No F1 For 3 Months? After Australian Grand Prix, More Races Could Face The Axe Due To Coronavirus: Report

Formula One (F1) CEO Chase Carey failed to confirm whether the next round of F1 would go ahead after he canceled the season-opener Australian Grand Prix on Friday in Melbourne due to coronavirus.

The Australian Grand Prix faced the axe because a McLaren team member tested positive for the coronavirus in Melbourne.

According to news reports, the race's cancelation was not made official for another eight hours. However, by then Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel and Alfa Romeo's Kimi Raikkonen had flown home. McLaren later revealed that another 14 members of their team had been placed in quarantine at their hotel for the next 14 days because they were in close contact with the infected employee.

Ferrari reportedly was the first team to make it clear that they were not comfortable in racing in Melbourne. The FIA confirmed abandonment of the Australian Grand Prix after they received a letter from Mercedes requesting the cancelation of the race.

While the second F1 race of 2020, Bahrain Grand Prix earlier was announced to be held without spectators, Carey on Friday mentioned that he would be confirming about the rest of the F1 season in the “coming days” as he also admitted that there is a question mark over at least the next three rounds, starting with March 22’s Bahrain Grand Prix.

The third-round race is the inaugural Vietnamese Grand Prix, scheduled from April 5, and has also come under contemplation after the country announced it would not allow the entry to anyone who had been in Italy in the previous 14 days due to the coronavirus outbreak. That could prevent Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi and team members from Ferrari and AlphaTauri, as well as tire-supplier Pirelli, from traveling to Vietnam.

Soon after the Asian nation broke the news, Carey was forced to fly to Vietnam to have a crisis meeting.

There have also been rumors that F1 could be suspended till at least the eighth round, which is the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku, scheduled for June 7.

“I don’t think it is productive at this point to deal with hypotheticals. We will have discussions in the coming days on trying to look forward. Are we looking at various options? Sure. But we are not looking at putting plans in place long term. You deal with the issues that are imminent,” Carey said when asked about the rumor Friday.