual trip to Monte Carlo.
The F1 schedule appears almost certain to have to move beyond 20 races in the future, without a significant cull of current races.
The 2012 season sees the new US Grand Prix in Austin, Texas debut on the calendar, apparently joining at the expense of Turkey.
And already Ecclestone has agreed a deal for a Russian GP in Sochi to join the schedule from 2014.
Discussions over the return of grands prix in France and South Africa are also ongoing, while this week saw the announcement of a renewed proposal for a second US race, possibly as early as 2013, in New York.
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