Formula 1 Postpones 2020 Chinese Grand Prix Due to Coronavirus Outbreak

This is the discussion thread for a recent post on GTPlanet:

This article was published by Andrew Evans (@Famine) on February 12th, 2020 in the Formula One category.

 

They might as well cancel that race.

 

Thats too bad. With China gone we have to wait a whole month between Vietnam(April 5th) & The Ditch GP(May 3rd).

 

To be honest, I don't care if this race is taken off the calendar completely. If they still want to run it, how can they fit it in to the schedule? When would the race be run otherwise? I would be surprised if they could find a suitable date. They couldn't possibly shift it to the summer break as that would anger the drivers and the teams.

 

I think they've got tarmac down now, but that is indeed how most of the circuit looked a couple of months ago

 

I too wouldn’t miss this track, it’s not all that interesting, I’m not really a fan of the long boring straight. Over the years we have lost far more interesting tracks that have produced much better racing than the Chinese GP; India, Korea and Turkey were much better, more interesting circuits than China in my opinion.

 

There are over 10,000 people under quarantine in Vietnam, so this too could be in jeopardy of being postponed or cancelled.

It is speculated the epidemic could last for over 60 weeks, so all East Asian GPs are potentially affected.

 

MotoGP has cancelled the opening round in Qatar due to the corona virus.



I still expect an F1 season of some sort, but it could be a very shortened calendar.

 

At this rate every race is going to be cancelled. Australia is looking at implementing Travel restrictions with Italy, so I'm unsure how this will effect Ferrari, Alpha Tauri and potentially Alfa Romeo for the 1st round.

 

In my opinion the first 3 races should also be canceled. Safety first, and all it takes is one infected person to walk within the audience to ignite a spreading of the virus. There also could be some restrictions to some staff and I can see some of the teams especially the Italian ones missing a race.

 

Here's a fun idea for a safe GP:

At an isolated and abandoned race track, install 20 chassis dynamometers at the start finish line. With cameras rolling, run the F1 team cars wide open for 2 hours or until only one is still running. Award trophy and points .

 

I've heard suggestions that the GP could be held behind closed doors. It would be a very odd spectacle but likely the safest option.

What I'm having a lot of trouble discerning though is media hype/revenue poised click-bate articles from the actual reports and doctor's feedback. It's a jumbled mess.

 

Round 1 of Japanese Super Formula has been postponed.



The Thailand round of MotoGP has also been postponed until further notice

 

Just get rid of paddock passes and autographs so that the drivers, media and team members don't come into contact with the fans.

 

They tried that back in 2005, and Tarso Marques nearly won it.