» FIA ratifies record 22-race F1 2020 calendar

The FIA World Motor Sport Council has officially ratified a 22-race calendar for the 2020 Formula 1 World Championship season.

Friday’s WMSC meeting at Cologne rubber-stamped the record-breaking schedule that was publicly release in August.

The championship will stage its traditional curtain-raiser at the Australian Grand Prix in mid-March, with the second Grand Prix in Bahrain taking place on the following weekend.

The new Vietnamese Grand Prix will make its debut as the third Grand Prix of the season in early April, with the Chinese Grand Prix ending the opening sequence of flyaway races two weeks’ later.

The Dutch Grand Prix, making its return after a 35-year absence, will officially kickstart the European leg of the season, followed a week later by the Spanish Grand Prix after event organisers’ last-ditch lobbying to secure the race’s future.

The Monaco Grand Prix retains its traditional slot at the end of May, followed by back-to-back races in Azerbaijan and Canada and a further pair of back-to-back rounds in France and Austria.

The British Grand Prix at Silverstone starts the second half of the season as a standalone event in mid-July before the Hungarian Grand Prix, which precedes the traditional summer break in August.

The series will return to action with back-to-back races in Belgium and Italy to close out the Europe-based events, with the end of the season featuring a succession of flyaway races in Singapore, Russia, Japan, the United States and Mexico (back-to-back), Brazil and Abu Dhabi, which closes out the championship at the end of November.

By dint of the bumper schedule, pre-season testing has been cut from eight days to six, with two open test sessions to take place at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya from 19-21 February and 26-28 February. The four in-season test days have been axed.

2020 FIA Formula 1 World Championship Season Calendar
Date	Event	Location
15 MAR	Australian Grand Prix	Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit, Melbourne
22 MAR	Bahrain Grand Prix	Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir
05 APR	Vietnamese Grand Prix	Hanoi Street Circuit, Hanoi*
19 APR	Chinese Grand Prix	Shanghai International Circuit, Shanghai
03 MAY	Dutch Grand Prix	Circuit Zandvoort, Zandvoort*
10 MAY	Spanish Grand Prix	Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Barcelona
24 MAY	Monaco Grand Prix	Circuit de Monaco, Monte Carlo
07 JUN	Azerbaijan Grand Prix	Baku City Circuit, Baku
14 JUN	Canadian Grand Prix	Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal
28 JUN	French Grand Prix	Circuit Paul Ricard, Le Castellet
05 JUL	Austrian Grand Prix	Red Bull Ring, Spielberg
19 JUL	British Grand Prix	Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone
02 AUG	Hungarian Grand Prix	Hungaroring, Budapest
30 AUG	Belgian Grand Prix	Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Stavelot
06 SEP	Italian Grand Prix	Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, Milan
20 SEP	Singapore Grand Prix	Marina Bay Street Circuit, Singapore
27 SEP	Russian Grand Prix	Sochi Autodrom, Sochi
11 OCT	Japanese Grand Prix	Suzuka International Racing Course, Suzuka
25 OCT	United States Grand Prix	Circuit of the Americas, United States*
01 NOV	Mexico City Grand Prix	Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Mexico
15 NOV	Brazilian Grand Prix	Autódromo José Carlos Pace, São Paulo
29 NOV	Abu Dhabi Grand Prix	Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi