Season-opening Melbourne Formula 1 Grand Prix set to be postponed?

Formula 1's season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne next month is set to be postponed due to Victoria’s COVID-19 quarantine restrictions.

After a disrupted 2020 campaign the Melbourne Grand Prix was due to be the first event in F1’s 23-race 2021 season.

Cancelled last year the race, scheduled for 21st March, is now likely to be postponed until later in the year.

With the Victorian Government enforcing strict travel restrictions to contain the threat of COVID-19, the Indian Test cricket team and participants in the Australian Open tennis tournament have been and are subject to a 14-day quarantine period.

F1 was hoping its personnel and travelling entourage would be exempt from this and able to operate in a bubble. However, with the Victorian Government reported to be insisting that quarantine is mandatory staging the race would be unviable for F1 with its three-day pre-season testing period set to be held in Europe from 2nd to 4th March.

With the 2020 Melbourne Grand Prix - cancelled two-days before it was due to be held - among a number of races not held last year (including the Chinese, Japanese, Singapore, Thai and Vietnamese races), F1 pulled together a 17-race calendar from July to December.

The revised calendar did not feature any events in Asia other than those held in Bahrain (two races) and Abu Dhabi.

It has been reported that F1 was confident the Melbourne race would be possible next month as a result of its own biosphere-based protocols which worked so well in 2020.

However, a two-week quarantine would not be viable for any of its 23 races, the most in an F1 season in the sport's history, given the amount of personnel travelling - around 1500.

An F1 statement issued today advised “in 2020 we proved that we could return to racing safely and delivered what many thought was impossible in March.

"We have set out our 2021 calendar and look forward to the return of F1 in March this year."

F1 has conducted rigorous testing for COVID-19 since the delayed start to the 2020 season, ensuring all paddock personnel attending events test negative before being allowed on site.

Those attending the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix were required to remain within a biosphere on Yas Island for the entirety of the event, ensuring they did not travel to anywhere else in the Emirate.

The Bahrain GP, set for 28th March, now seems likely to be F1’s season-opener.

Images: The F1 circuit at Melbourne's Albert Park (top) and the start of the 2019 race (below). Images courtesy of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation.