The big questions F1 faces after the cancellation chaos

The cancelled 2020 Australian Grand Prix will surely go down as one of F1's most farcical episodes. With the dust yet to settle, big questions now arise over the Australia weekend and what F1 does next

Alex Kalinauckas Mar 13, 2020, 2:59 PM

Upd: Mar 13, 2020, 5:54 PM

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"An unprecedented situation surely requires an unprecedented response."

That was the ending to this equivalent column - composed largely against a wall opposite the Princess Theatre in Melbourne's CBD district, incidentally, on Thursday night. And the 2020 Australian Grand Prix certainly, finally, got something unprecedented.

Formula 1 has never encountered anything like the coronavirus crisis before. The decision to cancel the Albert Park race just hours before its practice action got underway - after it had been decided spectators would be denied entry on public health grounds the day after a McLaren team member had tested positive for COVID-19 - was something else entirely.

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Author Alex Kalinauckas

Alex Kalinauckas is Autosport's Grand Prix Editor, covering every Formula 1 race since the start of 2020. After completing a master's degree in journalism at Goldsmiths College University of London in 2014, he worked for a range of motorsport and technology publications while covering national racing as an Autosport freelancer.

A lifelong motorsport fan - no one in his family can explain quite how or why such a development first occurred - Alex joined the Autosport staff in April 2017 as the magazine’s Assistant Editor covering Formula 2 and GP3, before being made Formula E correspondent and Autosport.com’s Plus Editor in March 2018. He lives in north-east London and is constantly frustrated by the Central Line.