Second part of 2020 calendar to be released

It is rumoured that the second and final part of Formula 1’s ’corona calendar’ for 2020 will be released on Monday.

Mugello, a Ferrari-owned circuit, is tipped to secure the sport’s 1000th race a week after Monza, with Italian media saying the FIA is expected to approve the schedule on Monday "or in the next few days at the latest".

To date, F1 has only released an 8-race calendar of European grands prix, starting this weekend in Austria.

"I will be in a Paris studio," said 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve, a pundit for both French and Italian television.

"Only two representatives from our network will go to Austria - a cameraman and (reporter) Laurent Dupin," he said.

"The situation will then repeat itself for the next seven races and then we’ll see. We don’t know what happens next," Villeneuve added.

Indeed, when asked about the next part of the calendar, Villeneuve told Le Journal de Montreal: "We hear the same stories as you, but it’s just speculation."

Montreal could also be on the completed calendar.

"I’m not convinced that Canada will take place this fall, but I hope to be wrong," French Canadian Villeneuve said.

However, it is clear that Chase Carey and Liberty are determined to expand the schedule beyond its current eight races.

"Europe has done a good job of reducing corona infections," McLaren supremo Zak Brown told Auto Motor und Sport.

"Of course we need a few more races. I guess we will have ten or 11 in Europe. Russia and China could work but the United States will be a big challenge.

"Then I see three races in the Middle East at the end of the year," said Brown. "That would make 15 or 16, as in the good old days, and we would have gotten away with a black eye."