F1 News - French Grand Prix is 10th race of F1 season off amid coronavirus pandemic
https://ift.tt/2yQzp3m The French Grand Prix has been postponed from its 28 June date, the 10th consecutive race to be called off as a result of the coronavirus crisis. The move had been considered inevitable since French President Emmanuel Macron expanded the country's ban on mass gatherings until mid-July. Silverstone has said the British Grand Prix cannot be held with spectators. But the track says it is in talks with government "on the viability of an event behind closed doors". Under current plans, the old British Grand Prix date of 19 July would be the first of two races at Silverstone, the second a week later on 26 July. The season would start with the Austrian Grand Prix on 5 July, followed by a second race at the Red Bull Ring on 12 July. Austria is one of the first European countries to have begun to gradually ease its lockdown, and F1 bosses have been in talks with authorities in the country as to how a race might safely be held. The first four races at least would be behind closed doors - and it could be that many more will follow. Professor Devi Sridhar, Professor and Chair of Global Public Health at Edinburgh University and Director of the Global Health Governance programme said on Twitter on Saturday: "Hate to be bearer of bad news don't see any international sporting events with spectators going ahead in 2020 or early 2021. "Goal is to establish some sort of economic/social activity while keeping COVID cases low & big events could upset this fragile balance going forward." Silverstone said in a statement on Monday: "We are unable to stage this year's British Grand Prix in front of the fans at Silverstone. "We have left this difficult decision for as long as possible, but it is abundantly clear given the current conditions in the country and the Government requirements in place now and for the foreseeable future, that a Grand Prix under normal conditions is just not going to be possible. "We have consistently said that should we find ourselves in this position we will support Formula 1 as they seek to find alternative ways to enable F1 racing to take place this year. "Following this weekend's news from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, we are now working with them on the viability of an event behind closed doors." F1 bosses have taken a series of measures to try to insulate the sport from the worst effects of the global health emergency. These include postponing a major rule change by a year from 2021 to 2022 and forcing teams to race the same cars next year as this. Bosses are also in the midst of talks on lowering the sport's planned budget cap when it comes into force in 2021. #F1 via BBC Sport - Formula 1 https://ift.tt/OHg7x6 April 27, 2020 at 03:09AM Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
Archives
November 2020
|
4/27/2020
0 Comments