Written by S Stewart, Edited by Andrea Teo
The Australian government has confirmed that due to the slow vaccine rollout in the area surrounding Melbourne, the 2021 F1 Australian GP will not go ahead. The race had initially been rescheduled to take place on 21 November 2021.
This is the second consecutive year that we will see the Australian Grand Prix taken off the calendar due to COVID-19 related obstacles, with the 2020 Australian Grand Prix being the first race cancelled due to the pandemic.
Victorian sports minister, Martin Pakula said, “Given the very low national two-dose-vaccination numbers, and given the decision of the national cabinet on Friday, we’re simply not in a position to give F1 management or MotoGP the sorts of guarantees and assurances and comfort that they need this week.”
This once again reduces the season down to 22 races, meaning that we may be subject to seeing another track being added to replace Albert Park. F1 CEO Stefano Domenicalli said on the matter, “While it is disappointing we won’t be racing in Australia this season, we are confident we can deliver a 23-race season in 2021 and we have a number of options to take forward to replace the place left vacant by the Australian Grand Prix.”
Albert Park had recently been redesigned to create better racing ahead of this year’s event, meaning that it will be another year before we see the track updates in action.
Comments