F1 Grand Prix 2020 Season Schedule, Start Times, Locations and More
March 12, 2020
The 2020 Formula One World Championship kicks off on Sunday with the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.
Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton will be bidding for his seventh title overall, which would put him level with Michael Schumacher's record and be his fourth in a row.
As usual, the F1 season will see the drivers competing in races across the globe, with events in Asia, Europe, North and South America.
Following the coronavirus outbreak, the Chinese Grand Prix has been postponed indefinitely from its scheduled April 19 date.
The Bahrain Grand Prix will also take place on March 22 without spectators, but the Australian Grand Prix is set to proceed as normal.
Here's the complete 2020 season schedule, including start times for each race:
March 15
Australian Grand Prix, 4:10 p.m. local/5:10 a.m. GMT/1:10 a.m. ET
March 22
Bahrain Grand Prix, 6:10 p.m. local/3:10 p.m. GMT/11:10 a.m. ET
April 5
Vietnam Grand Prix, 2:10 p.m. local/8:10 a.m. BST/3:10 a.m. ET
April 19
*Chinese Grand Prix
May 3
Netherlands Grand Prix, 3:10 p.m. local/2:10 p.m. BST/9:10 a.m. ET
May 10
Spanish Grand Prix, 3:10 p.m. local/2:10 p.m. BST/9:10 a.m. ET
May 24
Monaco Grand Prix, 3:10 p.m. local/2:10 p.m. BST/9:10 a.m. ET
June 7
Azerbaijan Grand Prix, 4:10 p.m. local/1:10 p.m. BST/8:10 a.m. ET
June 14
Canadian Grand Prix, 2:10 p.m. local/7:10 p.m. BST/2:10 p.m. ET
June 28
French Grand Prix, 3:10 p.m. local/2:10 p.m. BST/9:10 a.m. ET
July 5
Austrian Grand Prix, 3:10 p.m. local/2:10 p.m. BST/9:10 a.m. ET
July 19
British Grand Prix, 3:10 p.m. BST/10:10 a.m. ET
August 2
Hungarian Grand Prix, 3:10 p.m. local/2:10 p.m. BST/9:10 a.m. ET
August 30
Belgian Grand Prix, 3:10 p.m. local/2:10 p.m. BST/9:10 a.m. ET
September 6
Italian Grand Prix, 3:10 p.m. local/2:10 p.m. BST/9:10 a.m. ET
September 20
Singapore Grand Prix, 8:10 p.m. local/1:10 p.m. BST/8:10 a.m. ET
September 27
Russian Grand Prix, 3:10 p.m. local/12:10 p.m. BST/7:10 a.m. ET
October 11
Japanese Grand Prix, 1:10 p.m. local/5:10 a.m. BST/12:10 a.m. ET
October 25
United States Grand Prix, 2:10 p.m. local/7:10 p.m. GMT/3:10 p.m. ET
November 1
Mexican Grand Prix, 1:10 p.m. local/7:10 p.m. GMT/2:10 p.m. ET
November 15
Brazilian Grand Prix, 2:10 p.m. local/5:10 p.m. GMT/12:10 p.m. ET
November 29
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, 5:10 p.m. local/1:10 p.m. GMT/8:10 a.m. ET
*Postponed
Mercedes will look to maintain their dominant streak in F1 in the 2020 season.
They've won every Constructors' Championship since 2014, with Hamilton winning five of those six corresponding individual titles.
In that time, they've had four one-two finishes in the Drivers' Championship, most recently last year after Valtteri Bottas was runner-up to Hamilton.
Mercedes were in strong shape throughout testing, too, which is an ominous sign for the rest of the field.
Between them, Hamilton and Bottas completed the most laps over the six days spent at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya:
The latter set the quickest time, too:
As for Ferrari, they appear to have sacrificed some speed on straights—which was their biggest advantage over Mercedes last year—but have improved on slow corners, per Lawrence Barretto of Formula1.com.
Red Bull had plenty of pace—only Bottas went faster than Max Verstappen in testing—but both Verstappen and team-mate Alexander Albon experienced spins on multiple occasions in Barcelona.
However, both drivers played down the issue, saying they were simply testing the limits of their new cars.
F1 journalist Chris Medland expects Mercedes to come out on top again based on their performances in testing:
There could be a small ray of hope for the field, though.
Mercedes lost their penultimate afternoon of testing because of an engine issue, when Hamilton's shut down as a precaution after an oil pressure anomaly.
Williams, whose engines are supplied by Mercedes, also suffered four separate power-unit issues over the course of testing.
Given Mercedes' recent superiority, reliability issues might be the only way to beat them over the course of the season.
On Sunday, Bottas will be the defending race-winner in Melbourne. Hamilton finished runner-up to his team-mate last year after starting it on pole.