F1 | Carey: “The goal is to play 15-18 races”

Formula One continues to plan its return to the track, with a completely new calendar compared to the one that was originally supposed to host the 22 events in 2020. The start of the World Championship should take place on July 5th with the Red Bull Ring stage, home to the Austrian Grand Prix, the track could also host a double round. Closing is expected in Abu Dhabi in mid-December. The European races should almost certainly take place, as the sporting director of the Circus recalled in recent weeks Ross Brawn, behind closed doors.

On the calendar, speaking with Wall Street shareholders, the CEO of Formula One Chase carey did not exclude the possibility that locations that are not currently on the list will also be included.

"We work tirelessly from Australia and are actively engaged with our promoters in putting together a 2020 racing calendar – said Carey, quoted by Autosport -. We have two main challenges: identifying locations where we can hold the race and figuring out how to transport all the necessary parts and equipment to the race locations. We are in discussions with all our promoters as well as some tracks that are not currently on our 2020 calendar to ensure we explore all options".

Carey then added: “The goal is to launch the season on the weekend of July 4-5 in Austria, and it is likely that we will also race on the weekend of July 11-12 in Austria. We want to put together a program of further European races until early September, including races during the traditional August break. We plan to race in Eurasia, Asia, the Americas, in September, October, November, before finishing in the Gulf of Bahrain and Abu Dhabi in December. We hope to have a calendar of 15-18 races".

At the moment Formula One does not contemplate a calendar that could even lead to 2021: “We want to finish a couple of weeks after our original date, but in mid-December before the holidays – underlined the CEO of the Circus -. Our goal is to have 2021 similar to the 2021 we had planned in January".

Meanwhile, the Covid-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on the first quarter of Formula One. The absence of competitions has literally caused the Circus' revenue to collapse from 246 million dollars in this period last year to the current 39, thus generating losses equal to 84%.