MUMBAI: The first is on track. The second will go ahead behind closed doors. And the third has been taken off the grid till further notice. That sums up the status of the Formula One season in the face of the new coronavirus outbreak wreaking mayhem across the world.
Even as F1’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix is going ahead in Melbourne as planned on March 15, organisers said Sunday that the Bahrain’s GP, scheduled for March 20-22, would be held without spectators, in the latest sporting event to be hit by measures to contain the coronavirus.
As for the third race of the season – the Shanghai Grand Prix on April 19 – it was the first to be taken off (postponed is what the organisers have stated) the F1 calendar in the wake of the outbreak.
Statement from Bahrain International Circuit:
In consultation with our international partners and the Kingdom’s national health Taskforce, Bahrain has made the decision to hold this year’s Bahrain Grand Prix as a participants-only event.
As an F1 host nation, balancing the welfare of supporters and race goers is a tremendous responsibility. Given the continued spread of Covid-19 globally, convening a major sporting event, which is open to the public and allows thousands of international travellers and local fans to interact in close proximity would not be the right thing to do at the present time. But to ensure that neither the sport, nor its global supporter base, is unduly impacted, the race weekend itself will still go ahead as a televised event.
Bahrain’s own early actions to prevent, identify and isolate cases of individuals with Covid-19 has been extremely successful to date. The approach has involved rapid, proactive measures, identifying those affected by the virus, of which the overwhelming majority of cases relate to those travelling into the country by air. Aggressive social distancing measures have further increased the effectiveness of preventing the virus’ spread, something that would clearly be near impossible to maintain were the race to have proceeded as originally planned.
We know how disappointed many will be by this news, especially for those planning to travel to the event, which has become a cornerstone event of the international F1 calendar, but safety has to remain our utmost priority.
