2021: HOPE VS HAZARD

2021: Hope vs Hazard – Image: InSyde Media

Happy New Year. It is a hope as much as the traditional exhortation – and never more so following the events of the year just gone.

COMMENT By MARK FOGARTY

We all desperately want 2021 to be better and more normal after the disasters and deprivations of 2020.

In the microcosm of motorsport, we are looking forward to reduced restrictions on racing, less disruption to calendars and more opportunities to attend events.

The coming year could hardly be worse, but no one knows what the next 12 months will bring. I suspect it will be somewhere in the middle of last year’s heartbreak and this year’s promise.

As race fans, our New Year’s resolution should be to support our favourite sport as best we can within continuing constraints.

Rest assured, we will be tested again in ’21, even though the outlook is already better.

There are no bushfires raging across the country, as there were at this time last year, which is a major salvation.

Understandably, we may have forgotten the devastation, but communities are still trying to recover from the double blow.

But while nature has so far given us a summer break, COVID-19 remains an ever-present threat. The recent outbreaks in Sydney and Melbourne are reminders that the coronavirus will dominate our lives for some time to come.

Despite the continuing uncertainties, for most of us, we have much for which to be thankful. We survived the greatest global pandemic in a century and weathered the biggest economic downturn in almost as long.

There are many, though, who didn’t survive and even more who are suffering extreme hardship. We must never forget the huge toll exacted by the worldwide health crisis.

As we begin 2021 with renewed optimism, not all of us have cause to celebrate.

But we are in a much better position as a region – and as motorsport followers – than most and whatever happens, the year ahead has more promise than gloom.

Australia and New Zealand have escaped the sheer scale of the crisis elsewhere through international isolation and harsh, if varying, restrictions of movement and lifestyle.

The controls have been extremely effective in containing COVID-19, but as recent outbreaks have shown, it hasn’t been eliminated and there will be periodic flare-ups.

Coronavirus hasn’t gone away – and won’t until an effective vaccine inoculates the vast majority of the population.

That is, at best estimate, at least a year away, meaning free international movement is unlikely this year, while the spectre of localised lockdowns and snap state border closures will remain.

At the very least, social distancing, masks, limits on indoor gatherings and restricted crowds at sporting events are here to stay for most, if not all, this year as responsible precautions.

As the recent reactions to the outbreaks in Sydney and Melbourne show, other states are on a hair-trigger, reintroducing hard borders to those from NSW and Victoria.

Even Victoria, which remained open to all other states and territories during its draconian (but effective) five-month lockdown, is now closed to NSW.

Borders can be opened and shut at will by state governments, and while the COVID-19 threat exists, WA, SA, NT, Queensland and Tasmania will not hesitate to isolate.

For motorsport, this means nothing can be taken for granted. The reality is that scheduled events for the next few months, at least, are vulnerable.

Race Tasmania, the ’21 season kick-off at the end of the month, is vulnerable. Sydney based teams are shut out unless the VIC/TAS border bans are lifted in the next couple of weeks – and if Tasmania extends the prohibition to Victoria, the Apple Isle double-header can’t happen.

Equally, the Supercars opener at Bathurst at the end of next month relies on NSW suppressing coronavirus cases to the satisfaction of VIC and QLD authorities.

The last thing Supercars needs is for teams to be exiled in NSW for an extended period.

Further ahead, the March 18-21 Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix is hanging by a thread.

Along with local issues, the AGP – where the world sport COVID cessation began last year – is dependent on the international situation.

The big test for whether the Albert Park F1 season opener goes ahead will be the Australian Open tennis tournament, delayed until early next month.

The AO organisers have brokered a deal with Spring Street for players to hotel quarantine in Melbourne for two weeks prior to the February 8 start, but with a corridor that allows them out for five hours a day to practice at Melbourne Park.

Limited crowds – about 50 per cent of normal – will be allowed to attend, but the two-week event will be ticket-only and no movement between the courts will be allowed.

Melbourne GP organisers – and Supercars, as the main support act – are hoping the ‘corridor’ system works and can be replicated at Albert Park, where F1 will be kept in a ‘bubble’.

How northern hemisphere nations control the rampant third wave of COVID-19 will also be a factor for both the Oz Open and the AGP.

The scheduled AGP weekend is also the opening round of the AFL season, which will determine crowd levels in Melbourne depending on COVID cases.

There are many weeks to go, which could improve or worsen the situation. We just don’t know.

For all of us, amid the good cheer of ringing in the New Year, we can neither be complacent nor assume our lives will be normal in the foreseeable future.

So while we all hope 2021 is a new dawn, the reality is less rosy. There will be delays, disruptions and disappointments along the way.

But Australia and NZ are in a much better position to get through another difficult year.

We have much to which to look forward as motorsport fans and in our daily lives as long as we moderate our expectations.

For more of the latest motorsport news pick up the current issue of Auto Action. Also make sure you follow us on social media Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or our weekly email newsletter for all the latest updates between issues.