Last year, the coronavirus pandemic caused F1’s Australian Grand Prix to be cancelled just days before it was scheduled to take place, serving as the catalyst for the rest of the race cancellations that led to a more than unusual season.
This year, the Australian GP got the go-ahead to be the season opener once again, only to be postponed and replaced with Bahrain. Now, the race has been cancelled for good, and won’t appear on the 2021 calendar at all. International travelers to Australia are required to spend two weeks in quarantine in hotel quarantine on their own dime and this isn’t feasible for the F1 paddock.
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All of this comes after the track had just undergone its biggest layout change since joining the calendar in 1996, with the chicanes of Turns 6/7 and 9/10 being removed, and the widths of Turns 1, 3, 13, and 15 being increased. A Formula 1 spokesperson said that while they are disappointed that event can’t take place, they “are confident we can deliver a 23-race season in 2021 and we have a number of options to take forward to replace the place left vacant by the Australian Grand Prix”.
Since being postponed, the race was set to take place as round 21 of 23 on November 19-21, and logistically it fell in a series of races taking place in the southern hemisphere and other warm climates. That would mean that in order to maintain a 23-race calendar, whatever ends up replacing Australia (if anything does at all) would likely need to be a double header at one of the remaining circuits, or an alternate layout like Bahrain/Sakhir last year. Otherwise, Formula 1 will have to settle for less than 23 races this season.
