LONDON • Formula One expects to run a shortened season of 15 to 18 grands prix once racing can resume after the global coronavirus pandemic, hopefully during the summer, chairman and chief executive Chase Carey said on Monday night.
The original calendar had a record 22 races, but the season has yet to start with the first eight races postponed or cancelled and more likely to be called off.
The opener in Australia and the showcase Monaco Grand Prix have been cancelled while the others - Bahrain, Vietnam, China, the Netherlands, Spain and Azerbaijan - need rescheduling.
"We are all committed to bringing our fans a 2020 championship season," Carey said in a statement.
"We recognise there is significant potential for additional postponements in currently scheduled events, nonetheless we and our partners fully expect the season to start at some point this summer, with a revised calendar of between 15 to 18 races."
The next race that is scheduled to go ahead is the June 14 Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, but that also looks uncertain, as does France on June 28, and some are already questioning whether there will even be a competition this year due to global travel restrictions.
Carey acknowledged nobody was certain when the situation might improve, but insisted the 10 teams would be ready to go racing when it did, saying that the revised calendar would be considerably shaken up from what was previously published.
The American added he expected the season, which was due to finish in Abu Dhabi on Nov 29, to run into December "with the actual sequence and schedule dates for races differing significantly from our original 2020 calendar".
"It is not possible to provide a more specific calendar now due to the fluidity of the current situation," Carey said.
"But we expect to gain clearer insights to the situation in each of our host countries, as well as the issues related to travel to these countries, in the coming month."
Trying to find positives amid a pandemic that has shredded the sporting calendar worldwide, Carey claimed the crisis offered an opportunity "to evolve the sport, experiment and try new things" through initiatives such as e-sports and developing more innovative content.
"We're confident we'll all get through this and see better days ahead, and, when we do, we'll ensure that everyone invested in this sport at every level feels rewarded," he added.
F1 needs a minimum of eight races for the season to be a proper championship.
The championship has already brought forward its traditional August break to three weeks in March and April so as to create some space to reschedule some of the races that had to be postponed.
REUTERS
