Racing Uncertainty: F1 in 2020 - Past imperfect

Chase Carey announcing the cancellation of the 2020 Australian Grand Prix - March 13,2020
Image Courtesy: Getty Images

On March 13, 2020, just 24 hours ahead of the scheduled start of the 2020 Australian
Grand Prix weekend, F1 Supremo Chase Carey, faced the media to announce the cancellation of the season opening race.

A few hours earlier, the cancellation was prematurely confirmed by an eager Emirates flight attendant sharing the flight manifest of the early morning flight out of Melbourne which contained the names of Ferrari drivers Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen, to her partner which was promptly shared with the entire racing fraternity.

This is the photo circulating that purports to be a passenger list for Emirates flight EK409 which left Melbourne THIS MORNING at 6am - showing F1 Drivers Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen (in 1A and 3A). If true, there's two drivers who won't be racing at @ausgrandprix pic.twitter.com/5AdU9YccfI

— Trevor Long (@trevorlong) March 12, 2020

Though this cancellation was coming since the day McLaren personnel tested positive for COVID-19, F1 administrators dilly dallied for a long time with even the reigning champion Lewis Hamilton expressing his angst a couple of times before the Aussie GP weekend.

And the inevitable happened. The whole F1 circus had to pack up from Melbourne, heading back to their respective countries, without knowing when they would be back at a race weekend again.

For the first time in F1 history, the opening race of the year had been called off without any racing. Bahrain and Vietnam announced postponements promptly along with China which had announced the postponement of the Shanghai race back in February itself. Since then, a bunch of races that were to happen have been postponed to later in the year. (cancelled?)

What lead to this? How could've avoided this? Can F1 overcome this? Can F1 thrive in such scenarios? What does the future look like? Several questions remain unanswered as humanity embarks on this uncertain journey navigating through this global pandemic over the next few years.