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Bernie Ecclestone promised that the Belgian GP will be back in 2004. There will also be two new races next year, in China and Bahrain and only one race is taken out of this year's calendar, the Austrian GP. The total comes up to 18 Grands Prix, which is more than ever before !
At Hockenheim, a rumour started spreading that the Canadian GP would not return in 2004 but Bernie Ecclestone mentioned that it is too early to speculate on that. The reason why Bernie Ecclestone thinks that way is because his project includes 18 races .
To make this new extended F1 season possible, Bernie Ecclestone offered to the team a new 2-day Grand Prix weekend format : free practice and first qualifying session on Saturday and final qualifying session on Sunday morning with the race in late afternoon when television audiences are larger, confirmed by the good ratings for the races in Brazil and Canada which are transmitted around 18:00 in Europe.
Bernie Ecclestone is hoping that the team will agree to these changes in the next few days. The new weekend format should not be too much of a problem for the team to accept but having 18 races a year might not please teams such as McLaren, BAR and Sauber. Bernie Ecclestone still have a few days to convince everyone. If that doesn't work, one race will have to be taken out of the provisional calendar. The victim could be the Canadian GP or even the San Marino event.
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www.f1-live.com
Als alle races maar om 18:00 uur verreden worden, betekent dat voor ons arme Belgen telkens uitgestelde relais om 22 à 23 uur of nog later. Aan de andere kant denk ik niet dat de teams zullen akkoord gaan met 18 races, dus nog even afwachten...