Jones doubts Australian Grand Prix will be rescheduled this year

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In the round-up: Alan Jones doubts the Australian Grand Prix organisers will be able to reschedule their race later this year.

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An obvious lesson needs to be learned from the Australian Grand Prix cancellation, says @Alianora-la-Canta:

If cash is king, necessity is emperor.

Claiming that the broader situation was the trigger point when it was the situation within the paddock itself (i.e. that positive test, combined with the knowledge that Covid-19 can be infectious for over a week before symptoms first appear and that the full paddock had already been mingling for a day prior to the test – let alone anyone who was there beforehand for set-up) that, from a legal standpoint, forced cancellation, ignores the role of necessity. Leaders who ignore necessity are unwise and tend to fail. This will do nothing to instill confidence in Liberty’s future response.

I believe we will have a F1 season, but not until it makes some sort of sense to have one. Until then, it is necessary to not have one. If the FIA, Liberty and the promoters of the other grands prix have learned this lesson. I can only hope the latter actually have, because from this week’s evidence, we cannot depend on either of the first two doing so.
@Alianora-la-Canta

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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20 comments on “Jones doubts Australian Grand Prix will be rescheduled this year”

  1. Members of the NASCAR Industry ran their e-race today on iracing. They called it The Replacements 100 and can be found on http://www.twitch.tv/podiumesports. Some of the participants included, William Byron, Alex Bowman, Bubba Wallace and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

  2. Very nice CotD, @alianora-la-canta. I fully agree.

    Building on your comment, I’d like to repeat part of a comment I made yesterday:

    I’d also say that as a party who were financially directly invested in the conduct and success of the GP, the Victoria govt. might not have been able to make an impartial decision. It’s one thing for a commercial and profit-making entity like FOM to have a goal of “try and keep the race on”, it’s another one when a government tasked with the wellbeing of its citizenry has such a conflict of interest. This isn’t criticism per se, but a cautionary tale for future race venues as well (a cautionary tale for whom? I honestly don’t know! Maybe an ombudsman/regulator/equivalent in countries that have it?)

    And I also agree about the need to learn, and not just give people a free pass on their “unprecedented situation” excuse, here were my views on the same:

    We need this criticism to be out there, because that is the only way that when such a situation repeats itself, people will have internalized the lessons from this event, and apply it to the future. S. Korea, Taiwan, Singapore all learnt from their earlier brushes with SARS and set in place plans and systems to quickly swing into action. There’s no reason why our countries cannot follow a similar model.

    1. Thank you for the kind words, @phylyp, and you are making a lot of sense yourself.

      I believe that the Victorian state had people due to be in Albert Park? If so, then the duty of care towards those staff should have overriden the substantial financial “encouragement” to continue. Just as it should have done for the FIA and Liberty. Which is why I feel a mutual immediate cancellation, with equitable sharing of associated costs (not one party paying everything!) and support arrangements put into place. F1 is really good at the latter when it feels compelled to deploy support arrangements, and this should have been one of those times.

      1. Also, thank you Keith for the Comment of the Day :)

      2. Which is why I feel a mutual immediate cancellation, with equitable sharing of associated costs (not one party paying everything!)

        @alianora-la-canta – Indeed, this is something I’ve mentioned myself in earlier comments. Agree to park the cancellation clauses of the contract due to these force majeure circumstances, meet around a table, or with a mediator, to agree a proportionate divvying up of costs/losses.

  3. Currently boarding an Etihad plane out of Melbourne with “F1” and an advert promoting the Abu Dhabi race blazened down the side of the plane. It feels like they’re mocking me.

    1. @eurobrun Thinking of it that way… …ouch!

  4. Maybe some food news on the horizon

      1. It seems that article has now been taken down – I guess it was too hard to make confident statements about whether this would work @jjohn. But I sure hope the people doing that research can get closer to it in the near future

        1. @basbc I think I messed up copying the link.
          The article is still there if you want to see on news.com.au then scroll through to health.
          I know its not F1,but supposedly he simply discovered that two existing drugs (one anti malaria, the other HIV related) either in isolation or combined seemed to kill the virus in test tubes and the few people that it was used on (no idea how he got that one through!). But that wouldn’t meet the protocols to say ït works!”, so he wants 50 hospitals to begin trials to see if the results are replicated in a controlled and medically/scientifically accepted study.
          @alianora-la-canta sure would be especially as they are drugs that are available worldwide? already, and just need the relevant countries approval to be used for different purpose, IF the trials here are successful

          1. groan… I meant @bascb, maybe fourth time is the charm @phylyp. Done with my attempts at typing now

          2. Ah, right @jjohn. Yeah, I’ve seen reports of successfull treatments with some anti-aids medications as well as several cases where the relatively cheap and available malaria treatments have worked to help patients (seen Italian, Dutch and German reports, and I think there were some others from China and Taiwan too).

            Certainly a positive, as is all the work done to understand the virus and find vaccines ASAP.

    1. @jjohn In fairness, there was a news item about food on yesterday’s round-up, so probably both of your statements are correct. Let’s hope Queensland’s research team has the answer, because that would be great news for the world.

  5. I found the sim racing quite fun yesterday. Could be a great way to fill the gaps. I’m sure someone at Formula 1 is working hard to get the drivers all signed up

  6. Had to laugh at the part of The National article which charaterised Bernie-era decision-making as quick and nimble. The problems at the US Grand Prix in 2005 were suspiciously akin to the troubles in the Australian Grand Prix 2020 in terms of how heavy and inappropriately stubborn they were.

    1. Indeed, USA 2005, and let’s not forget Japan 2014 are both very strong arguments debunking the merits of Bernies quick and nimble desicion making @alianora-la-canta.

      Thank you for writing the CotD, I wholly agree that there were overwhelming reasons at an earlier state to do the responsible thing out of care for public health as well as care for all people who now found themselves in and around the paddock in large groups, when that is cerainly the last thing we should be doing currently.

  7. No need to even doubt as it’s something that definitely isn’t going to happen due to the infrastructural and logistical-reasons pointed out before.

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