Brawn: "Races announced earlier this week are pretty firm"
General
- GPblog.com
Ross Brawn believes that eight European races announced earlier this week are "pretty firm", although he admits that if something breaks out in one of the countries where the Formula 1 circus would go, they would have to revise the calendar again.
Races after Europe
Formula 1 is in a difficult position when it comes to races outside Europe. Especially because, according to Brawn, "Several countries are still in different stages of their situation with the virus." He let's the BBC know.
"There is still quite a lot of volatility in the situation in different countries, so until that stabilises and we can see where the situation is, it's difficult to commit", Brawn says.
Earlier it was announced that Russia is open to possibly organize two races at the Sochi Autodrom. Although Russia has been hard hit by the coronavirus, the cases in Sochi and the surrounding area have been limited because it is very remote.
Bottlenecks
"Brazil is in the middle of a very difficult period. Mexico is in the middle of a very difficult period. But we're optimistic that those situations will improve and therefore we will be able to build a programme around that", Brawn continues.
According to Brawn, there are two areas of concern: whether the virus situation in a particular country will allow F1 to be safe enough to go there; and whether countries such as Japan and Vietnam that have the virus under control will want to risk entering F1.
Brawn says the U.S., Brazil, Mexico and Russia are in the first category. Additional complications come with the street races in Baku and Singapore. It will take months to set up the tracks.