Bernie Ecclestone says the future of Formula 1's North American grands prix depends on the teams' willingness to accept more races.With Montreal following Indianapolis off the calendar, there are no North American races on the 2009 schedule.
The teams have repeatedly expressed their frustration at this, insisting that America is a vital market for their sponsors.Ecclestone says he is willing to revive the American dates, but not at the expense of other venues as he wants F1 to continue visiting new destinations such as Singapore and Abu Dhabi.
He therefore believes that if the teams are so keen to race in the USA, they should be willing to drop their long-standing objection to the calendar being extended to 20 races."The trouble is that the teams don’t want to do more than 17 races," Ecclestone told Motor Sport magazine.
"If they don’t want any more than that then we cannot put on a race in America or get Montreal back."
He confirmed that efforts were underway to get Montreal back on the schedule as soon as possible."We are trying to get that back on again," said Ecclestone."The government is interested."
Ecclestone is less certain about America's prospects, as he believes Indianapolis is the only current US track capable of hosting F1.
Indianapolis replaced F1 with MotoGP last season after failing to agree a new contract with Ecclestone.
"Apart from Indianapolis, where we have been, there is nowhere in America we could go to and hold our head up and say, ‘This is comparable to other circuits we are building around the world,'" said the F1 supremo.He said his preference remains for a new track to be constructed in New York."It is the one place where someone could make a business out of it," he said.
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