Canadian Grand Prix on track for June running — for now
The Canadian Grand Prix — one of the country’s top tourist draws — remains scheduled for June 12-14 at Circuit Gilles-villeneuve, but local organizers say that could change.
Preparations for the Formula One event on Île Notre-dame “are going well and are following their course,” according to Sandrine Garneau-le Bel, director of communications and marketing for Grand Prix du Canada.
“This is a situation that we are constantly monitoring and that is evolving rapidly,” she told the Montreal Gazette in an email exchange.
Garneau-le Bel said “we are in constant communication” with F1 officials and the Fédération Internationale de l’automobile — the sport’s world governing body — as well as public health authorities.
“Our priority remains to host a safe event for both spectators and personnel,” she said. “Should the situation continue to evolve, we will lean on the expertise of public health professionals and will keep our stakeholders updated.”
F1 plans to start its coronavirus-ravaged season in May after cancelling this weekend’s opener in Australia and postponing the next three races in Bahrain, Vietnam and China.
F1 and the FIA said on Friday they expected to begin the championship in Europe at the end of May, subject to regular review.
“The global situation regarding COVID-19 is fluid and very difficult to predict, and it’s right we take time to assess the situation and make the right decisions,” F1 chairman Chase Carey said.
An end of May date would rule out the Dutch and Spanish races currently scheduled for May 3 and 10 in Zandvoort and Barcelona, respectively.
Monaco, a glamorous highlight of the motor racing calendar, is Round 7 on May 24.
That’s followed by Azerbaijan and then Montreal, whose event generates $42.4 million in economic spinoffs, according to a 2016 study commissioned by the City of Montreal, Tourism Montreal, Tourism Quebec and the local promoter.
The Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne was cancelled because of the coronavirus outbreak only hours before the first practice session was scheduled to get underway at Albert Park on Friday.
That was followed by the postponement of Bahrain’s March 22 race, already scheduled to be run without spectators under floodlights at the Sakhir circuit, and the debut of Vietnam in Hanoi on April 5.
F1 had already postponed the April 19 Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai.
The Mclaren team announced on Thursday it would not be racing in Australia after an employee tested positive for the virus, and Mercedes then called for a cancellation.
That in turn made Bahrain’s postponement inevitable, with some team members in quarantine.
The prospect of an extended break was mooted by F1 even before the latest announcements.
“Maybe we take a hiatus, we take a pause,” F1 motorsport managing director Ross Brawn told Sky Sports television in Melbourne.
“And we use that opportunity to say, ‘Right, for this time at the beginning of the year we won’t have any races.’ We’ll look at relocating those races later in the year.
“And I think by freeing up the August break we give ourselves several weekends when we could have a race and I think we can build a pretty decent calendar for the rest of the year. It will look different.”
The traditional summer break runs from the Aug. 2 Hungarian Grand Prix to Belgium on Aug. 30.
There is some scope to squeeze races into weekends later in the year, with a gap between Brazil and the Abu Dhabi season-ender in November that could be stretched further if the final race is pushed into December.
Any race cancellation is a major concern for teams, whose budgets depend on a share of the sport’s revenues, and F1’s U.s.-based commercial rights holder Liberty Media.
“The teams survive on their funding from races. So this will have an impact on the teams’ budgets for the future,” said Brawn.
“It will have an impact on our economics as a company. Each race you lose, then it has an impact.”
F1’s 2020 calendar was supposed to be a record 22 races, with Vietnam and the Netherlands coming in and Germany departing.