Paris (AFP)

After the cancellation or postponement of the first seven Grands Prix due to a coronavirus pandemic, Formula 1 is preparing for a shorter, denser and more economically tough 2020 season, which will have consequences in 2021.

Australian Grand Prix canceled in extremis, GP of Bahrain, Vietnam, China, the Netherlands, Spain and Monaco postponed to dates yet to be determined ...

After the announcement Thursday of the postponement of the three races in May, the season - which was to count the record number of 22 GP - will begin in Azerbaijan, in Baku, on June 7. In the best case...

"It's super complicated to redo a calendar because you don't know when everything will be operational," says Frédéric Vasseur, the main team of the Alfa Romeo team, interviewed by AFP. You need to have a global vision . England is not too affected for the moment but it can be when Italy is less affected (most teams are based in these two countries, note). And there is also the place where we go shopping ... "

While the regulations provide for a minimum of eight GPs per season, fifteen heats are for the time being maintained on their original date, until the final in Abu Dhabi on November 29.

- "17-18 races or more" -

And F1 sports director Ross Brawn said he was "fairly optimistic about the possibility of a championship of 17-18 races or more in 2020", during an interview with the British channel Sky Sports on March 14, while the first four had already been canceled or postponed and the next three were more than uncertain.

Among the options envisaged to do this, draw a line under the summer truce of August, during which the teams are not allowed to work, and postpone certain races between the GPs of Hungary (August 2) and Belgium (August 30).

It's been done since Wednesday. The "summer shutdown" was brought forward in March and April and extended from 14 to 21 days, which will also allow the teams to save during this period of forced unemployment and to put on an equal footing those who have or will have to close their doors because of the Covid-19 and those that would be spared.

With a season of six months instead of nine, the GPs will follow one another at a frantic pace.

Asked if two races could be organized on the same weekend on the same circuit, Brawn replied that it was "possible". Above all, he puts forward the option of organizing three races in three weeks, which F1 experienced in the summer of 2018, without however winning the support of the teams, who could only observe the extreme fatigue of their staff.

"Organizing three races in a row with two-day weekends (on the track, against three currently, note) would be an option," suggests Brawn, who urges the teams to "flexibility".

- "Economic opportunities" -

"We must make sure we have a season that offers good economic opportunities to the teams, not put them in difficulty because we cannot have races because someone does not want to chain three weekends", pleads- he.

Money, more than ever, will be the sinews of war in 2020. But also the following year.

"The costs are not necessarily much lower if you do 18 races rather than 22 because, if you do a lot in a row, you need to double the positions, to have a stock of parts," explains Vasseur.

"On the other hand, our income will necessarily be lower: we do less shopping, we will have fewer commercial rights", continues the French.

As a measure of economy, it was therefore also decided Thursday, by mutual agreement between the International Automobile Federation, F1 and the teams, to postpone for one year the change in regulations planned for 2021, which was to give birth to single-seaters with aerodynamics totally different from what is done today.

In 2021, the stables will therefore keep the same chassis as in 2020. Coronavirus crisis requires, the announced "revolution" will have to wait.

© 2020 AFP