This month Austria loosened lockdown restrictions by allowing thousands of shops to open, although people are still being encouraged to work from home where possible. The Austrian GP takes place at the Red Bull Ring outside the remote town of Spielberg, which has 5,000 residents. https://australiangrandprix2020.live Formula One boss Chase Carey says the championship has growing faith in its plans to host a 15- to 18-race season starting in Europe during the summer. Australian Grand Prix 2020
Following Monday’s news that the French Grand Prix has been cancelled, F1 boss Chase Carey issued a statement on the status of the current season, which has been delayed indefinitely by the coronavirus pandemic. The opening 10 races have been postponed or cancelled. Carey said the Austrian GP at the Red Bull Ring on July 3-5 is a feasible starting point for the 2020 campaign. F1 has targeted the summer as its starting point for several months and Carey said he is “increasingly confident” in the series’ plan.
Carey’s statement also said F1 expects “the early races to be without fans”, although the hope is this changes further into the schedule.
How the F1 scheduled has been affected so far:
March 15: Australian GP (cancelled)
March 22: Bahrain GP (postponed)
April 3: Vietnam GP (postponed)
April 19: Chinese GP (postponed)
May 3: Dutch GP (postponed)
May 10: Spanish GP (postponed)
May 24: Monaco GP (cancelled)
June 7: Azerbaijan GP (postponed)
June 14: Canadian GP (postponed)
June 28: French GP (cancelled)
How the rest of the original 2020 schedule looked:
July 5 – Austrian GP
July 19 – British GP
Aug. 2 – Hungarian GP
Aug. 30 – Belgian GP
Sept. 6 – Italian GP
Sept. 20 – Singapore GP
Sept. 27 – Russian GP
Oct. 11 – Japanese GP
Oct. 25 – U.S. GP
Nov. 1 – Mexican GP
Nov. 15 – Brazilian GP
Nov. 29 – Abu Dhabi GP
F1 and the Red Bull Ring have already discussed the prospect of a behind-closed-doors event. On Monday, the British Grand Prix (July 19) also confirmed to ticket holders of this year’s event that the race will be held behind closed doors, if it is able to go ahead at all.
Carey said F1 will release its revised 2020 calendar as soon as it is able to.
The series hopes to race in Europe from July until early September, before heading to Eurasia, Asia and the Americas through September, October and November.
F1 hopes to finish the season with December races in Bahrain and Abu Dhabi. Carey is sticking to his prediction of a 15- to 18-race season. “I think the situation is quite different between Melbourne and Austria now,” said Saillant. “The knowledge of the virus is quite different. It is possible to prevent and to anticipate a lot of things.
“If we have one positive case, or maybe even 10, it is possible to manage perfectly with a special pathway for the positive case.”
Saillant recognised the sporting and media reaction might be harder to deal with.
“We have to try to anticipate that, to know where the red line is beyond which it is impossible to continue. But I think it is not a problem for us now,” he said.
Formula One is planning to hold two races behind closed doors in Austria in early July, with teams flown in on charter flights, tested regularly and isolated from the local population.
The teams would also be kept separate from each other and staff kept to a minimum, with no sponsors or guests allowed to attend.
The teams had already gathered in Australia when that race was called off before first practice at Albert Park.
FIA president Jean Todt said it would be unfair to attach any blame for what happened but lessons would be learned.
“We want to make sure that arriving to the first event on the 2020 calendar, we don’t face another unpredictable situation and we have experts working on that,” said the Frenchman.
