British F1 Grand Prix chiefs to decide whether Silverstone will be axed due to coronavirus by end of month
BRITISH GP bosses say they will make a decision by the end of the month on whether the race goes ahead.
Silverstone chiefs say that unlike Wimbledon, they need more time to get the circuit and the surrounding areas ready in time.
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The British GP is the largest sporting event in the UK on a single day, with almost 150,000 people expected on Sunday’s race day.
But with time ticking down to the July 19th race date, and with the number of coronavirus cases rising, Silverstone will have no choice but to make an early decision.
A statement said: “Silverstone and Formula One remain in close dialogue regarding the ongoing situation and are assessing the feasibility of holding the British Grand Prix on 17th – 19th July.
“We fully appreciate that other UK sporting events in July have taken decisions regarding their events,,
“But it is important to highlight that their logistics and sporting arrangements differ from Silverstone’s and, therefore, our timeline gives us until the end of April to make a final decision.
“The safety of our fans, colleagues and the F1 community will be our priority and we will continue to engage with the appropriate authorities.”
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F1 has been forced to cancel or postpone all eight of the opening races this season and are currently waiting to see if the Canadian GP, scheduled for June 14th, gets the go ahead.
Meanwhile, French Grand Prix managing director, Eric Boullier, said he was preparing for four eventualities.
He told Racer: “We are planning for four scenarios which are: Postponement, cancellation, business as usual – you have to do this because it’s a few months of work to put on a race – and a fourth scenario that is to downgrade the size of the grand prix.
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“If we had a late call to go for the race but ticket sales have slowed down and we can’t have enough people coming, then we need to adjust the expenses.
“That’s a discussion as well that we’re having with F1, because they are part of the expenses – they are my biggest one.
“So, if for some reason we could hold the grand prix and have the race in France in June, we might have a scenario where we control the expenses and the capacity of the race.”