Formula 1 to have record 22 grands prix in 2020 season

Formula 1 will have a record 22-race season in 2020.

The sport’s calendar, announced on Thursday before the resumption of the current season in Belgium, features two new races in the Netherlands and Vietnam.

Only Germany has been lost from this year’s 21-race schedule.

The season begins in Australia on 15 March and ends in Abu Dhabi on 29 November. The British Grand Prix is on 19 July, a week later than this year.

Squeezing in the extra race has meant seven ‘double-headers’ – where races are held on consecutive weekends.

Bahrain follows a week after Australia, and the other events a week apart are the Netherlands and Spain on the first two weekends in May; Azerbaijan and Canada in early June; France and Austria; Belgium and Italy; Singapore and Russia; and the USA and Mexico.

F1’s bosses have said their intention is to potentially extend the calendar to as many as 24 races in the future, principally to drive revenue. But teams have reservations about that, both in terms of the demands on their staff and as a potential risk to the exclusivity of the sport.