Formula 1 has announced the addition of three more races to the 2020 season calendar making it a total of 13 confirmed Grands Prix till date. After announcing the initial leg of European races, F1 had added a second race in Italy which would see the debut of Formula 1 at Mugello. Now F1 has confirmed that the sport will return to the Nurburgring and also return to Imola for the third race in Italy this year. The new calendar also marks the return of F1 to Portugal since 1996. The Algarve International Circuit in Portimao will host its first-ever Formula 1 Portuguese Grand Prix later this year.
Scheduled for the month of October, F1 will visit Germany for the 2020 German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring which will be held between October 9-11. This will be followed by a weekend off before the 2020 Portuguese Grand Prix scheduled for October 23-25 at Portimao. From Portugal, the circus will head back to Italy to race at the old-school race track — Imola which will host the Gran Premio Dell’emilia Romagna from October 31 to November 1 for a two day race weekend as opposed to a traditional three-day affair.
For the two-day weekend at Imola, F1 is yet to iron out how the sessions will play out. However, it expects a single practice session which will be followed by qualifying and then finally the race.
While F1 will return to the first time to Portugal since 1996, the previous occasion F1 raced at Imola was in 2006 meaning that Kimi Raikkonen is the only driver on the current grid to have raced at the track. The last time F1 visited the Nurburgring was back in 2013.
13 races have been now been confirmed for the delayed 2020 season. F1, however, is bullish about hosting at least 15 -18 races this season. F1 hopes to conclude the season calendar with a trip to the gulf region with races in Bahrain and Abu Dhabi sometime in the middle of December to conclude the season. Additionally, F1 has confirmed that for the 2020 season, it will not be able to fly across the Atlantic for any of the four usual calendar events. Meaning the US GP, Canadian GP, Mexican GP and the Brazilian GP will be possible in 2020Â but expects all to return in 2021. F1 has not mentioned if it is still exploring the possibilities of races in Asia.
