Formula 1 commercial rights holders Liberty Media will not resort to gimmicks to make the show more entertaining, the sport’s CEO Chase Carey has said.

Liberty is known to be considering changes to the race weekend format for future seasons. While this is expected to involve reducing the amount of practice to condense the weekend into fewer days, some in F1 have also suggested shortening F1 races from their current two hour/305-kilometre standard.

However Carey isn’t convinced of a need to cut race distances.

“Maybe I’m too American, I don’t actually think the race is [long],” he told RaceFans and other media at the Geneva International Motor Show today. “Every sport I follow in America is much longer than our races.”

Carey said Liberty will resist the temptation to use “gimmicks” to attract more interest in F1.

“I think we want to make sure we’re always looking for ways to improve the fan experience but in doing that respect the history of the sport and respect what makes the sport great. We’re not going to gimmick the sport up.

“It’s a wonderful sport, it’s a sport with a great history, great fans. You’ve got to respect that but be open to ways that we can continue to create energy and create excitement about it. And you want to do that carefully when you’ve got a sport that has as many fans and as great a history as ours.

“But I don’t think there’s a goal specifically to say short [races] or what, I think there are other ways to energise and excite.”

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2019 F1 season