Canada not ready to confirm October race date

Organisers of the Canadian GP are not ready to confirm that a race in Montreal will definitely take place in 2020.

There have been reports that an October date, pairing Canada with Austin, has been set for the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve’s 2020 race.

"We can’t confirm that," a race spokesman told us.

"We can’t talk about specific dates because we don’t even know at this stage if the race will be on the final version of the calendar."

Indeed, race promoter Francois Dumontier told Canadian sports broadcaster RDS that talks with Formula 1 are still taking place.

"Obviously Formula 1 has announced its calendar for the start of the season, starting in Europe," he said.

"Now they are working with the various promoters for the second part of the calendar with races outside of Europe.

"There is a real intention, not just for Montreal, but for races outside of Europe. Chase (Carey) wants to have a real world championship.

"So I’m telling you this with a smile, but our discussions are ongoing," Dumontier added.

As for when those talks might be concluded, he answered: "I think an announcement at the beginning of July would give us a lot of time to prepare.

"The desire is to have spectators, but we know that we should do a health plan and with social distancing and so on. That is what we are working on now.

"Chase always says that Montreal has a privileged place in Formula 1, especially I think if you look at the United States and Brazil, it seems difficult at the moment for them with Covid. Mexico, we don’t know yet," he said.