2021's WorldSBK  race calendar is taking some kind of shape now but like any otherwise solidly built house sitting on the sand that Covid-19 is depositing all over the world, nothing at all is certain.

The number of individual rounds should go up, with each one ideally in a different venue, to anything between 12 and 13 in total. The season itself will not start until April.

Any potential long haul races will be added towards the end of the year, not the beginning like most recent seasons. Australia and then Qatar were supposed to start 2020 - but we only got as far as Australia, with Qatar cancelled at the last minute.

Next year any potential races at these two venues, plus the still-contracted Argentina, would come at the end of the season not the beginning. And are the most unpredictable in terms of their likelihood to go ahead due to external regulations, of course.

Local politics in Australia deem that intercontinental travel there will probably not start in any numbers until the end of 2021, and only of everything is deemed safe by then.

Hard and fast dates for each of the proposed rounds next year are, for once, the least important things at this point after the 2020 season has completed.

Making sure the maximum number of rounds can really happen next year is the main task in hand.

Given that, to their great, credit Dorna/FIM and the circuits involved got a proper 2020 season finished – 24 races in all and therefore more than some previous ‘full’ seasons – the hopes are more like optimistic and realistic expectations for more in 2021.