2020 Austrian Grand Prix

The opening rounds of the 2020 championship were heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Several Grands Prix were cancelled or postponed after the aborted opening round in Australia, prompting the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile to draft a new calendar. The start of the championship was delayed until 5 July, with the Red Bull Ring hosting the Austrian Grand Prix. Organisers of the race signed a contract with Liberty Media, the sport's commercial rights holder, to host a second round at the circuit on 12 July known as the Styrian Grand Prix.[5] The back-to-back Austrian races will mark the first time that a country hosts back-to-back races in the same season since 1995 when Japan hosted the Pacific and Japanese Grands Prix.[lower-alpha 2] This will also mark the first time in the sport's history that the same venue and circuit layout will have hosted back-to-back World Championship races.[6]

Nicholas Latifi is set to make his competitive début driving for Williams. Latifi had initially set to make his début at the 2020 Australian Grand Prix before the race was cancelled. Esteban Ocon is due to make his return to grid with Renault having not raced in 2019.

Pirelli are bringing C2, C3 and C4 (designated hard, medium and soft respectively) compounds of tyres for teams to use at the event.[7] In recognition of need to cut cost and to give Pirelli achievable targets due to the congested calendar all drivers will receive identical tyre allocations getting two sets of hards, three sets of mediums and eight sets of softs.[8]