LONDON — Formula 1 has on Wednesday announced the provisional race calendar for the 2021 FIA Formula 1 World Championship which will be submitted to the World Motor Sport Council for approval.

The 2021 season follows an unprecedented year for Formula 1 in which the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a revised 2020 calendar of 17 races and the first international sport to resume its season.

The plans for 2021 have involved extensive dialogue with all promoters and their local and national authorities at a time of ongoing fluidity related to the global pandemic.

Formula 1 and the FIA put in place robust health and safety measures to allow the revised 2020 season to restart and run effectively.

Formula 1 said, ‘Our hosts for 2021 are reassured by our safe return to racing this season and confident that the plans and procedures we have in place will allow us to return to a level of normality for the 2021 season.

“As we have said before, we expect fans to return for the 2021 season and for the calendar to look similar to the originally planned 2020 season. We will continue to work closely with our promoters and partners and look forward to the start of the season on the March 18, 2021 in Australia.”

Chase Carey, chairman and CEO of Formula 1, said: “We are pleased to announce the 2021 Formula 1 provisional calendar after extensive conversations with our promoters, the teams and the FIA. We are planning for 2021 events with fans that provide an experience close to normal and expect our agreements to be honored.

“We have proven that we can safely travel and operate our races and our promoters increasingly recognize the need to move forward and manage the virus. In fact, many hosts actually want to use our event as a platform to show the world they are moving forward.

“We are delighted to see Saudi Arabia become part of the schedule and are equally excited to return to the venues we hoped to race at in 2020. We want to thank all our promoters and partners for their ongoing enthusiasm and collaboration and look forward to giving our fans an exciting season on the track.” — SG