The release of the Formula 1 (F1) annual financial report has found the racing giants have suffered a USD$386 million loss in 2020, a 44% revenue shrink.

Revenue from the season dropped from USD$2.02 billion to USD$1.14 billion in 2020, quickly negating F1’s USD$17 million profit during 2019.

Series owner of Liberty Media, Greg Maffei, said there are no concerns by the loss, which was expected due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The F1 balance sheet is very, very strong,” Maffei said.

“I think the operating levels that we have in our agreements are fine, so I’m not really worried about the balance sheet.

“Our goal was to try and take the pain in 2020, to the degree that we rightly had to make concessions to some of our broadcasters.

“Our goal was to do as much as possible and bring 2021 back to normal,” he said.

Race promotion was severely hindered with fans prohibited to all but three rounds of racing in 2020, with fees crashing from 30% of F1’s revenue to only 12%, with several events cancelled.

In a bid to align calendars, most races paid little or no fee as the series battled to navigate through the pandemic.

In a bid to put 2020 behind them, F1 are planning a 23-race calendar, visiting Saudi Arabia for the first time in history, and returning to the Netherlands for the first time in 36 years.