Formula 1 motorsport director Ross Brawn insists the sport is “taking every sensible precaution” relating to the Coronavirus.
As the Covid-19 epidemic has spread globally, motorsport events have been impacted with MotoGP cancelling the premier class race at this weekend’s Qatar Grand Prix and rescheduling the Thai GP for later this year.
Just on Friday, Formula E announced a second cancellation, with next month’s Rome ePrix following the same fate as the Chinese round in Sanya.
In F1, however, only the Chinese GP has so far been postponed, with the sport heading to Australia next weekend before trips to Bahrain and Vietnam.
“It is challenging at the moment and we are all facing the challenge of the coronavirus,” said Brawn at a sponsor event on Friday.
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“I think the key thing is to try and maintain the sport in the safest possible way. We can’t take unnecessary risks, but we can’t just shut down completely.
“I mean if the whole economy shut down completely, that would have a much more serious impact than the coronavirus, but the coronavirus is a very serious threat, so we have to take the necessary reactions.”
Bahrain has recently taken the action of limiting ticket sales for their event on March 22 and Brawn says the situation is being closely followed daily.
“For every country, we’re working with the local health authorities to decide what is the appropriate actions to take,” he said. “All the teams, for instance, are minimising the amount of staff that travel.
“So we’re taking every sensible precaution we can and we have to follow the advice of the health authority.
“At the moment, the first three races are going ahead. But this is a situation that is changing day by day. So we have to react and we have to respond accordingly.”
Also on Friday, the FIA created a special ‘Crisis Cell’ headed by Professor Gérard Saillant and it will meet every two days to assess the Covid-19 situation and its potential impact on upcoming motorsport events.