F1 “pretty close” to finalising 'closer to normal’ 2021 calendar

The 2021 Formula 1 season calendar will look “closer to normal”, according to the sport’s CEO Chase Carey.

After the COVID-19 pandemic forced the opening 10 events on the original schedule to be called off, F1 pulled together a 17-round revised calendar featuring a mix of new and historic tracks predominantly based in Europe.

Extra races were added at the Red Bull Ring, Silverstone, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Portugal and Bahrain to replace the cancelled rounds in Asia and the Americas.

Speaking in the latest episode of F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast, Carey revealed that next season’s championship calendar will look much closer to the schedule that was supposed happen this year.

“I think 2021 will probably look a bit more like the calendar we planned for this year,” Carey explained.

“We are a global sport and the reality is this year we haven’t really raced globally. We’ve largely raced in the European zone.

“So we want to get back to making sure we have our races in the Americas, we have our races in Asia, we have races spread across the globe. That is important to us as a global sport.

“We have some great historic tracks that are obviously part of our calendar. Tracks like Silverstone, Monza, Monaco, Spa.

“So, certainly historic European tracks are an important part of the sport, but I think you’ll see a more balanced set of events across the globe on the 2021 calendar.”

Carey revealed that F1 is “pretty close” to finalising a final calendar, but still has “a couple of issues to resolve” which have resulted in delays.

“Clearly we’re later in the process because the issues around 2020 we’ve really only recently resolved,” he said. “So all of those things have created delays in getting it out.

“But we’re going to plan for a 2021 calendar that looks pretty much like a normal calendar, like the calendar we would’ve planned in January.

“What we don’t really know is what will be the state of COVID next year and how we navigate through it.

“We’re planning for events, we’re planning to have fans, we’re planning to have a season that I don’t know that I’d say is ‘normal’, but certainly gets us back to normal, closer to normal on that track.”