Fans returning to F1 events
More Formula 1 races through the remainder of the 2020 season are set to welcome fans after the Nurburgring announced its ticket-sale plans for the Eifel Grand Prix.
After starting the season behind closed doors as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, F1 allowed spectators to attend a race for the first time at Mugello earlier this month, with close to 3000 fans sitting in the grandstands. This weekend’s Russian Grand Prix is set to have grandstands at 50% capacity, allowing for 30,000.
Officials at the Nurburgring confirmed plans to sell up to 20,000 tickets in batches for the event on 9-11 October, with more being released should there be no spike in COVID-19 cases in Germany.
Nurburgring managing director Mirco Markfort said: “In times of coronavirus, with the enormous personnel and planning effort it entails, everything is a question of cost. But it is also a question of giving fans the opportunity to be able to afford tickets and to experience the race safely.”
Fans will be required to adhere to strict social-distancing guidelines, and will be given a designated parking area for each grandstand, with masks compulsory.
The Portuguese Grand Prix will also be open for spectators on 23-25 October, with the Algarve circuit expected to welcome 45,000 for each day of the event. “In the first week we went online with our ticket sales, it was crazy,” said Miguel Praia, the circuit’s event and commercial director. “Formula 1 is so popular in Portugal and the fans are very eager to attend the event as F1 returns to our country.”
Over 40,000 tickets have already been sold for November’s Turkish Grand Prix, but plans for spectators to be admitted to the final flyaways in Bahrain and Abu Dhabi remain unconfirmed.