If F1 doesn’t replace the event, a 23-race season, the first being in Bahrain on March 5, would already be a record, with the current 22 Grands Prix standing.
A week after a BBC article announcing this cancellation, Formula 1, which denied it at the time, now officially confirms it, after a new “dialogue with the promoter and with the competent authorities.”
There are many other countries that would like to host a Grand Prix
This decision comes after a wave of anger demonstrations in China against health restrictions and for more freedoms, last weekend. And that despite signs this week of possible relief by the authorities from their strict “zero covid” policy.
According to BBCF1 staff would not have been exempt from quarantine requirements in case of covid-19 infection, making this test in the country too risky an event for teams on a very tight schedule.
The absence of China, for the fourth consecutive season since the start of the pandemic, leaves an empty gap between the Australian Grand Prix on April 2 and that of Azerbaijan on April 30.
To seek to maintain the 24 races, Formula 1 can count on a reserve of suitors, as he explained to the AFP at the end of October the general director of Formula 1, Stefano Domenicali, during the Grand Prix of Mexico: “There are many other countries that would like to host a Grand Prix. Tomorrow morning, we could sign with seven or eight more countries.”