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F1 restarts with eight races in Europe between July and September

F1 restarts with eight races in Europe between July and September

7th June 2020

"F1 restarts with eight races in Europe between July and September"

Formula 1 has a new calendar: the 2020 season, delayed by the coronavirus pandemic, will start on July 5 in Austria and the first eight races will take place in Europe between July and September, initially behind closed doors.

A second GP will follow on the Red Bull Ring at Spielberg on July 12, before Hungary (on the Hungaroring in Budapest) on July 19, Great Britain (at Silverstone) on August 2 and 9, Spain (on the circuit from Barcelona-Catalonia to Montmelo) on August 16, Belgium (at Spa-Francorchamps) on August 30 and Italy (in Monza) on September 6.

Race in parallel with that of F1, the championships of Formula 2 and Formula 3 will follow the same calendar.

"Due to the current fluidity of the Covid-19 situation at the international level, the details of the full calendar will be finalized in the coming weeks, with the hope of having a total of 15 to 18 races by the end of the season in December ", against 22 initially planned, said the promoter of F1, Formula 1, and the International Automobile Federation (FIA) in a statement on Tuesday.

The championship would end in December in Abu Dhabi and would be organized by geographic areas (Europe in July-August, Eurasia, Asia and the Americas in September-October-November, Middle East in December).

"As previously indicated, it is currently planned that the first races will take place behind closed doors" for health reasons, specify F1 and the FIA, who then hope to be able to bring back the fans "when it will be possible to do it in full security".

The absence of spectators will be de rigueur in Belgium, confirmed Spa Grand-Prix SA, the promoter of the event, to AFP on Tuesday.

To allow the races to resume, the two governing bodies in the category have also put in place a plan to combat the spread of the new coronavirus.

- "Unprecedented" -

Among these precautions are the limitation of the number of people on the paddock, health checks on departure for the host country, then on site every two days. The teams will be isolated from each other, as well as from the general public (flights, on-site transport and reserved hotels).

"I welcome the resumption of the F1 world championship, FIA president Jean Todt commented on Twitter. An unprecedented crisis, unprecedented actions to resume the championship under the best possible conditions: congratulations to all those contributed to it. I look forward to the first race in Austria. I will be there! "

"We know that the return of F1 will be a welcome boost for sports fans around the world," said CEO Chase Carey in a statement when Dutch driver Max Verstappen (Red Bull) counted days on Twitter.

The second GP organized at Silverstone, in Great Britain, will be the occasion to celebrate 70 years of F1. It was there that the first race was organized on May 13, 1950, won by the Italian Giuseppe Farina (Alfa Romeo).

The F1 season should have started in mid-March in Australia but this GP was canceled in extremis following the discovery of a case within the McLaren team.

F2 and F3 should have resumed a week later in Bahrain.

Several races have been postponed (Bahrain, Vietnam, China, Spain, Azerbaijan, Canada, Great Britain) or canceled (Australia, Monaco, France, Netherlands).

MotoGP, which was only able to organize Moto2 and Moto3 events in Qatar in early March, will also soon be presenting a revised calendar.

Its promoter Dorna awaits a response from the Spanish government to its proposal to resume July 19 and 26 with two consecutive events on the circuit of Jerez (Andalusia).

The calendar of the first eight races of the 2020 F1, F2 and F3 seasons:

3-5 July: Austrian Grand Prix (Spielberg)

July 10-12: Grand Prix of Styria (Spielberg)

July 17-19: Hungarian Grand Prix (Budapest)

July 31 – August 2: British Grand Prix (Silverstone)

August 7-9: Grand Prix for the 70th anniversary of F1 (Silverstone)

August 14-16: Spanish Grand Prix (Barcelona)

August 28-30: Belgian Grand Prix (Spa-Francorchamps)

September 4-6: Italian Grand Prix (Monza)

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