How F1 dealt with COVID-19 – and what happens next?

OPINION: Formula 1, the FIA and other key players deserve enormous credit for reorganising and completing the 2020 season given the existential threat from the pandemic. But the deadly virus seems set to have a big impact on the next campaign, too…

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The 2020 Australian Grand Prix was cancelled on 13 March. The decisions that led to the Formula 1 paddock flying halfway across the world as the full horrors of the pandemic unfurled and the event being cancelled shortly before the season's first practice session was supposed to start shocked the championship.

But it was nothing compared to what was to come, as most F1 personnel flew home just before the spring lockdowns shut down the world.

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Author Alex Kalinauckas

Alex Kalinauckas is Autosport's Grand Prix Editor, covering every Formula 1 race since the start of 2020. After completing a master's degree in journalism at Goldsmiths College University of London in 2014, he worked for a range of motorsport and technology publications while covering national racing as an Autosport freelancer.

A lifelong motorsport fan - no one in his family can explain quite how or why such a development first occurred - Alex joined the Autosport staff in April 2017 as the magazine’s Assistant Editor covering Formula 2 and GP3, before being made Formula E correspondent and Autosport.com’s Plus Editor in March 2018. He lives in north-east London and is constantly frustrated by the Central Line.