The 2020 European calendar revealed

Three months after the cancellation of the Australian Grand Prix and the suspension of subsequent events, F1 has just unveiled the dates for the first part of the season, which will take place in Europe.

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It’s been over 6 months since the 2019 F1 season came to a halt when it was supposed to resume its thrilling race in Melbourne last March. However, the current health crisis forced officials to cancel the Australian Grand Prix just minutes before the start of the first free practice. The first Grand Prix to be postponed was the one in Shanghai, not far from the birthplace of the pandemic in China. Since then, no fewer than 8 Grand Prix have been canceled or postponed, such as Monaco or the newcomer, Zandvoort in the Netherlands.

F1 and its thousands of employees had come to a forced halt while the entire world was in lockdown, but behind the scenes, Liberty Media and the FIA were working on a resumption plan for the sport. Thus, it was this Tuesday morning that the revised European calendar was unveiled, and it has some particular features.

Indeed, F1 will resume on July 5th with a doubleheader at the Austrian Red Bull Ring circuit, followed by the Hungarian Grand Prix on July 19th, which was initially scheduled for August 2nd. On that date, we will be able to watch the British Grand Prix thanks to the support of the British government. The following week will feature a special event as F1 celebrates its 70th anniversary. The 70th Anniversary Grand Prix will therefore take place on August 9th, also at Silverstone. The following event will be on August 16th at the Circuit de Catalunya, an event expected to test tire durability due to the summer heat. Finally, two Grand Prix have retained their original dates: Belgium and Italy, on August 30th and September 6th, 2020, respectively.

It is therefore a real marathon that awaits the drivers and especially the F1 staff who will have to chain 8 Grand Prix in 6 different countries, all within just 10 weeks. This means an entire logistics operation that will have to get back on track, but also a physical preparation to fine-tune for the drivers, who have also been confined since the beginning of the crisis.

Dates Circuits
1 5 July 🇦🇹 Austrian Grand Prix
2 12 July 🇦🇹 Styrian Grand Prix
3 19 July 🇭🇺 Hungarian Grand Prix
4 2 August 🇬🇧 British Grand Prix
5 9 August 🇬🇧 70th Anniversary Grand Prix
6 16 August 🇪🇸 Spanish Grand Prix
7 30 August 🇧🇪 Belgian Grand Prix
8 6 September 🇮🇹 Italian Grand Prix

Obviously, due to the health crisis, these races will take place behind closed doors. F1 will now have to focus on the remainder of the season and the races scheduled in Asia, the Americas, and the Gulf. For the moment, the situation does not allow for scheduling dates for these events, but the goal is to reach figures of 15 or 18 Grand Prix to make the considerably disrupted 2020 season credible.

The CEO of F1 expressed on this subject: “In recent weeks, we have worked tirelessly with all our partners, the FIA, and the teams to create a revised calendar for the opening of the 2020 season, allowing us to restart racing in the safest possible way. We are pleased to present today our calendar for the first eight races and look forward to the publication of our full calendar in the coming weeks. I would like to thank all the promoters and partners for their support and continued commitment to Formula 1.”

« Although we currently anticipate that the season will start without fans at our races, we hope that in the coming months the situation will allow us to welcome them back once it is safely possible, but we know that the return of Formula 1 will be a welcome boost for sports fans around the world. »

On their side, the Formula 2 and Formula 3 championships, the feeder series to the top category, will adopt the same calendar, and they will try to add more events later if the situation allows.

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