2020 Formula One World Championship

Red Bull GmbH, the parent company of Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso, renamed Toro Rosso as "Scuderia AlphaTauri." The team uses the constructor name "AlphaTauri."[19] The name is derived from Red Bull's AlphaTauri fashion brand.[25]

After a year's absence, Esteban Ocon returned to racing in Formula One after signing a contract with Renault, replacing Nico Hülkenberg.[26] Robert Kubica left Williams at the end of the 2019 championship and joined Alfa Romeo Racing as a reserve driver.[4] Nicholas Latifi, the 2019 Formula 2 Championship runner-up, replaced Kubica at Williams.[27][28]

After purchasing the commercial rights to the sport from CVC Capital Partners in January 2017, Liberty Media announced plans to expand the Formula One calendar using a concept they termed "destination races" and modelled on the Singapore Grand Prix.[42] Under the "destination races" model, Grands Prix would be established in or near key tourist destinations and integrate racing, entertainment and social functions with the aim of making the sport more accessible and appealing to a wider audience. Several countries and venues announced plans to bid for a Grand Prix,[43][44] with two bids being successful:

• The Vietnamese Grand Prix was announced as the first new race created under Liberty's management.[45] The race was given a provisional date of April 2020 and was planned to take place in the capital Hanoi on the Hanoi Street Circuit,[46] but was later postponed.[37]
• The Dutch Grand Prix was due to be revived,[47] with the race scheduled to take place at the Circuit Zandvoort.[48][49] The 2020 race would have marked the first time the Dutch Grand Prix has been run since 1985. However, the race was later cancelled.[50]

Liberty Media initially expected that the 2020 calendar would consist of twenty-one Grands Prix and that any new races would come at the expense of existing events, but later negotiated an agreement with the teams to allow up to twenty-two Grands Prix. Several further changes were made between the 2019 and 2020 calendars, with the German Grand Prix discontinued and the Mexican Grand Prix rebranded as the "Mexico City Grand Prix".[51][52]

Teams are allowed to use an additional MGU-K compared to 2019 to compensate for the increased demands of contesting twenty-two races.[53][54]

Drivers who participate in free practice sessions are eligible for additional FIA Super Licence points. Any driver who completes a minimum 100 km (62 mi) during a free practice session receives an additional Super Licence point on the condition that they do not commit a driving infraction.[55] Drivers may only accrue ten Super Licence points per year from free practice sessions.

As a result of the expanded calendar, the two pre-season tests due to take place at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya were reduced in length from four days to three days each, whilst the two in-season tests that took place at Bahrain International Circuit and Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in 2019 have been discontinued. Teams were no longer allowed to hide their cars during testing.[56] The amount of time in which car mechanics are not allowed to work on the car has been extended from eight to nine hours.[54]

The rules surrounding jump starts and the weighbridge have been relaxed with the race stewards now being able to hand out less severe punishments for missing the weighbridge and jump starts.[54]

In order to reduce the risk of punctures, the last 50 mm (2.0 in) of the front wing can no longer contain any metal. Brake ducts can no longer be outsourced and must be made and designed by the team. The amount of fuel that can be outside of the fuel tank has been reduced from 2 litres (3.5 imp pt) to 250 millilitres (0.44 imp pt). The level of driver aids for race starts was decreased.[54]

The season was heavily disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, with an announcement prior to the start of the championship that the Chinese Grand Prix would be postponed.[38] Italian-based teams Ferrari and AlphaTauri expressed concern about the spread of the disease and its effect on the championship.[57][58] As Italy suffered one of the worst outbreaks of the virus, both teams were concerned about the ability of their staff to leave the quarantine zone established in northern Italy and to enter host nations. Pre-season testing in Barcelona proceeded as planned, with all teams and drivers completing the six days of testing.[59]

Ross Brawn, the managing director of the sport, announced that Grands Prix would not go ahead if a team were blocked from entering a host nation, but that events could go ahead if a team voluntarily chose not to enter a host nation.[60] In early March organisers of the Bahrain Grand Prix stated that the event would be "participants-only" and that no spectators would be allowed.[61]

The season-opening Australian Grand Prix was expected to go ahead and all teams and drivers arrived at the venue as planned. Three days before the race was due to take place, McLaren announced their withdrawal from the event after a team member tested positive for the virus.[62] This led to the Grand Prix being cancelled altogether the following morning.[63] Later that day, it was announced that the Bahrain Grand Prix would be postponed rather than closed to spectators, as would the inaugural Vietnamese Grand Prix.[37] Formula One and the FIA released a joint statement saying that they "expect to begin the Championship in Europe at the end of May" but that this timeline "will be regularly reviewed".[64] On 19 March, the FIA announced that the Dutch, Spanish and Monaco Grands Prix had all been postponed indefinitely due to the pandemic. In the statement, the FIA said they now expect to begin the season "as soon as it is safe to do so after May" and that the situation would continue to be monitored.[65] The organisers of the Monaco race, Automobile Club de Monaco, clarified that the race had been cancelled. This means that Formula One would not race in Monaco for the first time since 1954.[66] Four days later, organisers of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix announced that the race had been postponed.[67]

In early April organisers of the Canadian Grand Prix announced the race's postponement.[40] Later in the month, the French Grand Prix organisers confirmed that the race would not be held in 2020,[41] and the managing director of Silverstone Circuit stated that should the British Grand Prix go ahead, it would be without spectators.[68] In May, organisers of the Hungarian Grand Prix announced that their race would use the same model.[69] The sport's plans to resume competition called for a ban on team motorhomes and a rigid testing regime to stop any outbreak of the virus.[70] The Dutch Grand Prix was cancelled entirely in late May, with organisers of the event stating that they would prefer to host the revived race with spectators in attendance in 2021 rather than without spectators in 2020.[50] Formula 1 confirmed the cancellation of the Azerbaijan, Singapore, and Japanese Grands Prix in June.[71] Organisers of the Azerbaijan and Singapore races cited the difficulty of assembling the infrastructure required for a street circuit as the reason for their cancellation, while the Japanese Grand Prix was cancelled because of the Japanese government's travel restrictions.

The annual summer break, where factories shut down for two weeks, was brought forward from August to March and April. Teams nominated a three-week period to close with the aim of making room for races later in the year.[72] At the end of March it was announced that for the first time the factory shut down would additionally apply to power unit manufacturers.[73][74] The factory shut down period was later extended to a total of nine weeks for competitors and seven weeks for power unit manufacturers.[75][76]

In March teams agreed that the 2020 Championship could run into early 2021 to ensure the running of as many races as possible. Such a move would also ensure that eight Grands Prix could be held, over three different continents, thereby meeting the minimum number of races needed for the season to qualify as a World Championship.[77][78][79] Ross Brawn later suggested that a rescheduled calendar of 18 or 19 races would be possible should racing begin in July, and that the opening round "is most likely to be in Europe", potentially without spectators. He also raised the possibility of Grand Prix events being reduced to two days in order to ease pressure on logistical operations.[80] However, Alfa Romeo Racing managing director Frédéric Vasseur cautioned that a condensed calendar could escalate the costs of competing and put smaller teams at risk of financial collapse.[81] This was reiterated by other teams, who pointed out that the race sanctioning fees paid by event organisers contributed to the prize money awarded to all teams at the end of the year. This money is awarded proportionally based on the teams' World Constructors' Championship position and forms a significant part of a team's budget for the upcoming year. With fewer races and the prize structure remaining fixed, teams were concerned that they would suffer a significant financial loss.[82] In a statement in late April, Formula One CEO Chase Carey announced that the intention is to begin the season on 5 July and that the target is to hold between 15 and 18 races overall.[83]

On 2 June the first eight races of a rescheduled calendar were confirmed, with the season expected to begin on 5 July with the Austrian Grand Prix. This revised calendar includes two new events—a second race at both the Red Bull Ring and Silverstone—that are known as the Styrian and the 70th Anniversary Grands Prix respectively.[34] This will mark the first time since 1966 that the championship has started in Europe. Ross Brawn announced that the eight-round calendar was expected to grow and that the sport was considering races at venues that were not on the original calendar or using multiple configurations of existing circuits to achieve the goal of fifteen Grands Prix.[84]

The pandemic required changes to the format of a race weekend, which included abandoning the drivers' parade and pre-race assembly for the host venue's national anthem. A modified podium ceremony was planned for after races.[85] The FIA introduced limits to the number of team personnel who could be on the starting grid to prepare cars and changed the cut-off times for cars to leave pit lane to minimise the amount of time team personnel spent on the grid.[86] Tyre supplier Pirelli was also required to provide an identical allocation of tyre compounds to all teams and drivers. Where Pirelli were previously required to announce compounds for a race several weeks in advance, this window was reduced to two weeks, allowing them to respond to anticipated changes to the calendar.[86]