More Europe, not America
The F1 calendar now includes 13 confirmed events, with the confirmation of three initially unplanned events and the cancellation of the American tour.
The 2020 season will definitely go down in history. Thus, for the new series of races announced by F1, we can find a race absent from the calendar since 2013 (Nurburgring), another since 2006 (Imola), and another that has simply never hosted F1 in competition (Portimao).
For the official designations, the promoters have been creative, as the race at the Nurburgring will officially be the Eifel Grand Prix to avoid using the name German Grand Prix, the rights of which are currently held by Hockenheim, which could not host events due to measures imposed by Baden-Württemberg. As for Imola, it will no longer be called the San Marino Grand Prix, as it was in the past, but will now be known as the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.
These events promise numerous discoveries since the teams cannot rely on their usual troves of data to fine-tune settings in advance. Therefore, one can assume that simulators will be working at full capacity to prepare for these events. This will be particularly crucial for Imola, as F1 will attempt an unprecedented two-day format instead of three, with only one practice session before qualifying. With the already announced races in Monza and Mugello, Italy will host three events in the same season. To find the last instance of a country hosting three races, one has to go back to 1982 and the United States.
Precisely, the United States and the Americas in general will be notably absent from the calendar as it has just been confirmed that no race will take place there due to the health crisis ravaging the United States, Brazil, and Mexico. As for Canada, it was simply not viable to make a round trip for a single race, especially in October when the weather can already be very harsh.
While it is already known that the season will end in the Persian Gulf (Bahrain and Abu Dhabi) and that Liberty Media still aims for between 15 and 18 races for the season, the unknown now is whether there will still be a foray into Southeast Asia or if the paddock will visit almost only Europe this year.
The question also remains whether Barcelona will be able to bring the Formula One Circus as the number of Covid-19 cases is drastically increasing in Catalonia. The alternative would then be to hold a third race at Silverstone, which has the advantage of being close to the headquarters of the majority of teams. For sporting interest, we’ll see…
With the participation of RacingBusiness.fr
