FIA president Jean Todt says he expects the 2021 F1 calendar will feature up to 22 races while the World Endurance Championship schedule will slim down to six.
The endurance championship resumed at Spa-Francorchamps last weekend following a six-month pause due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It will hold two further races this year, including the postponed Le Mans 24 Hours in September, to conclude its eight-race 2019-20 championship. It is expected to drop its ‘winter calendar’ format in 2021.“Next year we should have in the WEC about six races including the Le Mans 24 Hours,” Todt told media at Spa last weekend. “For a championship, I think it’s the minimum you can present.”
Todt expects next year’s F1 calendar will be closer to the 22-race schedule originally planned for this season than the 17 rounds it has been reduced to.
“To have 20 or 22 races in Formula 1 honestly I don’t think that will be a game-changer,” he said. “In life it’s always trying to get a good balance. I think at the moment in motor sport we have a good balance.”
Speaking alongside the president of the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, Pierre Fillon, Todt praised the efforts made by championships to resume racing following the unprecedented disruption caused by the pandemic.
“The period through which we go makes things, of course, much more difficult,” he said. “I think that you need creativity. I’m very proud about the creativity our promoters, our teams, our local organisers have been able to manage to be here.
“The easy thing was [to say] ‘no more racing’. That was the easier thing. Let’s do only E-racing or E-gaming. But that’s not what we want.
“Yesterday with Pierre we went through all the garages and people were thanking us because we made things come back. That’s why I think it’s very important we get support from all the stakeholders about motor racing because when you’re in such difficult, unprecedented times you need to have solidarity.”
“Nobody could have expected that the planet would face such a situation,” Todt added. “We have to live with this situation and we don’t know for how much time. So it was very important to be able to adapt that. Of course it creates a lot of constraints, a lot of economical problems. But we are there.”
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Jere (@jerejj)
18th August 2020, 15:04
I wouldn’t be as confident at this point, given that COVID-19 can still affect plans for next year.
ADUB SMALLBLOCK (@waptraveler)
18th August 2020, 22:39
Shooting for 22 races? I wish they would fight for 12-13 teams!
Selbbin (@selbbin)
21st August 2020, 1:00
Why? Would more HRTs and Caterhams mean better racing? More cars for the top 3 (cars now, not teams) to lap?
Tristan (@skipgamer)
19th August 2020, 1:31
It’s pretty clear there’ll be a Covid vaccine sometime within the next year (or if you ask the Russians there already is) what’s the harm in continuing with a reduced calendar, no crowds and the bubbles until everyone has access to it? Including every single country they travel to.
Everyone’s in such a rush to return to normal, when things are still no where near it.
Asking how many lives can we save, not how much money can we make, at this point in the World’s history, will be how we are judged. There’s no point to push ahead as with widespread death as “the new normal” when we’ll all be vaccinated soon enough.
David Bondo
19th August 2020, 4:37
A vaccine will likely to be not particularly effective for this virus, plus has to be injected in 8 billion people. Not to mention long trials are required in order to determine that the vaccine is 100% safe. We also don’t know the long term effects of the virus.
There’s vaccine being rolled out next year. That kind of hope is dangerous.
Tristan (@skipgamer)
19th August 2020, 5:19
It really isn’t, what’s the danger of hope? I really fail to understand the supposed end-game of virus doomsday predictors.
In the absolute worst case scenario of the international economy completely crashing, we have to revert to focusing on local communities. There’s very few places in the world now that don’t have the technology or capability to sustain themselves in such a scenario. But realistically it would take more than a few years to get there.
It’s like the world thinks the only way to live is within a capitalist economy. But it isn’t. It’s not like we’re all going to cease living or producing value just because we don’t have a job to go to for a year or two.
David Bondo
19th August 2020, 10:22
People will just have to live with less.
A vaccine that will wipe the virus off the planet will never happen.
Postreader
19th August 2020, 14:51
If a vaccine doesn’t come soon that will likely lead to risk re-evaluation across most of Europe and other developed countries where a certain threshold of daily deaths will be deemed acceptable. Basically everyone will become Sweden with an extra 10% GDP drop.
I mean, the sum of all deaths from influenza, HIV, car accidents, obesity, starvation etc. number in the many millions every year, so evidently saving lives has never been yours, mine, or mankind’s as a whole, general concern.
Fortunately, studies on cellular immunity suggest the virus is way more widespread and less lethal than initially feared, and easily remembered by the immune system.
Patrick (@paeschli)
19th August 2020, 8:01
I’m doubtful that racetracks that have to be purpose-built each year will be ready to a host a GP next year.
David Bondo
19th August 2020, 10:23
I don’t miss street circuits like Monaco, Singapore and Vietnam would have been a dud.