Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Yas Marina, 2019

F1 hasn’t ruled out finishing 2020 season in January

RaceFans Round-up

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In the round-up: Formula 1 chairman and CEO Chase Carey says the championship’s planned end date for the season in mid-December is provisional and the season may run into the beginning of next year if needed.

What they say

Speaking in a Liberty Media investor call, Carey explained how the 2020 season could conclude next year.

Right now our current targeted plan has us finishing in December. Later in December than the original plan, so sort of more like the 13th, 14th of December. But we are evaluating it, we’ll consider.

Certainly finishing in January is an option, we could do that, we can do that. I think if we can, we’d like to finish in December. We’d obviously take a fairly long break through the holidays. You’re not going to race in the holiday weeks, but it is an option available to us that we’d again have to work through with our promoters and with an array of parties to get there. But it is something we’ve considered and talked about.

At this point, our goal is, again, to finish a couple of weeks later than our original date, but to finish in sort of mid-December ahead of the holidays.

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Comment of the day

Will watching motor sport seem pointless if fans aren’t present?

I do think it will be a strange experience even for us fans watching the race on TV. Surely it will in a sense raise the question, why do we do this and what is all the fuss about?

Commentators like Croft and Brundle raising their voice to almost embarrassing levels, trying to create excitement where there sometimes isn’t any. Normally the sight of a solid hundred thousands of fans at the race track brings a sense of ‘OK, this is real, people do care’.

But now? Imagine Mercedes being on top another year and Hamilton easily pulling away. How are you as a fan supposed to explain your interest to any one of your family members or friends?
HK (@me4me)

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Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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16 comments on “F1 hasn’t ruled out finishing 2020 season in January”

  1. Just by the by, covid-19 is known to increase the risk of stroke, even in younger age groups.

    1. Living is known to increase the risk of a stroke too.

  2. Forget about finishing when it hasnt even started yet.

    1. So is that the last race in January … or the first.?
      We still NEED to get air travel going and sort out the mess involved with international travel and mandated quarantines.

      1. @rekibsn Indeed. The mess involved with international travel and mandated quarantines is indeed something that needs to be sorted out first and it mightn’t necessarily be an easy task.

        1. Looking at restrictions put in place by countries like Vietnam(borders closed indefinetly) and even European countries extending lockdowns we still havent reached end of the dark tunnel.

  3. I’m wondering whether or not it’s even worth reporting what is said at an investor meeting? It’s not often if at all a CEO will ever say anything other than “we have a plan and things will be improving”.

    The Black Knight from Monty Python comes to mind. :)

    1. Not that I’ve listened in on a lot of them but I thought that there were commonly Q&A periods with analysts nowadays so tough questions got asked and responses couldn’t be totally pre-scripted. Unlike a press event there could be penalties for not answering (at least arguably) truthfully.

    2. T’is but a flesh wound.
      Down and almost out, but still kicking.

  4. I don’t share the same views as the COTD. For me, it wouldn’t be any different as I don’t pay much attention to the grandstands, to begin with when watching on TV. Yes, of course, I’d notice there being only empty seats around. In a way, similar to when Halo came in as even though I do notice it on the cars, I don’t pay any attention to it when watching cars circling a track or onboard footage. The absence of people on the grandstands doesn’t have any impact on the quality of racing on the track, so one of those secondary things.

    1. @jerejj, Yeah I get your point. To be fair, I always did enjoy the Turkish Grand Prix even though there were supposedly not many fans at the track. Same with some of the early races at the Chinese Grand Prix. We’ll see when we’re shown a race I guess. I’m open minded, so i’ll watch regardless.

      We must consider though that we are not all super-fans who have several strategic permutation simulations running through our heads throughout the race, trying to figure out how Ferrari will shoot itself in the foot this time, keeping us busy and interested.

    2. finally the end of pointless camera shots of people looking bored in the crowd, token gorgeous women in the expensive seats and celebrities in the garages looking at their phones – can’t wait!

      1. This!
        No public is a saving grace.
        No more ridiculous fan or spouse camerashots, when there are hot laps going in qualifying.

        Although i wouldnt be surprised we get more pointless shots of Ferrari’s and Mercedes’ pulling in and out of the box, when other teams are on their hotlap.

  5. I still laugh at the idea of seeing an F1 race at the start of July. There’s so many elements to put in place and nothing coming from the world of F1 with any viable solutions. All I’ve seen so far is them stating the obvious “teams will be in hubs” well they weren’t going to be allowed to mix with the other 1000+ people at the events were they.

    There’s no plans in place for travel, accommodation & transportation. How do you even begin to get 1000+ people to and from the circuit multiple times without coming into contact with others? What happens if someone tests positive? We only had 3 with symptoms in Australia and the event was cancelled. There’s no way an international based sport can resume before we have a vaccine.

  6. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
    10th May 2020, 14:49

    This does get confusing. Would the championship still go ahead if the season finished in 2021? Would there then effectively be two drivers that both get the WDC in the same year?

  7. Any particular January?

Comments are closed.