The start of Formula 1’s 2020 season could be heavily disrupted with the first four races now at risk of cancellation over Coronavirus.
Already, the fourth round in China has been postponed, with the country being the source of the Covid-19 illness which has now killed over 2,700 people with more than 80,000 cases confirmed globally.
And with more and more countries now taking precautions to limit the spread of the virus, local authorities in Melbourne admit sporting events, including the Australian Grand Prix, set for March 15, could be called off.
“I think we have to keep all options open,” Chief Health Officer of the region of Victoria, Dr Brett Sutton, was quoted by GPFans.
“If it’s a very mild pandemic, like the 2009 flu pandemic, then you don’t need really significant action, but if it’s severe and we need to do absolutely everything possible to reduce the peak, reduce the number of cases, then we have to keep all options open.”
Perhaps reassuringly, Dr Sutton stressed it would require “extraordinary activity of the Coronavirus” to reach that stage and so far, only 23 cases have been confirmed in the country with seven in the State of Victoria.
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More concern is growing, however, about the following races in Bahrain and Vietnam.
In the Middle East, a surge in cases in Iran has begun spilling into neighbouring countries including Bahrain which has announced 23 cases there in recent days.
Given the much smaller size of the island nation compared to Australia, the risk of Covid-19 spreading is greater despite the same number of cases.
Though there’s no official word yet on any possible impact to the Grand Prix at Sakhir, organisers are no doubt monitoring the situation.
Finally, though a local official declared last week the Vietnam GP will go ahead, new travel restrictions have been put in place by the country’s prime minister banning any arrivals from countries that have seen cases of the Coronavirus.
This would impact personnel from almost every team, with the UK having seen cases, but with Italy and Japan currently hotspot countries, those at Ferrari, AlphaTauri, tyre supplier Pirelli and Honda would be hit hardest by this measure.
Vietnam also postponed an Olympic badminton qualifying event until June suggesting sporting events could be impacted if the outbreak continues.
Officially, in the country, all previous 16 cases have now been declared “cured” but quarantine is still in place for a region 30 miles from the capital Hanoi.
InsideRacing will of course report any updates as they are confirmed.