With the 2020 Formula 1 season in the books, there is one thing that all fans can hope for: that the offseason goes as planned.
When the 2019 Formula 1 season wrapped up on Sunday, December 1 at Yas Marina Circuit following the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the plan was for the 2020 season to get underway on Sunday, March 15 with the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit, which had hosted 22 of the last 24 season openers.
Up until Friday, March 13, when the opening free practice session of the year had been slated to begin, that remained the plan.
But at this point, the coronavirus pandemic was beginning to hit the globe in full-force, and a McLaren team member had tested positive at the track.
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The race wasn’t canceled right away, but the decision was later made to halt the start of the season. Nothing was confirmed at the time, but it was clear that the season was not going to get underway anytime soon.
Race after race ended up being cancelled or postponed from what was a record-breaking 22-race schedule, and the season did not end up getting underway until Sunday, July 5 with what was slated to have been the season’s 11th race: the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring.
The shortened season was condensed from Sunday, July 5 to Sunday, December 13 and featured 17 races over the course of 24 weekends, including nine which were originally on the schedule, three additional ones to create doubleheaders at three of those nine venues (one on a different layout), and five others which were not initially on the schedule.
In total, 13 races on the initial 22-race schedule were canceled.
What was slated to be a 105-day offseason more than doubled to become a 217-day offseason.
The offseason between the 2020 and 2021 seasons is scheduled to be only a 98-day offseason, with that now down to 83 days (81 until opening practice). The Australian Grand Prix is scheduled to kick things off for the 23rd time in the last 26 years on Sunday, March 21, with opening practice scheduled for Friday, March 19.
We can all hope that clock keeps ticking and doesn’t reset a bunch of times like it did last offseason.
The 2021 season is scheduled to feature a record-breaking 23 races, with one race still not yet confirmed. NASCAR and IndyCar among other racing series have already seen early-season events altered as a result of the pandemic. Formula 1 has not yet seen any changes to the schedule.