COVID-19 impact on motorsports events: here’s the latest from FIA

With the recent sweep of sports-event cancellations such as collegiate conference basketball tournaments and the NCAA basketball championship in the U.S., it only stands to reason that auto racing events—which also gather large crowds and require extensive travel by participants—would be affected as well. So what’s the latest on the COVID-19 impact on motorsports?

One organization that covers a wide swath of the motorsports world is the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), the governing body of some of the world’s top auto racing classes and motorsports championship series, such as Formula One, the World Rally Championship (WRC), and the World Endurance Championship.

But there is language in a press release issued today by FIA—an organization headquartered in France, where there are currently 4,511 confirmed COVID-19 cases according to the interactive COVID-19 map maintained by Johns Hopkins University—might make you wonder if this governing body’s leadership might have their heads buried in the sand.

In their press release, FIA is still describing the coronavirus pandemic as an event that, “to date, has mainly affected China.”

You might find that assessment a little eyebrow-raising if you apply some quick math to that same map from Johns Hopkins, according to which China now accounts for about half of the cumulative confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide.

Those numbers—and the stepped up responses of governments around the globe—show that the COVID-19 pandemic has gone well beyond something that can be described accurately as mainly affecting China.

But, then again, this is FIA—the same organization that, as we reported last month, thought it was a good idea to feature the Ott Tänak crash at Rallye Monte Carlo in a social media video promoting the WRC’s livestreaming service.

All that said, in the context of the overall COVID-19 impact on motorsports, a number of FIA-sanctioned events that had been scheduled in several countries—including but not limited to China—have indeed been cancelled or postponed.

On the Formula 1 front, the season-launching Grand Prix races in China, Australia, Bahrain, and Vietnam have been postponed and may ultimately be canceled outright, depending on how the pandemic takes shape over the course of the year.

FIA currently expects to be able to open the 2020 Formula 1 championship series in Europe at the end of May, but with the caveat that, “given the sharp increase in COVID-19 cases in Europe in recent days, this will be regularly reviewed.”

Beyond the flagship Formula 1 series, according to FIA the events listed below are also postponed or canceled outright, demonstrating the broad scope of the COVID-19 impact on motorsports:

• The 2020 Sanya E-Prix, originally scheduled for March 21 in Sanya, Hainan Province, China, has been cancelled, although the possibility of setting a new date currently appears not to have been ruled out entirely.
• The 2020 Rome E-Prix will not take place on April 4 as originally planned, due to current emergency measures in place in Italy, although FIA and other stakeholders plan to reconvene to assess the possibility of holding the event at a later date once restrictions have been lifted.
• June 5 is also out for the 2020 Jakarta E-Prix in Indonesia, but the possibility of rescheduling currently remains open.
• In the wake of the U.S. suspension of travel from Europe to the U.S. by non-U.S. citizens, the FIA WEC Sebring 1000 Miles race, which had been scheduled for March 20 in Florida, has been cancelled outright. 
• WRC Rally Argentina was also postponed from its originally scheduled March 12-15 run, although WRC Promoter managing director Oliver Ciesla says that “all parties will work closely together to identify a potential new date for the event.”