The Monaco Grand Prix will not take place in 2020, after the race promoters confirmed they will not seek a new date for the race.
F1 confirmed earlier today the race would not go ahead on its original date of May 24th. The Automobile Club de Monaco has since confirmed it will not seek a replacement date.“The current situation concerning the worldwide pandemic and its unknown path of evolution, the lack of understanding as to the impact on the FIA F1 World Championship 2020, the uncertainty with regards to the participation of the teams, the consequences with regards to the differing measures of confinement as taken by various governments worldwide, the multi-border restrictions for accessing the Principality of Monaco, the pressure on all implicated businesses, their dedicated staff who are unable to undertake the necessary installations, the availability of the indispensable workforce and volunteers (more than 1500) required for the success of the event means that the situation is no longer tenable,” said the race promoters in a statement.
“As a result, and after careful consideration as to the gravity of this crisis worldwide, it is with great sadness that the Automobile Club de Monaco Board of Directors has taken the decision to cancel the 12th Grand Prix de Monaco Historique (8-10 May 2020) and the 78th Grand Prix de Monaco Formula 1, FIA world championship (21-24 May 2020).
“To all the fans, spectators, partners and our members, the Board of Directors wishes to express its sincere regrets that these two events cannot be postponed and under no circumstances, will it be possible to organize these events later this year.”
The Monaco Grand Prix has been held on 77 occasions since 1929, and was the second race in the first ever world championship season in 1950. It has held races in 66 of the 70 seasons so far, missing only the seasons from 1951 to 1954, when it was run to different regulations.
Earlier today the office of Prince Albert of Monaco confirmed he had tested positive for the Coronavirus.
This article will be updated.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
2020 F1 season
- Pictures: Wrecked chassis from Grosjean’s Bahrain fireball crash to go on display
- Bottas vs Rosberg: Hamilton’s Mercedes team mates compared after 78 races each
- F1 revenues fell by $877 million in Covid-struck 2020 season
- Hamilton and Mercedes finally announce new deal for 2021 season
- F1 audience figures “strong” in 2020 despite dip in television viewers
Jere (@jerejj)
19th March 2020, 17:55
As I expected the whole time, and I wonder how long till an article titled ”Official: No Australian GP in 2020” is going to come out.
The thing about Prince Albert concerning the last sentence, I didn’t expect, and hopefully, he’s going to be all fine.
Nat Lockwood
19th March 2020, 18:03
The Australian Grand Prix was always cancelled and never postponed mate. I follow you in wishing Prince Albert & everybody with coronavirus gets to recover from this. The loss of life is too horrific!
Ldom (@ldom)
19th March 2020, 18:24
Not my favorite race of the calendar but still a bummer. The longest F1 season ever is getting shorter and shorter…
Dex
19th March 2020, 18:58
It’s not like there ever was a Monaco race to be had. It’s more of an open “fan day”, but still, too bad.
Jorge Lardone (@jorge-lardone)
19th March 2020, 19:14
One of my favorite race of the calendar. But it is Ok. People and no money is what count, to all of us except Liberty, of course.
Cristiano Ferreira
19th March 2020, 23:14
I never liked Monaco, so i’m not going to miss it at all.
Islander
19th March 2020, 23:20
Damn. I had tickets to the VIP lounge at the Paddock Club Monaco, superior seating area.
Oh well, c’est la vie.
dan
19th March 2020, 23:42
Thank god looked like Lewis would be hit heard especially is fav track Shanghai. Hopefully this levels it abit. I hate that there is no sport and i will be fuming if every team turns up with DAS when we get underway. Merc have been robbed.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
20th March 2020, 2:04
I think Albert is going to regret it in a weeks time when he’ll be feeling better.
Maybe they’ll get used to having no race, f1 isn’t what it used to be.
Jon Bee
20th March 2020, 2:13
Can’t be having all those rich people getting sick! They’ve got enough problems hiding from the tax man.
Monaco doesn’t pay F1 a fee, they use their own broadcasting company and teams have to stay some distance away from the circuit due to the cost of hotels. I don’t think FOM will be that concerned at the loss.
Chaitanya
20th March 2020, 2:33
Given that Monaco doesnt pay hosting fee there is 0 financial motivation to reschedule the GP.
Qeki (@qeki)
20th March 2020, 10:05
Maybe there is something to this. Corona has done a lot of harm but some european cities are much more cleaner now as nature tries to balance itself once again. Maybe we never meant to do a season this long. Only a fraction of the people would like to see 22 or even more races per season. Maybe we don’t need that much?
But all in all more races means more F1 but we got to be close to the limit?