F1 says rescheduling Chinese GP will be a “challenge”

Formula 1 CEO Chase Carey says efforts to re-organise the postponed Chinese Grand Prix for later in the 2020 season will be a “challenge”.

On Wednesday, F1 announced it has called off this year’s Chinese GP - which was due to take place on April 19 - after accepting an official request from the race’s promoter to postpone the event amid growing concerns about the ongoing coronavirus outbreak in the country

F1 said it will try to reinstate the race later in the season, although it faces an already jam-packed schedule with 21 grands prix taking place across nine months, as well as the logistical headaches such an alteration would cause.

"Part of the challenge is that you don't really know the time-frame, so it's difficult to say what time works," Carey told Sky Sports.

"Clearly we have a busy calendar so it's not easy to reschedule this late when we're only a month away from our first race.

"The hope is that people will have a better handle on this pretty quickly,” he added. “It emerged quite quickly, the cases outside China, really the district in China, are still limited in number.

"We're very aware of it and we will continue to monitor it and deal accordingly. Obviously safety for our fans and our teams, everybody in the sport, is first and foremost.

"So we'll be thoughtful and thorough and we are continuing to monitor and engage with the appropriate authorities and appropriate experts."

China had been scheduled to be the fourth round on what was set to be a record-breaking 2020 season but the postponement means there will now be a four-week gap between the inaugural Vietnam Grand Prix in Hanoi on April 5 and the returning Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort on May 3.

It is understood discussions about a possible rescheduling of the Chinese GP will continue in the next Strategy Group Meeting.

While a potential swap with another round later in the year has already been ruled out, one alternative solution being considered is moving the Abu Dhabi finale back to free up room for China to fill a weekend slot in late November.

Shanghai is 500 miles from Wuhan, where the virus originated from. There have been more than 44,000 cases of coronavirus globally, with the total number of deaths in China now standing at beyond 1100.