Hamilton, Verstappen and co will return to the track next month

The Red Bull Ring will host the first two races of the 2020 Formula One season as part of a dramatically reshuffled campaign.

World champion Lewis Hamilton will look to defend his world championship at six different European venues, starting with the Austrian Grand Prix from July 3-5. The second race will be held a week later, named the Steiermark Grand Prix at the same venue before the circus heads to the Hungaroring in Budapest, Hungary, for the third round.

Silverstone will then host back-to-back races in Northamptonshire, the British Grand Prix (July 31-Aug 2) and the F1 70th Anniversary Grand Prix (Aug 7-9), before the Spanish Grand Prix (Aug 14-16), the Belgian Grand Prix (Aug 28-30) and the Italian Grand Prix (Sept 4-6).

A calendar outside of Europe is due to be announced in the coming weeks, Bahrain and Abu Dhabi have already been scheduled as the final two events on the calendar. F1 is leaving open the possibility of making them doubleheaders in order to bolster the number of rounds, if necessary.

F1 CEO Chase Carey said in a news release: "In the past weeks we have been working tirelessly with all our partners, the FIA and the teams to create a revised opening 2020 calendar allowing us to restart racing in the safest possible way. We are pleased to be able to set out our opening eight race calendar today and look forward to publishing our full calendar in the coming weeks.

"I want to thank every promoter and partner for their support and ongoing commitment to Formula One. While we currently expect the season to commence without fans at our races we hope that over the coming months the situation will allow us to welcome them back once it is safe to do, but we know the return of Formula One will be a welcome boost to sports fans around the world."

Aston Martin Red Bull Racing Team Principal, Christian Horner, said: “Red Bull have pulled out all the stops to get the Austrian Grand Prix up and running, in order to support a safe start to the Formula One season. It’s a fantastic venue and we are pleased to be starting our championship campaign at our home circuit.

"It has been a huge effort by all involved and the two events at the Red Bull Ring will be a blueprint for all other races to follow. There was obviously a huge amount of discussion behind the scenes with Liberty, the FIA and the local authorities to ensure that returning to racing is done responsibly and we all have our part to play in order to enforce the measures in place. With the first eight races of the calendar now confirmed we have some positive momentum.

"As a race team and racers, we are excited to get going again and put on a show for our fans.”