Racing Point CEO Otmar Szafnauer believes last month’s Australian Grand Prix could still have taken place.
Following the already contentious decision to travel to Melbourne as the coronavirus situation worsened, Formula 1’s worst-case scenario was realised when a McLaren team member tested positive for Covid-19 on the Thursday night.
That led to hours of meetings and talks between F1 bosses, teams, FIA, Australian GP organisers and local officials eventually resulting in the cancellation less than two hours before Friday practice was due to start.
It later emerged, however, that several teams had wanted to continue with at least the Friday action at Albert Park, including Racing Point.
And after a ban on fans was agreed by the local officials, Szafnauer still thinks the whole weekend could have carried on as normal.
“It was difficult to predict the future there in Melbourne, but when I look back at it now, had we raced, I think we would have raced safely,” he told CNN.
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“The risk was very low, and I think we could have put the race on. The Australian government gave us the go-ahead to do so.
“However, there’s a big unknown at the time, and because of the unknown, I think we made a cautious decision not to race.”
It was later reported that initially, enough teams had voted to carry on with Friday practice at least, however, Mercedes later changed their mind after team boss Toto Wolff spoke to Daimler CEO Ola Kallenius.
And Szafnauer revealed how the fast-moving events caught Racing Point by surprise.
“On Thursday night at 1:30, 2 in the morning, we left the meeting, and at that point, the majority voted to race,” the American said.
“We went to bed, got up four hours later, and by the time I got to the paddock, everyone said: ‘We’re not racing’. I said: ‘Yes we are, it was only four hours ago we voted to race!’
“We took a risk-averse stance, and that was probably the right thing to do. However, looking back, had we raced, I think we would have done so safely.”
