Breaking news
Formula 1
F1 admits rescheduling Chinese GP will be "challenging"
Chase Carey has conceded it will be "challenging" for Formula 1 to find a new date for the Chinese Grand Prix in 2020 following its postponement.
Luke Smith
Published: Feb 12, 2020, 1:44 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
F1 and the FIA announced on Wednesday that the race in Shanghai on April 19 had been called off due to the ongoing coronavirus epidemic, having received a request from the event promoter.
F1 officials are looking to find a new date for China on the existing schedule, but faces a challenge due to the existing races in place.
One consideration is a date change for the season finale in Abu Dhabi to allow China to rejoin the calendar at the end of November,
Speaking to Motorsport.com at the BHMSE conference in Baku, F1 CEO and chairman Carey acknowledged it would be difficult to find a slot for China in 2020, but said not all solutions had been fully considered yet.
"It's challenging. We've started to wrestle with contingencies, but I think once you're into the year with dates locked, it's a pretty full schedule," Carey said.
"We value our Chinese partners, they've been good partners. We've had good growth in China, so certainly we'd like to maintain that.
"The health and safety of people come first. There certainly would be challenges in fitting things into a schedule, moving other dates when they've had dates locked has complexities to it.
"We're dealing with it. We haven't really worked through all the possibilities, but I think there'll be challenges to dealing with it."
Read Also:
Over 44,000 cases of coronavirus have been reported in 24 countries, with the death toll passing 1,000 in China this week.
Asked how the process of rescheduling the race will work amid uncertainty about the future of the crisis, Carey said: "I don't think anybody knows, I think you're in uncharted territory.
"I don't think they have a handle yet on when do they get on top of it, when are things normal. So I think it's tough to get too far down the road on the situation where everyone is dealing with it real-time."
F1 is set to visit Vietnam - which shares a land border with China - at the beginning of April, and a number of paddock personnel are set to travel through south-east Asia en route to the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
Carey said that while reported cases of the coronavirus were limited outside of China, F1 was staying aware of the issue and how it may impact the paddock as a whole.
"I think we are certainly aware of the issue. The health and safety of our people is priority one," Carey said.
"Outside of China right now, from what we know, I think today in most places, it seems to be six, eight, 10 people.
"Nobody knows what it will be in a week or two, so it's a tough thing to say what the situation is going to be in four weeks. I think you can only be on top of it and aware of it, stay in touch with people, and deal with what arises as you know more.
"What we know today, it's pretty limited outside China. But we don't know what we don't know."
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Tech insight: What's behind new Red Bull nose
Next article Renault offers first glimpses of 2020 F1 car
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Luke Smith
1998 Belgian GP: When the Schumachers went to war
Formula 1
Formula 1
1998 Belgian GP: When the Schumachers went to war
The race that transformed perceptions of Red Bull
Formula 1
Formula 1
The race that transformed perceptions of Red Bull
Hamilton in the process of selecting Brad Pitt’s co-star for F1 movie
Formula 1
Formula 1
Hamilton in the process of selecting Brad Pitt’s co-star for F1 movie
Latest news
Toprak Razgatlioglu to miss the rest MotoGP season due to shoulder injury
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Australian GP
44 min
Toprak Razgatlioglu to miss the rest MotoGP season due to shoulder injury
MotoGP teams told Qatar Grand Prix expected to go ahead
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Qatar GP
1 h
MotoGP teams told Qatar Grand Prix expected to go ahead
Honda confirms Diogo Moreira for factory team in 2027; David Alonso heads to LCR
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP 2 h
Honda confirms Diogo Moreira for factory team in 2027; David Alonso heads to LCR
Vincent Biard: “The Maserati GT2 was thrilling in 2026; next year we want continuity and progress”
Sponsored
Sponsored
Portimão
2 h
Vincent Biard: “The Maserati GT2 was thrilling in 2026; next year we want continuity and progress”
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe