WHY AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX CAN’T HAPPEN THIS YEAR

It’s time to call it. Amid the latest COVID crisis, the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix is unlikely to happen in November, so ditch it till next March.

Even if the latest lockdown in Melbourne finishes at the end of the week, the outlook for allowing international visitors later in the year is grim.

Victoria isn’t going to let F1 in without strict quarantine measures, which means two weeks in a hotel without movement.

The Canadian GP has already been cancelled because F1 authorities wouldn’t relent on a fortnight of isolation.

F1’s health protocols have been robust and successful, but still not enough to convince Victoria to allow an AGP ‘bubble’.

AGP organisers want F1 allowed in with strict controls, but only for a maximum five-day fly in, fly out period.

The teams would arrive on the Wednesday or Thursday and leave on the Monday after the November 18-21 event.

They would travel to and from Melbourne airport in isolation, stay in confined accommodation and be restricted to the F1 paddock at the Albert Park circuit.

Even corporate guests would be excluded from the F1 area.

But current travel restrictions make an exemption for F1 unlikely, especially as the AGP is scheduled for just two weeks after the race in Brazil, which has one of the highest rates of coronavirus infection the world.

The only real hope for the F1 AGP going ahead is if the majority of Australians are vaccinated by then, which is unlikely at the current rate.

AGP organisers will hang out until October to make a call.

But it would be more sensible to skip to March 2022, restoring the AGP to its traditional season-opening slot.

By then, the worldwide COVID situation will be much clearer and more manageable.

The virus is not going away and now is the time to call off the AGP for this year. Outbreaks will keep occurring nationwide.

November is too soon, but four months later, it is likely to be a very different scenario.

Hence accept reality now and put all the effort into ’22. An added benefit: Track upgrades and changes will be more settled by then.

Cancelling this year’s F1 AGP is going to hurt, no doubt.

But unless Spring Street approves a five-day corridor, F1 isn’t coming to Melbourne.

The odds are that the AGP won’t happen in six months, so why prolong the agony?

Call it off now and reset for March 2022. It will save everyone – primarily fans – a lot of angst.

The F1 AGP is a top five national sporting event that needs to be run without artificial restrictions.

Crowds of 50,000 a day are not unreasonable and up to 100,000 should be accepted in the wide-open spaces of the Albert Park lakeside circuit.

Before the latest outbreak, 85,000 were allowed in the confines of the MCG.

Getting on the front foot and rescheduling the F1 AGP to March ’23 – or November next year – would save a lot of government money and public uncertainty.

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