Hours before the inaugural Grand Prix weekend of the season was scheduled to begin at Albert Park, F1 promoters have announced their decision to cancel the Australian Grand Prix due to the coronavirus pandemic. Reports claim that, upon the arrival of teams and personnel to Melbourne for the first race on the F1 calendar, eight people were tested for the coronavirus. Out of which a McLaren team member tested positive and has isolated himself already. Following the Woking-based team announced their withdrawal from the event.
Following the announcement by McLaren, the other remaining nine teams convened for a late meeting to decide whether to continue with the event. Just hours ahead of the first practice session was about to commence, F1 and its promotors announced for the safety of the F1 family, the fans and everyone involved to cancel the event.
A joint statement released by F1, the FIA and the Australian Grand Prix Corporation says “Following the confirmation that a member of the McLaren Racing Team has tested positive for COVID-19 and the team’s decision to withdraw from the Australian Grand Prix, Formula 1 and the FIA convened a meeting of the other nine team principals on Thursday evening. Those discussions concluded with a majority view of the teams that the race should not go ahead.
“Formula 1 and the FIA, with the full support of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation (AGPC) have therefore taken the decision that all Formula 1 activity for the Australian Grand Prix are cancelled.
“We appreciate this is very disappointing news for the thousands of fans due to attend the race and all ticket holders will receive a full refund and a further announcement will be communicated in due course.
“All parties took into consideration the huge efforts of the AGPC, Motorsport Australia, staff and volunteers to stage the opening round of the 2020 FIA Formula One World Championship in Melbourne, however, concluded that the safety of all members of the Formula 1 family and the wider community, as well as the fairness of the competition, take priority.”
While the news does not come as a surprise, the time taken to arrive at the conclusion to cancel all activities for the Australian Grand Prix does. The Coronavirus has officially been classified as a pandemic and has reached to 88 countries around the globe. Due to which, the Chinese Grand Prix has already been cancelled among with other global motorsport events around the world. Bahrain GP promoters have announced that the race that is scheduled from March 20-22 will continue as planned, however, the event will not be open for public attendees. The Bahrain GP will be the first televised-only Formula 1 event in history.
The third round of the season is scheduled to be the inaugural Vietnamese GP. The new track is in close proximity to the epicentre of the COVID-19 virus (Wuhan, China). Currently, there is no update on whether the race will continue as planned or not. Additionally, as Italy has been the worst affected country apart from China, the Italian GP has also been put on hold until further notice.
