It is difficult to explain and better understand what has happened in Australia in these days, but we want to try to clarify. Trying to figure out what decisions were made by the teams in the paddock and understand what will become of the 2020 Formula 1 World Championship.
As you well know, unfortunately, the whole world is in a rather delicate and critical situation from a health point of view. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization officially recognized COVID-19 as a pandemic.
A difficult and critical situation that has brought China to its knees and that is bringing Europe to its knees. Slowly the world stops. The entire population of Wuhan stopped, Italy stopped, and sport also stopped.
We saw football, tennis, basketball, Formula E and Formula 1 stop yesterday. A decision that perhaps should have come earlier, long before. Already during the Barcelona tests, after the news on the postponement of the Chinese GP, there were rumors in the paddock about the delay in the start of the world championship. But Liberty Media has decided not to stop the organization of the Melbourne GP and to make many people travel: the authorized personnel, teams, drivers and fans who come from all over the world.
A few days ago McLaren communicated a positive case within their team and for this reason they gave up on Sunday's race.
It has often been asked if it was safe to race the GP and expose so many people to the risk of contagion. Only a few hours before the start of FP1 the GP was canceled. Many conversations and meetings took place during the evening and Friday morning in Melbourne. The FIA, due to the signed contracts, cannot cancel the GP, unless there are less than 12 cars on the grid. The Australian government and Liberty Media insisted on racing the GP so as not to lose any more money invested in the event.
A few hours before the decision was made Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen took a plane and headed back home
In a meeting between the FIA and the teams, it emerged that 5 out of 10 teams (McLaren, Scuderia Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, Renault and Mercedes) had voted not to race in Australia and interrupt the weekend. Subsequently two other teams (Racing Point and Williams) joined the list.
The other three teams in favor of the GP were: Red Bull, Alpha Tauri and Haas.
Red Bull later gave up because Jos and Max Verstappen decided to leave and go home.
A situation badly managed by the top management of Formula 1 who put the health and well-being of all the people on the circuit at risk. Beyond this poor organization, we hope that the McLaren mechanic gets better quickly and we hope that no one else should feel bad because hitten by the Coronavirus. We have been waiting for a long time to see the cars on the track and see Seb fighting for a victory, but we believe that the health of people should always be placed first. We will have to give up some GPs and we will have to wait more but in the end the moment will come when we can get together and come back jumping, screaming and cheering for our champions. Being a little distant today will allow us to stay closer in the future.
WHEN FORMULA 1 WILL START AGAIN?
After the cancellation of the first stage of the world championship, everyone wonders when we will go back to see the cars racing. It would seem that Liberty Media and the FIA are thinking of suspending the World Championship until March 29th. According to rumors, in fact, the 2020 world championship could start from Baku, while the canceled GPs would be held during the summer break. However, it must be taken into account that it will be difficult for the teams. It has become difficult to develop the 2020 car and difficult to force the teams to stay away from the family for a long time.
It is even thought of extending the championship during the 2021 season if necessary. In this case, the new Formula 1 cars generation could be postponed to 2022, thus helping the teams. In fact, the new organization of the 2020 season could cause significant delays in the design and production of the next cars.
Sebforever587
Image: Credits to Scuderia Ferrari
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