CEO of Formula 1 Chase Carey has announced that the paddock will once again travel to 21 different venues in 2018, much like we saw last season when the record-breaking number was introduced.

For 2017, the amount of races has been slashed by one due to the absence of the German Grand Prix. However, it will make a return next year, along with the French Grand Prix which will be hosted by Circuit Paul Ricard.

"There will be 21 next year," American Carey told Auto Motor und Sport. "But the list of places that are interested fills a page. The priority is to make the 21 races that we do have better."

Malaysia previously confirmed that 2017 will be the final time a race will be hosted in the country. While they are uninterested in hosting a Grand Prix, Carey has confirmed that a number of cities in the US have contacted him in order to discuss a potential deal: "We have five or six cities in the United States that are interested," he said.

"It's not enough to sign a contract and then say 'See you next year'. There must be more coming from our side. So we need to sit down with the organisers who have problems. But we have no plans to renegotiate the current agreements," he insisted. "Our product has a certain value and it's not as if we do not have alternatives."

Fergal Walsh