THE F1 COVID THREAD: Will GP be cancelled?

[Moneyseeker]

Originally Posted by Alan52

PM said tonight they are reviewing travel bans on a daily basis and Italy definitely sounds like it is on the agenda.Albert Park not assured yet.
Re Vietnam.Does that mean that after Bahrain -presuming it happens-the 2 Italian teams won’t be able to return to base?Will that be enough to trigger cancellation.Also where are the Pirelli staff based?

Some UK speculation that the London Marathon may be cancelled which has 45,000 entrants from around the World and UK entering.

[Moneyseeker]

Putting aside the tragic human costs for a moment, it will be interesting to see the global response after the virus has died out.

I heard an economic commentator on the radio saying that post virus it may be the start of de-globalisation as the virus has show how exposed businesses are when their manufacturing and employee base is so scattered.

It also shows how exposed F1's business model is, they could not run events behind 'closed doors' (if they had to) as the circuits could not afford to host them without ticket income, so in effect FOM would have the two unpalatable options of owning a series with no circuits to race on, or having to give back the rights fee to the circuits. If you were sat on their board you might think actually we need to be the promoter and the rights holder.

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by Moneyseeker

Putting aside the tragic human costs for a moment, it will be interesting to see the global response after the virus has died out.

I heard an economic commentator on the radio saying that post virus it may be the start of de-globalisation as the virus has show how exposed businesses are when their manufacturing and employee base is so scattered.

It also shows how exposed F1's business model is, they could not run events behind 'closed doors' (if they had to) as the circuits could not afford to host them without ticket income, so in effect FOM would have the two unpalatable options of owning a series with no circuits to race on, or having to give back the rights fee to the circuits. If you were sat on their board you might think actually we need to be the promoter and the rights holder.

There's also a bit of the just in time inventory methods that end up with a single link meaning the entire chain is done. Now will the bean counters let things like that and cheaper labor force "over there" remain supreme? It's not a permanent or everyday occurrence for supply chain disruption

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by Moneyseeker

Putting aside the tragic human costs for a moment, it will be interesting to see the global response after the virus has died out.

I heard an economic commentator on the radio saying that post virus it may be the start of de-globalisation as the virus has show how exposed businesses are when their manufacturing and employee base is so scattered.

It also shows how exposed F1's business model is, they could not run events behind 'closed doors' (if they had to) as the circuits could not afford to host them without ticket income, so in effect FOM would have the two unpalatable options of owning a series with no circuits to race on, or having to give back the rights fee to the circuits. If you were sat on their board you might think actually we need to be the promoter and the rights holder.

My cynical view is that when it may serve nationalistic agendas some of what you mention may be implemented. But broadly speaking (assuming this is not some type of historical inflection point and I suspect it will not be) it will have a short term (years, not decades) impact in how things are done and then it will mostly go back to the way it has been and few lessons will be learned.

The US put in place a number of financial and banking controls as a result of the great recession. There are ongoing efforts to roll those back and it's been just a bit longer than a decade ago. How soon we forget! We as a species have a very short memory. At some point this pandemic will be a somewhat distant memory and we will conveniently forget as to why we put protections in place. Anti-vaccination trend is a prime example of this. Few remember seeing people walking around crippled by polio. It all becomes "hypothetical" and not real to many. Did we really land on the moon? Was the Holocaust real? You get my point.

Sadly the more serious this pandemic is, the more likely it will change things. If it becomes the new normal and the death count is not high, it will not change much.

Richard

[rbs]

Will Viet Nam go ahead. My guess is Coronavirus will be blamed if it ccanceled even if the circuit is not ready for use!!!

[bella]

iirc the circuit is pretty much finished?

[chillibowl]

Originally Posted by Casper

Vietnam have placed a 14 day quarantine on travellers from Italy.

asking your staff to spend and extra 14 days away from their families in order to sit in a quarantine facility in a foreign country were they would presumably have to give up their rights upon entering is a pretty ridiculous thing to do no?

heck, what would the quarantine facility even look like?

maybe this is irrelevant, but what are the labour laws like in Europe? can an employer require an employee to isolate themselves in quarantine for 14 days in order to do their job? what happens if an employee refuses? is the employer allowed to replace employees? in addition to the health issues, i feel like there is a legal quandary here as well.

i know F1 personnel travel a lot and have accepted this way of life, but this race clearly has to be canceled/posptponed.

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by chillibowl

asking your staff to spend and extra 14 days away from their families in order to sit in a quarantine facility in a foreign country were they would presumably have to give up their rights upon entering is a pretty ridiculous thing to do no?

I would be less worried about sitting in quarantine to allow me to leave my home country/base to potentially being put in quarantine in a remote location that is preventing me from getting home! Who wants to travel right now??

Richard

[broadrun96]

Brawn setting us up for the potential of non-points races this year?

From Racer.com/Chris Medlund:

“If a team is prevented from entering a country, we can’t have a race,” Brawn told Reuters. “Not a Formula 1 World Championship race, anyway, because that would be unfair. Obviously if a team makes its own choice not to go to a race, that’s their decision. But where a team is prevented from going to a race because of a decision of the country, then it’s difficult to have a fair competition.”

[Nikki Katz]

I don’t see how a non-points race would work in modern f1. Wouldn’t the teams taking part have to turn the engines down to their lowest, and there would effectively be an incentive to not turning up at all?

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Brawn setting us up for the potential of non-points races this year?

From Racer.com/Chris Medlund:

“If a team is prevented from entering a country, we can’t have a race,” Brawn told Reuters. “Not a Formula 1 World Championship race, anyway, because that would be unfair. Obviously if a team makes its own choice not to go to a race, that’s their decision. But where a team is prevented from going to a race because of a decision of the country, then it’s difficult to have a fair competition.”

Clearly what need to happen is that they just prevent Mercedes from attending many of the races!

Originally Posted by Nikki Katz

I don’t see how a non-points race would work in modern f1. Wouldn’t the teams taking part have to turn the engines down to their lowest, and there would effectively be an incentive to not turning up at all?

Mid-field teams would give it a go just to be on the podium? Hard to say what the top level teams might do. I suspect you might see harder racing than you might think.

Richard

[E.B]

It also raises problems with engine quotas. Will the non championship races b included in those. Otherwise as mentioned I suspect Top teams will turn them down and maybe the 2nd string will throw caution to the wind and profit with podiums.

[broadrun96]

Would ANY team put an asterisk next to a win in their trophy case because it was non-championship? I suspect not a chance in hell for a team who hasn't ever won before. I could see Mercedes and Ferrari pushing for no race at all, and Red Bull could go either way.

But just to follow the possible options. IF Bahrain was to say NO Italian travel on your passport or 14 day quarantine AND all clear. You would lose 2 teams right away and possibly limitation on others depending on team travel needs. So now we have everyone but Ferrari, Alpha Tauri, possibly impacting Haas if anyone traveled to Dallara, and possibly Alfa Romeo Sauber if they came through Italy. Also the Ferrari engineers with both Haas and Alfa for the customer engines. All the remaining teams were allowed, and chose, to travel to the race. Does FOM/FIA have a responsibility or requirement to cancel? Or could a non-points race occur. Similar restrictions could be in place for the first Vietnam race as well.

And then there's the important bit of those round rubber things and the Italian engineers who support that bit.

Latest article from Chris Medlund expands the problem even more:

"Of course, there’s a bit of time to react to that right now. But soon after, Bahrain announced it will ban anyone entering the country if they have visited or transited through Italy, Iraq, China, Hong Kong, Iran, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia or Singapore in the 14 days prior to arrival. There is also a block on flights in from Dubai and Sharjah in the UAE.
For anyone already in Italy, that announcement could be troublesome, as most will fly to Australia later this week and on to Bahrain within 14 days of that. But even if action has already been taken, a number of flights from Melbourne to Bahrain pass through Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand and the UAE."

[Adam43]

Just treat these races separately in the engine quotas. Do you think overall F1 could afford an extra engine per car per season. This isn’t the world’s most difficult problem, especially in light of the bigger picture here.

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by Adam43

Just treat these races separately in the engine quotas. Do you think overall F1 could afford an extra engine per car per season. This isn’t the world’s most difficult problem, especially in light of the bigger picture here.

Completely agree, I would allow any team who wanted out to not run but any team who runs gets to run without the race counting in the allotment.

Now how that works out could be tough, I'm guessing that would mean the builders may have to break out a new engine per runner. But the alternative is management having to cover some of cost of a cancelled race. The engines could be cheaper, and definitely cheaper in the long run for PR and growth of the sport reasons.

[chillibowl]

sounds like F1 has made a deal/compromise with Bahrain.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/51727401

Bahrain immigration and health authorities have requested the names and flight details of all F1 personnel who work for teams, administrators, broadcasters or media who have been to, or transited through, China (including Hong Kong), Iran, Iraq, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Egypt, Lebanon and Thailand in the 14 days before their arrival in Bahrain.

This is in addition to the names and flight details of all passengers planning to arrive in Bahrain via the United Arab Emirates.

These passengers are expected to be screened at Manama airport on arrival and if they are clear of the virus will be allowed to enter the country.

i suspect comments from FOM/Brawn about non championship races are more about other venues making a similar arrangement?

[bjohnsonsmith]

In this exclusive interview with Reuters, Ross Brawn has said : “If a team is prevented from entering a country we can’t have a race. Not a Formula One world championship race, anyway, because that would be unfair".

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-he...-idUKKBN20Q2EV

[thunderbolt]

https://racer.com/2020/03/03/f1-cant...d-entry-brawn/
A number of travel restrictions have been put in place by both Bahrain and Vietnam — the venues for the second and third rounds of the season — on people who have been in Italy in the past 14 days,

With Ferrari, AlphaTauri and Pirelli among other suppliers based in Italy, Brawn says if any of these groups are unable to enter a country, then a race will not go ahead.

[OVERSTEER]

Or at the least it will be non championship, if that was to be the case then I hope that they don't count towards the power unit and gearbox usage limit.

[Moneyseeker]

Originally Posted by Nikki Katz

I don’t see how a non-points race would work in modern f1. Wouldn’t the teams taking part have to turn the engines down to their lowest, and there would effectively be an incentive to not turning up at all?

This will be all about contracts, if an F1 race does not run then FOM would have to refund and compensate the circuit, tv money, race sponsors and trackside sponsors. The circuit would then have to refund tickets, exhibitors, hospitality, etc.

We recall when F1 was having the tail end teams fold and BE spoke about the possibility of some of the works teams having to run an extra car so he could meet the minimum number of cars agreed with circuits and promoters, so you can imagine if there were no cars.

Circuits and even FOM will probably have cancellation insurance, but for circuits that can be massively expensive - I believe that silverstone allegedly used this for the Moto GP race they had to cancel - it doesn't always cover all your costs.


Sent from my SM-T580 using Tapatalk

[peebee2]

Imagine the grief if half of the teams get what will effectively be six extra car/test days!

[S griffin]

I hope this is sorted, this is not the way to do a season. Let's hope it starts as normal

[Richard C]

Should admins merge this and the China thread into a single thread and rename it as a Coronavirus thread?

Richard

[Mike Bell]

Originally Posted by Richard Casto

Should admins merge this and the China thread into a single thread and rename it as a Coronavirus thread?

Richard

Sounds good to me- like the virus itself, it’s spread......

[S griffin]

It’s a tough one. When you put contracts in like that, it leaves tricky situations like this. They need to find some compensation.

It’s a tricky situation when teams are struggling of course. It’s a good thing we had someone like Bernie doing good deals, although it tend to favour the best teams. I am sure we can make it up to full grids again

Let’s what happens with GPs like Vietnam. Of course there has been situations like this in the past, we all remember the rained off MotoGP Silverstone race a couple of years ago, which was a massive shame, but thankfully there were plenty of other GPs to keep it going