F1 confirms the first eight races for 2020 calendar

Formula 1 today confirmed the 2020 season will begin in Austria next month – and revealed details on the first eight races of a new calendar.

The new schedule features eight races at six circuits, with back-to-back Grands Prix in Austria (July 5, 12) and Silverstone (August 2, 9), while there are also set to be two triple headers.

The other events on the calendar are those in Hungary (July 19), Spain (August 16), Belgium (August 30) and Italy (September 6).

Eight races are the minimum needed for a world championship, although F1 says “further races will be announced in the coming weeks”.

All races will take place without fans in attendance, while F1 plans to create a ‘biosphere’ on location with everyone entering the paddock tested for coronavirus regularly and observing social distancing.

All races will take place without fans in attendance, while F1 plans to create a ‘biosphere’ on location with everyone entering the paddock tested for coronavirus regularly and observing social distancing.

The F1 2020 campaign was due to start in Australia on March 15, but that Grand Prix was called off hours before first practice was due to start amid coronavirus fears – and nine more races have been called off since then.

Due to the ongoing fluidity of the COVID-19 situation internationally, F1 will be finalising the details of the wider calendar and hope to publish that in the coming weeks with an expectation of having a total of 15-18 races before completing the season in December.

F1 currently expect the opening races to be closed events but hope fans will be able to attend again when it is safe to do so.

Fans are eagerly waiting for racing to start again, as no on track action has happened since December 2019.

F1 says it has an “expectation of having a total of 15-18 races before the completion of the season in December”.