May 26 (GMM) The new Concorde Agreement will allow Bernie Ecclestone to expand F1's race calendar.

The current deal provides for 17 races, with only separate agreements with the teams pushing the existing race schedule to twenty grands prix between March and November.

F1 chief executive Ecclestone said this weekend in Monaco that he is close to finalising the 2013 commercial contract with all the teams.

Writing in the Guardian newspaper, business journalist Christian Sylt reports that the new deal will "allow Ecclestone to set up more races".

The 2013 Concorde builds in the "flexibility to go beyond 20 races", Ecclestone confirmed.

"We have got four or five places waiting to do something."

One host in waiting is Thailand, who have made their intentions clear by successfully bidding to host this year's end-of-season Race of Champions event in December.

"We aim to bring formula one to Thailand as well," said the southeast Asian country's sports minister Chumphol Silpa-archa.

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