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Teams to Bernie: No 22-race calendar

LONDON, England - Formula 1 team bosses are heading for a clash with Bernie Ecclestone over the shape of future GP calendars.

It's emerged that Mexico will join the schedule in 2015, Azerbaijan and perhaps New Jersey in 2016, which would push the number of races from 19 - fewer than the Concorde Agreement limit of 20 - to a potential 22.

However, according to Germany's Auto Motor and Sport, the new commercial agreements with F1 chief executive Ecclestone allow for a new maximum of 22 races.

'SHOULD BE CAREFUL'

For F1's commercial rights holders more races convert automatically into more income but Auto Motor and Sport claims that some internal cost calculations show that 21 races is actually the financial limit for the teams.

Sauber team boss Monisha Kaltenborn said: "We should be careful not to saturate the year with too many races. We know what it means on our personnel. We might have to restructure things again - we should be careful before we take these kinds of steps."

It's believed Kaltenborn was referring to a tipping point in the basic structure of the teams - once a certain number of races is reached, for example, teams may have to consider rotating staff and rethinking logistics.

"It is clear," agreed Ferrari chief Marco Mattiacci, "that stretching the championship to many races means more investment on our side so it opens another discussion."

Stay with Wheels24 for the 2014 F1 season – fresh reports every day.
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