When Zak Brown took the decision to withdraw McLaren from the Australian Grand Prix, few imagined that three weeks later teams would be manufacturing medical equipment and furloughing most of their staff. Not only has racing been suspended, Formula 1 is in intensive care.
While F1's CEO Chase Carey talks about restarting the world championship mid-summer with up to 18 grands prix crammed into a congested schedule, possibly spanning the early months of 2021, some teams and many suppliers will struggle to survive that long. This is an anxious moment, and to overcome it will require leadership, patience and creativity.
Carey has the unenviable task of trying to captain the F1 ship through a storm which came out of nowhere to leave us in uncharted territory. His job is to inject confidence but Liberty Media's investors are nervous; F1's share price had peaked at USD$48 per share on 13 January but halved by 1 April.