F1 Talk: France set to be Postponed; Austria double-header to Start the Season?

The French Grand Prix is set to be the latest Formula One race to be postponed after the Canadian Grand Prix announced its postponement on Tuesday.

So far, two races have been scrapped altogether (Australia and Monaco) whilst the other seven races are on hold and are hopeful to take place later in the year.

France is next on the schedule. Sporting events are prohibited across France with the country increasing restrictions on daily exercise earlier this week. F1 and track organisers at Circuit Paul Ricard are first waiting to see what happens with the Tour De France which is set to begin in at the end of June.

However, the Tour De France is likely to be delayed by at least a month, prompting the postponement of the French Grand Prix.

There is some hope in Austria which is schedule to take place a week after the French race. The government in Austria is easing restrictions which increases the chances of the F1 race taking place at the Red Bull Ring on 5 July.

Talks are ongoing about making the Austrian Grand Prix weekend a double-header to kickstart the season is taking place to try and minimise the loss in TV revenue and to get races underway.

Silverstone and the British Grand Prix will make a decision at the end of April about whether the event will get underway. It does help that seven of the ten teams are based in the UK but a lot depends on what happens in Italy which is where Ferrari, Toro Rosso and Pirelli are based.

Realistic to get F1 races in July?

Of course, this depends on what happens with the number of coronavirus cases and deaths over the next month. Many European countries expect the virus to peak over the next few weeks but restrictions could still be in place for many months.

The infrastructure it takes to get ready for any F1 race is huge, even if it is ran behind closed doors. You could easily get a Premier League football match underway and broadcasted with 50 people, a tennis match can be done with a dozen people but what about F1?

It would need hundreds of people including marshals all around the track, doctors and medics at the ready as well as a broadcasting team plus all of the team personnel.

The British Grand Prix typically has up to 1000 marshals which puts into perspective he number of men and women that will need to be present at an F1 race. Will this large amount of people be allowed to be together and in the same area in three months time?

Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta has already warned that MotoGP action is unlikely this year until there is a vaccine. A vaccine will not be ready until next year at the earliest.

F1 inevitably is in a similar position as MotoGP and both are trickier to organise and require a lot more people at the venue than other major sports.