F1 CEO Chase Carey says the sports is considering adding venues not originally scheduled for the 2020 calendar.
Although Carey did not mention any specific venues, Imola, Hockenheim, and Portimao have all registered interest in hosting behind-closed-doors events.
In a call with Wall Street investors, Carey identified the challenges with constructing a 2020 race calendar.
“We’ve been working tirelessly since Australia and we’re actively engaged with our promoters in putting together a 2020 race calendar.
“We have two primary challenges – identifying locations where we can hold the race, and determining how we transport all necessary parties and their equipment to that location for a race.
“We’re in discussion with all of our promoters, as well as some tracks that are not currently on our 2020 calendar, to make sure we explore all options.
“Our goal is to launch the season on the weekend of July 4-5th in Austria, and it’s likely that we race the weekend of July 11-12th in Austria as well.
“We’re in the advanced stages of putting together a schedule of additional European races through 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 in Bahrain and Abu Dhabi in December.
“We hope to have a calendar with 15-18 races. We expect the early part of the calendar to be races without fans, but we hope to allow fans to attend in the latter part of the year.”
While there are no plans for the current championship to run into 2021, Carey admitted it is still possible.
“We’re obviously going to take a fairly long break through the holidays, you’re not going to race in the holiday weeks. But it is an option available to us that we again have to work through with our promoters and an array of parties to get there.
“But it is something we’ve considered and talked about. I would say that our goal is to finish a couple of weeks later than our original date, but to finish in mid-December, ahead of the holidays.”
Despite the turmoil experienced in 2020, Carey remains confident that the 2021 schedule will remain unchanged.
“Our goal is to have 2021 look like the 2021 we planned back in January. Ultimately we have renewals to put in place, and we have some ongoing discussions with a couple of new races that we think would be a positive enhancement to the business for fans and shareholders.”
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