Formula 1 is drawing up plans to race in Austria & Britain by limiting attendance to solely team personnel it has emerged.
This week, Liberty Media, team bosses and the FIA discussed measures that would enable the sport to start to the 2020 season, beginning with the Grand Prix in Spielberg on July 5.
Initially, it was reported only one race would take place at the Red Bull Ring, but motorsport advisor Helmut Marko is once again touting a double-header.
“It now looks very good that we can host two races. We are ready,” he told F1-insider.com.
“Liberty insists that the number of people is kept as low as possible. This means: There will only be television on site, no media representatives otherwise, but support races can be held.”
That last comment also means both F2 and F3 would get their championships underway in Austria, which is surprising as it would also add more personnel within the circuit grounds.
Even so, Marko is confident enough safety measures against the coronavirus can be put in place.
“There will be strict requirements within the paddock and the race track: Minimum distance must be maintained, masks must be worn,” he added.
“Finally there are good reasons to be optimistic.”
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme, McLaren CEO Zak Brown appeared to echo the Red Bull advisor when talking about plans of hosting the British GP.
“Everything is very tentative but it would go on its scheduled date but closed to fans,” he said.
“In fact, it looks like possibly all the European rounds will most likely be in that scenario.
“With now our condensed schedule, what’s the best way to get as much racing done as possible? One of those ideas is potentially multiple events at the same location, Silverstone being one of those.”
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All of this will depend on how the coronavirus situation develops as countries slowly start to lift the restrictions that have been put in place.
And Mercedes boss Toto Wolff does believe F1 needs to be cautious in its approach.
“Formula 1 is an entertainment platform and a sport and we are all missing it,” Wolff said in the latest episode of Mercedes’ Deep Dive series.
“But I think we have to contribute to what everybody is doing to help to reduce the cases and get ourselves out of this terrible phase.
“The most important thing is the health and wellbeing of all of us, our families and our friends and our colleagues in the team and in Daimler.
“I think you have seen various data and rumours spreading around, you hear about singular cases that are real outliers that shouldn’t be affected as badly as they are,” he added.
“Add to the equation the various strategies of the governments: Austria, my home country, adopted a very early lockdown policy and three weeks later the virus is on its way down and the government is thinking about slowly re-opening to normal life.
“Then you see Sweden has adopted a totally different strategy and has remained basically as before, adding the component of social distancing, and others have been in total lockdown.
“We are really fighting an unknown enemy here.”
