F1 News
New F1 calendar seems to reveal TBC race: Portimão must also now return
The new Formula 1 calendar for 2021 has been announced and the start of the season is now clear. The Chinese Grand Prix cannot take place in 2021 and the TBC spot will most likely be filled by Portimao. The Australian Grand Prix is moved to the back of the schedule.
New F1 calendar
It has been in the air for a while, but the F1 calendar for 2021 has now been updated. The season will not start in Australia, but in Bahrain. Officially, the Grands Prix in Australia and China have both been postponed. However, Australia has been given a new place on the calendar and China hasn't.
The chance that we will see the race in Shanghai in 2021 is therefore small and the gap that the race leaves behind will be filled by Imola. This means that the Formula 1 circus will very quickly travel to Europe in 2021, where it spent almost all of the 2020 season. This is where the distances to travel are the shortest for the teams, making it easier to organise races as a bubble.
That bubble will start in Bahrain, then give the teams three weeks to get ready for the Imola Grand Prix. Two weeks later there is still a TBC (to be confirmed) and one week later is the Spanish Grand Prix. So it seems logical that TBC will become a European race.
Return for Portimao?
The question is which venue will fill the TBC. Portimao has been most associated with a return to the calendar so far after the successful event held in Portugal last year. Portimao is also logistically a practical solution in between the races in Italy and Spain. Travel distances are thus limited.
Besides Portimao, there are of course other candidates such as Mugello. Mugello made its debut on the Formula 1 calendar in 2020 and received positive reviews. But then Formula 1 has two consecutive races in Italy and the question is whether Mugello will and can afford the new asking price of F1.
Outsiders for the place
An event that probably could host it is Istanbul Park, but that is not likely. With the Spanish Grand Prix a week after the TBC spot, a race in Turkey does not seem logistically the easiest option. It would be an option that fans will support, as the race in Turkey rarely disappoints.
Jerez and the Hockenheimring are also logistically interesting options, but in the past, these have not proven to be the locations capable of coughing up Liberty Media's asking price. So it will probably be Portimao that will fill the TBC spot, creating a full calendar of 23 races.