F1 Season on hold!!

First of all I would like to make it clear before I start this post that the effects on the F1 season of the corona-virus pandemic pale into insignificance compared to the effect that it is having on the world population, and everyone’s health is of far more importance than whether or not we get to see any racing. This is a blog about Formula One though so I feel that the events of the last week need to be discussed.

One week ago both Formula One and the Australian Grand Prix organisors were telling everyone that the race would be going ahead and that the coranavirus would not put the event in jeopardy. Fast forward to Friday morning though and we had an announcement around two hours before FP1 was due to start that the event had been called off.

The media were actually reporting this the previous evening but it seems that the sport was still trying to have an event right up until the last minute and there did seem to be an awful lot of uncertainty going around the paddock. Paddock pundits such as former F1 drivers Damon Hill and Martin Brundle were tweeting about the lack of any solid news on the subject showing that it was not just the wider world that was in suspense.

The cancelling of the event was I would agree completely the right thing to do, after all one member of the paddock, a McLaren employee had tested positive for the virus and as many as seven others had been tested and were in quarantine, The F1 circus is a big one and when it comes to town it brings an awful lot of people with it, and on top of that there are local people who also play a role in putting the event on. The health and safety of all of these people, not to mention the thousands of fans that flock to see the race is much more important than putting on a show.

One question that does deserve to be asked however is why did the decision take so long and why did the sport travel to Australia in the first place? Other sports around the world had been called off, such as the NBA in America for example, and sticking with the US President Donald Trump had imposed a ban on visitors coming into the country from most European countries. It certainly does seem a little bit strange that Formula did not react to this situation sooner.

Indeed it was not just people outside the sport that were concerned about this either, drivers such as Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton publicly questioned why the sport had made the trip, with Hamilton going on to say that “cash is king” when asked why the event had not been called off earlier.

Whether contractual obligations played apart or not we will probably never know but the sport did appear to react to its star name vocalizing his concerns and that evening meeting s between the teams and the promoters took place with apparently seven of the ten teams in agreement that cancellation was the only option. The race could have taken place behind closed doors with the paddock on lock-down but with the virus already in the paddock that still seemed a big risk.

In defense of Formula One it must be recognized that the situation was very fluid and seemed to be changing by the hour so being able to make a firm decision days before the event started would have been difficult. But it is hard not to come to the conclusion that making the decision earlier would have been the best course of action.

That is what happened at the weekend then but what is the situation as we speak? Regarding the welfare of the McLaren employee there is good news as they are reported to be feeling well and are now free of symptoms of the virus. They and other members of the team who came into contact with him are still in quarantine in Australia but all appears to be well. Credit should be given to McLaren management here firstly for taking the decision to pull out of the event as soon as their team member tested positive and also for staying on in the country with their team members while they were in quarantine.

The question that remains and that is unanswerable at this point is what the rest of the season will look like. Ross Brawn has said that they are hoping to still have a seventeen to eighteen race season, and there is the possibility that they will scrap the summer break in order to fit in some of the cancelled races, but is seems inconceivable that all the races can be re-arranged. At the time of writing the first four events have already been postponed and a statement from F1 says that they plan to start the season at the end of May. This would put the Dutch, Spanish and possibly the Monaco Grand Prix in doubt and there has been suggestions that the season may not start until the Azerbaijan race in early June.

With things changing so rapidly we probably wont know for sure what will happen for a month or so. Either way it looks like being one of the shortest and most condensed seasons we have seen for decades. Whatever happens let us hope that the world wide situation improves and everybody stays safe.