1980 Formula 1 champion Alan Jones says he “would have gone ahead” with the Australian Grand Prix this past weekend.
Despite some controversy amid the growing Coronavirus pandemic, F1 owners Liberty Media proceeded with the event in Melbourne, with all teams making the long trip Down Under around Monday.
However, hopes of holding the race quickly faded late on Thursday when a McLaren employee tested positive for the Covid-19 illness, leading to a long night of meetings before the eventual cancellation on Friday morning.
“From my point of view I would have gone ahead and done it anyway but you have to be sensible about the whole thing,” Jones told The Guardian.
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“Doing commentary for Channel 10, we had to be on top of the whole deal, seeing what was going on.
“Right up until Friday we all thought that we can keep control of all of this. The catalyst to a certain degree was McLaren, that’s what lit the fuse.
“It is a big blow for Aussie sport, people have come from interstate and internationally. I spoke to a pommie on Friday and he had flown from bloody England to come here, how bad would that be?”
While for some, the outcome vindicated their concerns of F1 travelling to Australia in the first place, Jones believes the sudden rise in the risk was unprecedented.
“Twenty-twenty hindsight is a lovely thing to have,” he added.
“I can’t fault them for coming here. It just accelerated and I don’t think anyone foresaw that.
“I think they thought they would be able to get it over and done with. Bear in mind five days before the GP we had 86,000 in the MCG watching the T20 final and that is a lot more confined than the open space of Albert Park.”
As for whether the Aussie GP could be run again later in the year?
“My personal opinion is no they can’t run it again this year. If I was a betting man I would advise against it,” Jones concluded.