COVID-19 strikes Formula 1 … again.
Organizers of the Canadian Grand Prix, which was to have been held on June 14 at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, decided Tuesday to postpone the race until a later (unspecified) date.
The Canadian postponement makes the French Grand Prix Formula 1’s presumed season-opener. That race is scheduled for June 28 at Circuit Paul Ricard. But it remains to be seen if the competition will be held that day.
Canadian GP will not be run as scheduled on June 14 (photo, GrandPrix247)
The June 14 postponement in Canada was a matter of logistics. Organizers need time to get the city circuit ready for the race, and having people in the crowd stand 6′ feet apart was impractical. In making the announcement, race organizers said that they “would have been honored to have been the season’s opening event and that the decision (to postpone) was not taken lightly or easily.”
Formula 1 CEO Chase Carey hopes that he can fit Canada into another time slot. “We will put on a great show when we arrive later this year,” Carey said. The Canadian Grand Prix was once run in October, and that might be the only timeslot available in this year’s schedule.
In other COVID-19 related news, F1 engine and chassis factories will extend their current break by an additional two weeks, making the break five weeks long. And, in addition to extending the factory shutdown period, McLaren, Williams, and Racing Point have cut costs by laying off staff and cutting their salaries by 20%. Even Carey has taken a percentage cut.
Those changes put the F1 season in further jeopardy. Teams, officials, and racing fans await the next steps, and they hope it is not the sound of another shoe dropping.
