The international motorsport schedule has been hit hard by the Coronavirus.
With the full consequences of the virus becoming clear as many series were poised to begin their new championships, many have been forced to delay the start to their seasons.They include Formula 1, which sent it teams to Australia for its season-opening race, but called off the event just hours before practice was due to begin. One team, McLaren, had already pulled out after a member of staff tested positive for the Coronavirus. The series has since increased its number of delayed events to at least four, with two more expected to follow.
Among the other championships to delay the start to their seasons are IndyCar, whose first four races will not go ahead, and Moto GP, which has also cancelled four races in Thailand, Qatar, Argentina and the USA.
Many of these have had knock-on effects on other series which had support events planned for the same race. TCR Australia’s first race in Melbourne was minutes away from starting when the grand prix was called off.
Its counterpart series in China was due to race in Wuhan, where the virus originated. Wuhan and other cities in the Hubei province have been in lockdown since the end of January, and unsurprisingly its October race has already been cancelled.
The only later race on the schedule to be called off is a 24H Series event at the Circuit of the Americas, which has been moved to make way for Moto GP’s rescheduled race at the track.
One new series, TitansRX, has decided not to proceed with its 2020 championship until a full picture of the disruption caused by Coronavirus becomes clear.
The table below lists the known event postponements and cancellations at this point, though there are likely to be other series which have cancelled events. Note the list includes series which hold more than one race per event.
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Order | Dates | Series | Event | Location | Country |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | March 6 – March 8 | Moto GP | Qatar Grand Prix | Losail International Circuit | Qatar |
2 | March 13 – March 15 | World Superbikes | Qatar | Losail International Circuit | Qatar |
3 | March 13 – March 15 | Formula 1 | Australian Grand Prix | Melbourne | Australia |
4 | March 13 – March 15 | IndyCar | St Petersburg Grand Prix | St Petersburg | USA |
5 | March 14 – March 15 | NASCAR | Atlanta Motor Speedway 500 | Atlanta Motor Speedway | USA |
6 | March 13 – March 15 | Indy Lights | St Petersburg | St Petersburg | USA |
7 | March 13 – March 15 | Indy Pro 2000 | St Petersburg | St Petersburg | USA |
8 | March 13 – March 15 | USF2000 | St Petersburg | St Petersburg | USA |
9 | March 13 – March 15 | TC Americas | St Petersburg | St Petersburg | USA |
10 | March 12 – March 15 | TCR Asia Pacific Cup | Melbourne | Melbourne | Australia |
11 | March 15 – March 15 | NHRA | Gatornationals | Gainesville | USA |
12 | March 13 – March 15 | Supercars | Melbourne | Albert Park | Australia |
13 | March 14 – March 15 | British Rally Championship | West Cork Rally | Cork | Ireland |
14 | March 19 – March 20 | World Endurance Championship | Sebring 1000km | Sebring | USA |
15 | March 21 – March 21 | Formula E | Sanya EPrix | Sanya | China |
16 | March 18 – March 21 | IMSA | 12 Hours of Sebring | Sebring | USA |
17 | March 20 – March 21 | IMSA Challenge | Sebring | Sebring | USA |
18 | March 20 – March 22 | Moto GP | Thailand Grand Prix | Buriram International Circuit | Thailand |
19 | March 21 – March 22 | Super Taikyu | Round one | Suzuka | Japan |
20 | March 21 – March 22 | NASCAR | Homestead-Miami 400 | Homestead-Miami | USA |
21 | March 20 – March 22 | Formula 1 | Bahrain Grand Prix | Bahrain International Circuit | Bahrain |
22 | March 20 – March 22 | Formula 2 | Bahrain rounds | Bahrain International Circuit | Bahrain |
23 | March 20 – March 22 | Formula 3 | Bahrain rounds | Bahrain International Circuit | Bahrain |
24 | March 26 – March 28 | 24H Series | 12H Estoril | Estoril | Portugal |
25 | March 27 – March 29 | World Superbikes | Spain | Jerez | Spain |
26 | April 4 – April 4 | Formula E | Rome Eprix | Rome | Italy |
27 | April 4 – April 5 | Super Formula | Round one | Suzuka | Japan |
28 | April 3 – April 5 | Ferrari Challenge Europe | Mugello round | Mugello | Italy |
29 | April 3 – April 5 | Moto GP | Americas Grand Prix | Circuit of the Americas | USA |
30 | April 3 – April 5 | IndyCar | Alabama Grand Prix | Barber Motorsports Park | USA |
31 | April 4 – April 5 | European Le Mans Series | Four Hours of Barcelona | Circuit de Catalunya | Spain |
32 | April 3 – April 5 | Formula 1 | Vietnam Grand Prix | Hanoi Circuit | Vietnam |
33 | April 3 – April 5 | Indy Lights | Alabama Grand Prix | Barber Motorsports Park | USA |
34 | April 3 – April 5 | Indy Pro 2000 | Alabama Grand Prix | Barber Motorsports Park | USA |
35 | April 3 – April 5 | USF2000 | Alabama Grand Prix | Barber Motorsports Park | USA |
36 | April 4 – April 5 | Super Formula Lights | Round one | Suzuka | Japan |
37 | April 15 – April 15 | S5000 | Melbourne | Albert Park | Australia |
38 | April 18 – April 18 | Formula E | Paris EPrix | Paris | France |
39 | April 17 – April 19 | Formula 1 | Chinese Grand Prix | Shanghai International Circuit | China |
40 | April 17 – April 19 | Porsche Carrera Cup Asia | Shanghai round | Shanghai International Circuit | China |
41 | April 17 – April 19 | Chinese Formula Four | Shanghai round | Shanghai International Circuit | China |
42 | April 17 – April 19 | GT World Challenge Europe | Monza round | Monza | Italy |
43 | April 17 – April 19 | Formula Renault Eurocup | Monza round | Monza | Italy |
44 | April 17 – April 19 | Moto GP | Argentinian Grand Prix | Termas de Rio Hondo | Argentina |
45 | April 18 – April 19 | World Rallycross Championship | World RX of Spain | Circuit de Catalunya | Spain |
46 | April 24 – April 26 | IndyCar | Long Beach Grand Prix | Long Beach | USA |
47 | April 24 – April 26 | World Touring Car Cup | Race of Hungary | Hungaroring | Hungary |
48 | April 23 – April 26 | World Rally Championship | Rally Argentina | Argentina | Argentina |
49 | April 24 – April 26 | IMSA | Long Beach | Long Beach | USA |
50 | April 25 – April 26 | NASCAR Euro Series | Valencia NASCAR GP Spain | Valencia | Spain |
51 | May 3 – May 3 | Formula E | Seoul EPrix | Seoul | South Korea |
52 | May 6 – May 6 | Formula E | Jakarta EPrix | Jakarta | Indonesia |
53 | May 7 – May 9 | IndyCar | Americas Grand Prix | Circuit of the Americas | USA |
54 | May 9 – May 10 | European Le Mans Series | Four Hours of Monza | Monza | Italy |
55 | October 9 – October 11 | TCR China | Wuhan | Wuhan | China |
56 | November 13 – November 15 | 24H Series | 24H COTA | Circuit of the Americas | USA |
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2020 F1 season
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Dominik Wilde
13th March 2020, 18:17
Thanks for compiling this list! Crazy to see just how much has been affected!
FYI TitansRX isn’t a ‘new’ series so to speak, it ran its first full season in 2019
Corey
13th March 2020, 18:20
For NASCAR, it’s not just the Premier Cup series, but the NASCAR Xfinity and NASCAR Truck series as well.
UNeedAFinn2Win (@uneedafinn2win)
13th March 2020, 18:37
Back into hibernation it is then. Makes for a change.
Do stay safe, and do continue to support your local clubs, tracks and juniors.
See you in June. Well, August. September, surely.
Jere (@jerejj)
13th March 2020, 19:01
About the last two: Are (or were) they ‘original’ dates for those events, or actually re-scheduled ones given how late into the year they’re set?
Nick Wyatt (@nickwyatt)
13th March 2020, 21:53
So, for the moment at least, DTM and BTCC are going ahead? BTCC is largely domestic, but I’m a bit surprised at DTM as it attracts sizeable international crowds.
Dane
13th March 2020, 23:49
I knew Friday the 13th was unlucky, but this one was unprecedented.
Pablo
14th March 2020, 1:59
Interesting, only one NHRA race on the list.
PerryS
14th March 2020, 11:52
Why don’t The organizer start sim races to replace the actual race with real drivers in the respective series? I see sim racing this year could be even bigger!
Dale
14th March 2020, 13:50
… and not a single person has even a 0.001% improvement in their odds of avoiding infection due to any of those cancellations.
But thousands will lose motorsport or event related jobs over the next few months.
Penny wise, pound foolish.
John S
14th March 2020, 17:38
So… is everybody working on their 2021 cars? I would be. They have a whole factory with nothing to do. Maybe build mule cars in the off time. I seem to remember Ferrari did this with the hybrid engines.