The FIA Formula 2 (F2) Championship has released a provisional 2020 calendar with Netherlands joining in place of France.

The 2020 F2 calendar will consist of 12 rounds – same as 2019 – with 24 races in the season as a support event to F1. The fly-away races also remains the same as Bahrain, Azerbaijan, Russia and Abu Dhabi.

The only change is Circuit Zandvoort, Netherlands, replacing Circuit Paul Ricard, France, in the European leg. The season is to kick-start at Bahrain International Circuit on March 20-22.

Following a month-long break, the action will resume at Zandvoort on May 1-3, followed by Barcelona (May 8-10) and Monte Carlo (May 21-23) in the first of the two European legs.

It will then move to Azerbaijan (June 5-6) and then skip France to head to Speilberg (July 3-5) to start the second European leg. It will feature Silverstone (July 17-19) and Budapest (July 31 – August 2) pre-F1 break.

Following that, the European leg will complete with Spa-Francorchamps (August 28-30) and Monza (September 4-6), with the season culminating with races at Sochi (September 25-27) and Yas Marina (November 27-29).

F2 CEO Bruno Michel said: “Next season, our calendar will once again be made of twelve rounds, all part of the F1 Grand Prix weekends. We kept the number of events to the same amount as the previous two years as we have found the right balance between European rounds and overseas race weekends.

“I can confirm that more tracks would have liked to have F2 race there, but as always, we want to ensure that our Championship remains affordable by keeping the costs under control and thus the number of events to a total of twelve.”

At the same time, FIA Single-Seater Commission President, Stefano Domenicali, added: “We are pleased to confirm the calendar for the 2020 FIA F2 Championship, which will once again put the stars of the future under the spotlight supporting 12 rounds of the F1 World Championship.

“The calendar has been carefully designed to provide the maximum experience and exposure on the final step towards F1 whilst keeping costs down.” The dates for pre-season tests will be announced later.