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How F1's biggest strength is now its biggest weakness

The Formula 1 travelling circus is a pan-global monolith that can lay claim to being one of the biggest sporting series going. But in the current COVID-19 pandemic-induced hiatus, that could count against it staging any races at all in 2020, with the fate of Australia's cancelled GP a stark warning to other promoters

Despite Formula 1 CEO Chase Carey's unwavering confidence of being able to put on a season of up to 18 races this year, there is growing scepticism over whether or not the show will get going at all. As the world faces an unprecedented global pandemic, each week brings with it surprises and a new normality.

There has been little evidence so far that we are going to shake off the outbreak in the space of a few short weeks. Indeed, while some may have thought recently that the virus outbreak would hit countries for a fortnight and life would become normal again shortly after, now most are accepting that this is a marathon and not a sprint.

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Author Jonathan Noble

Jonathan Noble is Motorsport.com’s Formula 1 editor. Having graduated from University of Sussex Jonathan worked for sports news agency Collings Sports reporting on F1, F3, touring cars and other sports, with articles appearing in The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Reuters, Autosport and other publications. In 1999 he moved to Haymarket Publishing to become a senior editor at Autosport Special Projects, and one year later he became Autosport’s grand prix editor. In 2015 he moved to Motorsport Network, becoming the F1 editor for Motorsport.com. He is also a member of the Guild of Motoring Writers, and sits on the FIA Media Council.