Following the disappointing cancellation of the 2020 season-opening race in Australia, F1 management has decided to postpone the next two rounds of the championship. This means that the F1 will not return until May at the earliest.
The decision was made to postpone the Bahrain Grand Prix and Vietnamese Grand Prix amid the COVID-19 outbreak. The news comes after a McLaren team member tested positive for the virus in Australia, eventually leading to the event’s cancellation. The team member along with 14 other McLaren staff have been placed under a 14-day quarantine.
“Due to the continued global spread of COVID-19 and after ongoing discussions with the FIA, and race organisers a decision has been taken by all parties to postpone the Bahrain Grand Prix and the Vietnam Grand Prix due to take place on March 20-22 and April 3-5 respectively,” read a Tweet posted to the official F1 Twitter account.
The Bahrain Grand Prix was set to take place on the weekend of March 22 and was going to be held without spectators. Some reports suggested that plans were being discussed to run a second race in Bahrain to fill the gap left by the Chinese Grand Prix, which was postponed last month.
The Vietnamese Grand Prix has also been postponed. The brand new race was scheduled for the weekend of April 5 at the new Hanoi Circuit.
None of the postponed races (Bahrain, China, Vietnam) have been rescheduled at this point, leaving many to wonder if it will even be possible to fit them into F1’s already tight schedule.
Currently, F1’s 2020 season-opener is set to be at the Circuit Zandvoort, which returns to the calendar for the first time since 1985. The Dutch Grand Prix has been scheduled for the weekend of May 3. However, the fate of the event along with the races in Spain and Monaco are in doubt, with some reports suggesting the season could start as late as June for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
