Formula 1: Australia looks set to host season opener as the 2021 season takes shape

The Australian GP is touted to kick start the 2021 Formula 1 season as work continues towards a race calendar for next year.

Sky Sports believes that the sport is expected to start in Melbourne with 22 races being planned for next season.

The Australian GP has also said they will take up their usual opening March slot.

“The Australian Grand Prix Corporation is in regular dialogue with Formula 1 on the 2021 provisional calendar, which will be published in the coming weeks,” says Andrew Westacott, Australian Grand Prix Corporation CEO, in a statement.

“Melbourne will again host the F1 season opener in the traditional March timeslot, which will form a significant part of the recovery of the major sports and events industry in Victoria.”

Next season’s calendar could also feature a potential new venue in Saudi Arabia.

It’s also believed that the F1’s return to the Netherlands and debut in Vietnam should each happen in 2021 after both were cancelled this year.

This year’s Australian GP in March didn’t go ahead of schedule as it was cancelled hours ahead of Friday practice after one member of McLaren’s team contracted coronavirus. The season’s scheduled opening 10 events were called off, with a revamped 17-race calendar instead beginning in July.

Although a provisional 2021 schedule by Formula 1 has yet to be released, Chase Carey said last week that the sport was now “pretty close” to forming a calendar that was “closer to normal” than this year, when F1 has mostly raced in Europe due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Carey also provided an update on the sport’s progress while speaking last week on F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast, with putting together a more global 2021 schedule.

However, F1 chairman has acknowledged that the ongoing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic remained unknown going into next year.

“At this point, we are pretty close to having a calendar for 2021,” says Carey, who steps back from his role at the end of the year to become non-executive chairman.

“We have got a couple of issues to resolve. Clearly, we are later in the process because the issues around 2020 we have only recently resolved, so those things have created delays in getting it out.

“But we are going to plan for a 2021 calendar that looks pretty much like a normal calendar, like a calendar we would have 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.”

The 2020 season has about six races remaining, starting with the return of the Portuguese GP this weekend when F1 races at the Algarve International Circuit for the first time.

The season will come to an end in Abu Dhabi on 13 December.