F1 2020 calendar expanded again | Update
Turkey, Bahrain and Abu Dhabi back on the GP calendar - races will go later into December, too...
UPDATE, 25/07/2020:
In the F1 season like no other, nothing comes as much of a shock any longer. But we are getting one or two nice surprises, and today brings another: there will now be 17 F1 races in 2020, and the season will run until just 12 days before Christmas.
Turkey, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain are back on the race calendar now, with the latter set to host a double header on the weekends of November 27th-29th and December 4th-6th. The Turkey race, subject to the Intercity Istanbul Park circuit being homologated, will take place on November 13th-November 15th, and Abu Dhabi will conclude the 2020 season on December 11th-13th.
Moreover, it's been confirmed by F1 that "a number of races in the revised 2020 season will be open to a limited number of fans", which is exciting news. Details are apparently being finalised now.
Chase Carey, F1 CEO, said of the latest announcement: "We are proud to announce that Turkey, Bahrain and Abu Dhabi will be part of our 2020 season... While we are all disappointed that we have not been able to return to some of our planned races this year we are confident our season has started well and will continue to deliver plenty of excitement with traditional, as well as new, races that will entertain all our fans." Amazingly, having these four races back on brings the 2020 season to within four events of last year, which hosted 21 races. We'll bring you any news on additional Grands Prix - and the spectator situation - as soon as it's available.
ORIGINAL STORY, 10/07/2020:
Who can name the three Italian Grand Prix tracks used in the 70-year history of F1? Bravo if you can: Monza and Imola are the obvious ones, but there was also the Pescara road course, used once in 1957. Now a fourth is going to join that illustrious list, with Mugello added to the 2020 F1 calendar on September 11-13th.
Mugello will be a familiar circuit to MotoGP fans, but the 3.26-mile track has played host to its fair share of four-wheeled action over the years as well - DTM has visited, as has Group C way back when and the GT1 sportscars more recently.
Now it will host an F1 race for the very first time. Mugello of course is owned by Scuderia Ferrari, and is used by the team as a test facility, but this will be its debut for a competitive GP event. Not just any race, either, but the 1,000th race for the Scuderia. Which is some achievement, and even more disappointing for Ferrari fans that the event won't host spectators. With both Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc having raved about Mugello as a circuit - plus the obvious testing advantage - Ferrari will be hoping to go well there.
Mugello joins another addition to the F1 2020 calendar, the Russian GP at Sochi now scheduled for the weekend of September 25th-27th and bringing the total number of confirmed races for 10. The aim for this year is still for 15-18 races, so expect further announcements soon.
"We want to thank the promoters, national authorities, the teams and the FIA for their hard work and support in making these Grands Prix possible," said Formula 1 in a statement, "and know our fans will be delighted to see Russia host its seventh race at the Sochi Autodrome and see Formula 1 cars race for the first time at exciting Mugello circuit in Italy."
It's not often that a new (but not newly constructed) circuit is added to the F1 calendar, soMugello's confirmation is exciting news for all Grand Prix fans. With the season having begun in such spectacular fashion in Austria over the weekend, let's hope the energy and intensity can last through until September. Formula 1 cars at Mugello promises to be quite the spectacle.
It makes me wonder how much more diverse the tracks could be if they didn't need to worry about finding somewhere that could accommodate tens (or hundreds) of thousands of spectators and all the parking / food / event stuff that goes with it. As I understand most of the team money comes from the TV money anyway and its only the circuits that really benefit from the spectators, and then for the most part they don't make a lot from that anyhow.
Back to Mugello though - great track, kind of makes up for not getting to Zandvoort this year.
Mugello doesn't exactly look like a circuit that is going to enable good F1 racing, but it's good to be going somewhere new and at least Paul Ricard isn't on the calendar.
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