Haas team principal Guenther Steiner says he expects Formula 1 to return to racing later this year despite the Coronavirus pandemic.
Four races have already been cancelled and may not be reinstated to the calendar. Further events are also in doubts as many countries have limited public events to slow the rate at which the virus is spreading.However Steiner expects F1 will be able to resume racing eventually.
“I’m pretty sure we will race this year and hopefully we get this virus under control for the whole world so the world can go back to a normal life,” he told Ziggo Sport.
F1 drew criticism for attempting to race in Australia in spite of the Coronavirus, and for its delayed response to McLaren’s withdrawal from the weekend after one of its team members tested positive for the virus.
Steiner said it had been a difficult decision to take, partly because of the differing circumstances of the various teams, plus the other stakeholders involved in running the race.
“The decision is not easy because you come here to race,” he said. “As a racer that is what you want to do. You look forward to the first race of the season as well, we are all fresh and cannot wait to go racing.”
“Then this comes in and then you need to pace yourself in and say there is some safety reasons for a lot of people and the whole world is upside-down in the moment because of this virus. So it’s very difficult to reason about that.
“But the decision comes out of it, like a lot of things. And you’ve got a lot of parties involved. You’ve got the local promoter, you’ve got the the promoter, you’ve got the federation, you’ve got 10 teams with different backgrounds.”
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Sham (@sham)
15th March 2020, 11:55
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