No deadline for F1 calendar completion - Carey

Formula 1 is not likely to have finalised the remainder of the 2020 calendar until the end of June at the earliest, according to CEO Chase Carey.

Following the postponement or cancellation of the opening 10 races of the year because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, F1 presented its plans for the European leg of the 2020 calendar on Tuesday.

The heavily-delayed season will begin with back-to-back races in Austria on 5 July and feature a total of eight events in the space of just 10 weeks across July, August and early September.

Carey remains confident F1 can meet its 15-18 race target for the season but expects some rounds on the original calendar to be cancelled, though he insisted the sport has other options if needed.

"We're not going to give a deadline right now," Carey said in an interview with the official F1 website.

"With the fluidity of the situation, a deadline would create pressures which may not be right and realistic for the situation so we're thinking of goals.

"Our goal would be before the end of June to if not complete the rest of the calendar, is to have a handle on it. We know what we would like to try and do.

"We have other options if some things don't come together. We do expect there are races which are on the calendar which will probably still not occur. I think we certainly have options.”

After the eight-round European leg, F1 hopes to travel to Asia and the Americas in the Autumn, before concluding the season in the Middle East in mid-December with back-to-back races in Bahrain and Abu Dhabi.

No dates beyond the Italian Grand Prix at Monza on September 6 have been confirmed, though the Singapore Grand Prix is widely expected to be cancelled and replaced with a rescheduled Azerbaijan Grand Prix on 20 September.

There are question marks over whether the Russian Grand Prix will take place a week later on 27 September following a surge in coronavirus infections in the country, while there are some doubts hanging over the Japanese Grand Prix following the cancellation of the Japanese MotoGP round at Motegi.

Meanwhile, Mexican Grand Prix promoters issued a statement on Tuesday insisting its race date of November 1 “remains firm". 

Should one of the flyaway races be called off, Monza, Mugello or Imola could step in to fill the gap with ACI president Angelo Sticchi Damiani keen for Italy to stage a second race in addition to the Italian GP.  

Carey conceded F1 is in “uncharted waters” regarding the back-end of the season but stressed safety will remain the sport’s number one priority when it comes to making any final decisions relating to the calendar.

"We want to make sure we do it right but in these times, safety is still priority one," Carey added.

"We want to make sure we do it in a way that we've understood as much as possible what is required, what are the issues we have to deal with and not rush to any decisions before we can make them in the right way.

"We're in uncharted waters. We certainly continue to have a lack of visibility beyond a fairly short timeframe.

"We're engaged with all our promoters and we're in active discussion with all of them, all of them are struggling to have the same visibility."