The Portuguese Grand Prix has been left out of the 2021 Formula 1 provisional calendar, which was announced this Tuesday morning.
The next F1 season will start in Australia in mid-March, finish in Abu Dhabi in early December, and feature the first-ever World Championship race in Saudi Arabia.
A venue for the championship’s fourth race, set to take place on April 25, has yet to be confirmed.
The news comes as a blow to the Algarve, which hosted the first Portuguese F1 GP since 1996 at the Algarve International Racetrack in October.
Businesses, hoteliers and tourism officials in the Algarve were hopeful that the event would make a comeback in 2021, providing a much-needed boost to the region’s economy (click here).
It is unclear whether the controversy surrounding the lack of social distancing at some of the racetrack’s stands during the Algarve race had any effect on the decision to remove Portugal from the 2021 calendar, or whether it was always meant to be ‘a one-off race’.
