Next month’s inaugural Vietnam Grand Prix is to be postponed with an announcement on Sunday, it is claimed.
In recent days, the chances of the race taking place on its current scheduled date of April 5 have greatly reduced following actions by the government to limit the spread of the Coronavirus.
A mandatory 14-day quarantine was announced for travellers from Italy, which has seen the biggest European outbreak, while visa exemptions have also been suspended for those travelling from the UK, Italy and several other European countries.
Still, those measures haven’t halted Covid-19 from impacting Vietnam as 22 people are believed to currently have the virus out of a total of 38 seen so far with the rest recovering.
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With concerns increasing then, Twitter user @ParenRavel, in response to BBC report Jennie Gow, stated she had “confirmation from Vietnam authorities that their race is postponed”.
The tweet also featured an image of a message she had received on the race citing a meeting between organisers and F1 CEO Chase Carey that there would be a “temporary delay” and there would be official confirmation on March 15 (Sunday).
If confirmed, it is tough to see how a new date could be found, with F1 bosses struggling to reschedule the Chinese GP, which was postponed last month.
This could depend on whether a race on any of the three Sundays before the Dutch GP on May 3 is possible or if Liberty Media opted to extend the season beyond the Abu Dhabi GP on November 29.
With the number of motorsport events being cancelled or rescheduled increasing, the FIA also created a special ‘crisis cell’ at a meeting of the World Motor Sport Council to track the Coronavirus situation and its impact.
Already MotoGP has had to reschedule two races (Thailand and Austin), while Formula E has cancelled three (Sanya, Rome and Jakarta).
As for F1, on Wednesday, three team members, one from McLaren and two from Haas, went into self-isolation after showing symptoms, this ahead of the increasingly controversial Australian GP on Sunday.
The Bahrain GP, which follows a week later, will also now take place with no fans present to limit the threat of spreading the Covid-19 virus.