Bahrain and Vietnam GPs officially postponed
Bahrain and Vietnam GPs cancelled.
It was inevitable anyway, but Formula 1 has now confirmed the postponement of the Bahrain and Vietnam GPs.
Formula One was due to get underway for 2020 this weekend with the Australian Grand Prix, but the coronavirus had other ideas.
A McLaren employee would test positive for the virus on Friday and the team withdrew from the event before placing fourteen other staff in self-isolation.
The race was finally cancelled just hours before FP1 was set to start with Mercedes withdrawing from the event while Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen all flew out of Melbourne.
It has been confirmed that teams have voluntarily agreed to suspend work at their factories until March 29 and employees will go into self-isolation when they do return.
Alfa Romeo have said that their staff will not return to work until May 30.
It was a foregone conclusion then that round two of the season in Bahrain would be cancelled.
It had been confirmed already when the event, set to run from 20-22 March, would have been a TV-only event with all spectators banned.
CEO of the Formula One Group Chase Carey had been traveling to Melbourne for the Australian Grand Prix from Vietnam after holding crisis talks with the event organisers.
2020 was set to be the first Vietnam Grand Prix and it remains to be seen when or if both this and the Bahrain events will be rescheduled.
With Europe shutting down all sporting events, reports are pointing to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on June 7 as the most likely starting point for this season.
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