Monaco Grand Prix grandstands being built – David Croft on 2020 Formula 1 season start date

The Sky Sports F1 analyst returned home from Australia yesterday following last week's postponement.

• Formula 1 coronavirus updates – including race calendar

He spoke exclusively to RadioTimes.com stating that while ultimately the situation remains very fluid and changes each day, he is optimistic that the season might start at the end of May.

Crofty said: "Paul Di Resta put up a picture midweek in our group chat, because he lives in Monaco, of the grandstands starting to be built in Monaco.

"One would assume given how long it takes to build the Monaco track that they have got to start doing that whether the race happens or not. I don't know whether it will or not.

"I'm not a medical expert, I couldn't begin to tell you when the season will start, but I think the most optimistic would be Monaco at the end of May, Baku at the start of June as when the season could get going.

"But that obviously depends very much on the worldwide situation and none of us know what that is going to be at this moment in time."

In advance of official FIA confirmation that the summer break had been extended to 21 days and moved forward to March-April, Crofty looked ahead to the most likely scenario for the season.

He said: "I can envisage a situation where we go racing in the summer months. This obviously puts pressure and a demand of people working in the sport, but I can see a situation where we are going to be racing through the summer break. I think that's only logical.

"Have Liberty got a calendar? Probably not.

"Have they got an idea how they'd like things to pan out? Probably yes.

"Will the season go on beyond 29th November? I can see us going on at least one extra week into December this year as they will try to get as many of the races run as they possibly can, but until you've got a start date, you've got no idea how or when those races are going to happen."