Ecclestone, now aged 92, left his role as F1 chief ♎executive in 2017 when US-based Liber🐽ty Media took over.

Since then, Netflix’s ‘Drive To Survive’ series has taken t🌼he sport to new audiences and, this year, F1 will hold three races in the US including the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

“My opinion is that 18 races is enough,” Ecclestone told the about the record-breaking 24 grand prix caleꦏndar planned for 2024.

“We did 20 and I often thought that thไat was a bit too much. Because you have to think of the teams. 

“Before long, they will have to employ double staff. W🍌ith 22 or 23 races there wi✤ll be too many divorces. It is a matter of when.

“I can understand the commercial people because they can say they are signing long-time agreements and that apparently makes the company they worꦏk for a lot more money. 

“They 𓃲can 💟say they have 10-year contracts or whatever. So what they are doing is 100 per cent right for them at the moment commercially.

“But without any shadow of a doubt I would stick to 18 prestigious races. That’s because we don’🍌t know, however long-term the contracts are on paper. 

“We don’t know whethe💛r they will suddenly decide that it isn’t working too well and stop.

“Singapore were about to stop. They phoned me and 𝓀asked me what I thought. I said they should see how it all works out but don’t✱ stop now. I moved it from 18 to 20. 

“I don’t want to make excuses for myself, buꦫt that was at a time [ꦇwhen] we were moving it out of Europe to the rest of the world.”

Stef♏ano Domenicali is now the CEO of Formula 1. Ecclestone rema📖rked: “Stefano called me when he got the job. I told him that when I was running it as chief executive that I made the calls. 

“Nobody fr🐈om [the former owners of F1] ever complained about that — they let me get on with what I thought was best at the time. 

“I don’t know what Stefano’s position is. I 🙈think he is a little bit more aware of what the people in America th🦹ink.

“I think you can see that with the races in America that they are 𒁏doing — which I think is completely mad. 

“The one in Miami — the way they ran that was mad, trying to be🎃 American rather than the way I did it, which was trying to꧒ be pure Formula One as it was, rather than as it could be.

“Maybe t▨hey are completely right; mayb𒀰e I was wrong trying to keep it more Formula One. 

“I watch every practice session and every race a💞nd I look and I think, ‘My God🤡 are we trying to show Formula One or are we trying to show other things?’

“Netflix h💮as captured them a little bit and they follow that a bit too much. Netflix is in the entertainment business as long as it suits them. It’s not like our old broadcasters who have been with us forever.”