Formula 1 boss Chase Carey is “increasingly confident” that the sport will begin its 2020 season in July.
His comments come in the wake of the French Grand Prix’s cancellation, the third event to have its fate formally confirmed.
It joins the Australian and Monaco Grands Prix as being officially cancelled, with seven others having thus far been postponed.
The French Grand Prix was due to run on June 28, with the following event scheduled for Austria a week later.
It is now that event which Carey is targeting to jump start the 2020 season on July 5.
“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,” Carey said in a statement.
“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.
“September, October and November, would see us race in Eurasia, Asia and the Americas, finishing the season in the Gulf in December with Bahrain before the traditional finale in Abu Dhabi, having completed between 15-18 races.
“We will publish our finalised calendar as soon as we possibly can.
“We expect the early races to be without fans but hope fans will be part of our events as we move further into the schedule,” he added.
“We still have to work out many issues like the procedures for the teams and our other partners to enter and operate in each country.
“The health and safety of all involved will continue to be priority one and we will only go forward if we are confident we have reliable procedures to address both risks and possible issues.”
The sport is motivated to schedule as many races as it can, and open the gates to fans as quickly as possible, in an effort to minimise the damage to its bottom line.
With promoters derive almost all their income from ticket sales races behind closed doors will almost certainly require modification to the hosting fee paid to Formula 1.
F1 will also lose out on the corporate hospitality at those events.
Aside from banking its profits, a large percentage is paid out to teams through prize money over the course of the following year.
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