F1 wants to introduce the next part of the 2020 calendar soon – Carey
Formula One CEO and Chairman Chase Carey has revealed that the sport could soon release further details on its revised 2020 calendar after the coronavirus outbreak forced the Commercial Rights Holder to totally rearrange this year’s race schedule.
Formula One released the first eight grands prix of the revised 2020 calendar at the start of June with eight European rounds forming the initial phase of the modified schedule. The eight races staged on six different locations were all part of the original calendar. Meanwhile, grands prix including in Monaco, France, Japan, Australia, Azerbaijan, Singapore have already been called off for this year.
Liberty Media has already indicated that it intends to finish the season in Bahrain and Abu Dhabi in December, albeit the three-month period between the first and last leg of the championship is still yet to be defined. Sochi and China have already expressed their willingness to host races this year while new venues like Mugello, Imola, Portimao and Hockenheim have also emerged as possible venues.
In an interview with formula1.com, Carey has revealed that the sport is in talks with different promoters, but he has refused to go into further details on which races could join the heavily-modified 2020 F1 calendar.
“I think in the next few weeks we will look to land, certainly at least another chunk of the calendar, ideally we’d like to land the whole second half of the calendar," Carey is quoted as saying by formula1.com.
"There are a number of races we already know will be on the calendar. I don’t want to get into piecemeal addressing it, I’d like to address it holistically. But to lock the dates in we really need to figure out what other races will be on it.
Formula 1 has still not completely abandoned its four races in the Americas with the Grands Prix in Mexico, the United States, Canada and Brazil still in the frame. However, the Americas have established themselves at the new, third epicentre of the COVID-19 outbreak in recent weeks which raises question marks over the feasibility of the aforementioned races.
Carey has revealed that he is still unsure how F1 can make the long trip to the Americas in 2020. “When you look at the US, Mexico, Brazil, clearly right now they seem to be having a higher incidence of infections than other places. So [we’re] trying to get guidance from these places on what’s possible, what we can do.
“Really we need to know, can we race in a location? Will there be restrictions on our ability to get in and out a location in a functioning way? And to some degree we’re trying to address the fan question. We’d like to have fans at our races. It’s a possibility.
“One of the challenges of looking at a calendar in November is November is four months away. You’re less than four months into the virus, so trying to look forward to where you’ll be in November I understand is hard for everybody. But ultimately we need to plan ahead. So there’s a point in time when we have to just put a stake in the ground and make decisions on what we know. I think that’s soon,” he concluded.
