Formula one is preparing to return as it announced that its 2020 season will race off on the 5th of July in Austria, despite news of the French Grand Prix becoming the 10th race this year to be postponed or cancelled.
The decision to cancel the french action slated for 28 June follows an announcement by president Emmanuel Macron to ban mass gatherings in the country until at least mid-July due to the coronavirus pandemic.
However, F1 chief Chase Carey is optimistic about beginning the campaign a week later at Austria’s Red Bull Ring and holding between 15 and 18 races before the final event in Abu Dhabi in December.
He further stated “Although this morning it was announced that the French Grand Prix, due to take place in late June, will not be going ahead, we are now increasingly confident with the progress of our plans to begin our season this summer,” he said on the F1 website.
“We’re targeting a start to racing in Europe through July, August and beginning of September, with the first race taking place in Austria on 3-5 July weekend.
“We will publish our finalised calendar as soon as we possibly can. All of our plans are obviously subject to change as we still have many issues to address and all of us are subject to the unknowns of the virus.
This is coming after some european countries like Italy are resting lockdown measures to ease the economic impact.
