Formula 1 has responded to mounting speculation over the status of future races by announcing it will issue a “revised” calendar of events for the 2020 season.
The championship promoter has removed the 2020 F1 calendar from its website. However the sport’s governing body, the FIA continues to list a schedule of events beginning with the French Grand Prix in June, the first event on the schedule which has not been formally postponed or cancelled.“Formula 1 is currently working with our promoters on a revised 2020 calendar with the actual sequence and schedule dates for races likely to differ significantly from our original 2020 calendar,” said the championship in a statement today. “This will be published in due course.”
The French and Belgian governments have in recent days announced extensions to bans on public gatherings which are likely to put their championship rounds, originally scheduled for June 28th and August 30th respectively, under threat.
F1 said it is making progress on offering refunds to fans who bought tickets for cancelled or postponed tickets through its outlets. Fans who bought tickets elsewhere should approach their ticket suppliers about refunds.
But while F1 intends to revise the schedule of remaining races, it noted that for the time being “for races not postponed ticket holders’ tickets remain valid.”
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Kyle S
16th April 2020, 13:06
What a beautiful work of fiction that will be.
I look forward to reading it.
BasCB (@bascb)
16th April 2020, 13:09
:-)
olpeculier (@olpeculier)
16th April 2020, 13:14
We’re having real trouble getting refunds from a ticket reseller for Spain.
Would like to think this will finally admit they have to give us our money back, but I doubt it very much.
Bill Shorter
16th April 2020, 16:55
Call your credit card company and demand a chargeback. Whether it gets rescheduled or not, you bought a ticket for a certain date. That is a contract with the seller and they are not honoring it. Does not matter the reasons. This is fraud.
Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
16th April 2020, 13:26
No, the Belgian GP is confirmed canceled. The Belgian government has canceled all events until August 31st.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
16th April 2020, 14:25
@jeffreyj The Belgian Grand Prix promoter has not confirmed the race is cancelled. I see they have stopped selling tickets, however, so it may be only a matter of time.
Krommenaas (@krommenaas)
16th April 2020, 16:43
It is certain that there won’t be allowed to be a crowd, but the race itself is not yet canceled.
anon
16th April 2020, 18:15
@jeffreyj as others have noted, what the Belgian government has prohibited are “mass events”, which include sports events.
However, there is currently a lot of confusion over what exactly the Belgian government would define as a “mass event” and whether it only applies to publicly accessible events. The promoters have indicated that, if the Belgian government were to permit them to hold a closed door event with a limited number of staff and if they could strike a deal with Liberty Media to make it financially viable to hold a closed door event, they would consider that option.
As Keith has noted, the promoter has stopped selling tickets – most probably because they’re now looking at that closed door option – and the odds of the race going ahead are probably low. However, as the closed door option may still be viable, they’re probably going to wait until the Belgian authorities confirm if that is or isn’t going to be permitted.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
16th April 2020, 13:34
Yeah, and what about ticket holders for races that HAVE been postponed?. I have tickets for the Spanish GP, and while I live 30 mins from the track and don’t have to worry (at the moment at least) if they reschedule it for later this year, some people maybe have gotten their tickets knowing they’d be in Barcelona in those dates, and maybe they cannot come in another date. But no one emailed us saying anything about those tickets.
Heck, they didn’t emailed us saying the race was postponed…
Sloppy Shades (@sloppysmusic)
16th April 2020, 17:48
Is there a disclaimer when buying tickets that the promoters are not responsible for the event being canceled due to unforeseen circumstances such as extreme weather, political upheavals etc? “no rain checks” I know I have seen myself. I’m not supporting that view just surprised some sources are not resisting refunds is all. Was wondering if Liberty mandated ticket refund policy themselves or whether it was up to the individual promoters/tracks?
Dave
16th April 2020, 19:54
Vietnam refusing to refund my tickets…
Green Flag (@greenflag)
16th April 2020, 22:34
This is easy to arrange. Simply rename all 2020 races as 2021 races, e.g. the 2020 Australian GP will be renamed the 2021 Australian GP and held in 2021. Repeat this process for all 2020 races. And if COVID is still raging next year, just rename the 2021 races for 2022 and try again.