The potted history of F1's calendar cancellations

The postponement of the Chinese Grand Prix, which few doubt will eventually morph into a full cancellation, is an unusual event in the modern era. In recent years, the Formula 1 calendar has been pretty solid, even though the first official version is usually published as early as June or July of the previous year, to coincide with the summer gathering of the FIA World Motor Sport Council.

The odd date may change or be shuffled around, but losing a complete race, especially after the definitive calendar has been ratified by the WMSC in December, is a rare occurrence.

Cancellations were more common in previous decades, when there was was a more relaxed attitude to finalising the calendar. Races often disappeared, mainly due to either commercial or safety reasons.

These days, events are huge undertakings, in terms of both the financial numbers involved and the logistics of transporting personnel and equipment. Thus they won't make the calendar if there are doubts about either their commercial viability or the practicalities of getting a new or rebuilt venue ready on time. With such a tight schedule, and several aspiring venues on hold, Liberty simply can't afford to include anything that might ultimately drop out.

What can't be accounted for is force majeure, or outside influences that make F1's "show must go on" philosophy collide with events in the wider world. And that's what happened with China. The coronavirus outbreak had already led to the cancellation or postponement of a long list of sporting events across Asia and, with travel to and from Shanghai becoming increasingly restricted, it was inevitable that the Grand Prix would eventually become caught up in in the crisis.

Then it became a question of the timing, and how F1, the FIA, and the race promoter would agree to announce the news. The final decision came some nine weeks before members of the travelling circus were due to arrive in China. That was rather more notice than we had the last time a race was cancelled at a late stage - when once again, outside factors could not be ignored.

In early 2011, it became clear that the political situation and civil unrest in Bahrain made it inappropriate for the F1 race to go ahead, with the safety of visiting personnel just one of the factors in the mix. The decision came on February 21, a little over two weeks before people were due to arrive for the scheduled season-opening race date of March 13.

As with China, the initial announcement also came in the form of a "postponement" at the request of the organisers, although ultimately the race didn't happen. The official statement at the time was almost identical to this week's, with the FIA saying: "This decision is the outcome of the close co-operation between the FIA, Formula One Management, the Bahrain Motor Federation and the Bahrain International Circuit.

"The FIA is F1's governing body and is responsible for the international calendar as well as all matters of safety relating to the stakeholders involved in Grand Prix racing."

Then F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone said later that his hands were tied: "Shortly before the crisis I had lunch with the Crown Prince and there was absolutely no indication of what would come just days after. He was full of ideas for the future then shortly after the chain of events set in. There was almost no time to react. Of course we needed a decision by February 21, and that is what I told him.

"He asked what I would do if I were him, and I answered, 'You are there. We in Europe are hardly in the situation to make a serious judgment of the conditions. Decide what is best for your country'. He then cancelled the race and I think it was the right decision. It was not an easy one, as it was F1 that put Bahrain on the map."

Increasingly vocal opposition to apartheid played a role in the history of the South African GP. Pressure from the French government meant Renault and Ligier boycotted the 1985 race, and the following year's event was dropped

China 2020 thus joins Bahrain 2011 on the list of grands prix that didn't take place due to outside circumstances. It's happened on a few other occasions, but given the 70-year history of the world championship, and the fact that there have been over 1000 races, it's perhaps surprising how rarely F1 had been impacted - and even then there was often a crossover with simple commercial reasons.

That was the case when in 1956 the Suez crisis hit the global economy and oil prices rose. The Dutch GP and the Spanish GPs were cancelled, and the fallout continued into the following year, when the Dutch event was again dropped, along with the Belgian GP.

Argentina's complex political situation contributed to the country losing its Grand Prix after the 1960 edition. It returned in the seventies, but the 1976 event was cancelled just a few weeks before it was due to take place. In 1982, the escalating Falklands situation meant that the scheduled race didn't happen - the initial cancellation was blamed on sponsorship factors - and it would subsequently be absent for over a decade before returning in 1995.

The world's increasingly vocal opposition to apartheid played a role in the history of South African GP. Pressure from the French government meant the Renault and Ligier teams boycotted the 1985 race, and the following year's event was dropped.

Safety considerations have sometimes played a role, most notably in 1955, following the Le Mans disaster in which more than 80 people lost their lives. That year's French, German, Spanish and Swiss GPs were all cancelled - and indeed Switzerland imposed a ban on motorsport that would last for decades.

You could argue that those 1955 cancellations also crossed over into the wider world of politics and matters of public safety. However, most lost events in this category involve venues that drivers had expressed doubts about, or that were slow to undertake modifications mandated by the FIA, or failed to do so at all.

As Jackie Stewart's safety campaign gathered momentum, the 1969 Belgian GP was dropped at a late stage as Spa was considered too dangerous. The race returned in 1970 (below), but was gone again the following year, before Nivelles and Zolder took over in subsequent years.

A crowd invasion at the 1970 Mexican GP contributed to the race not happening in 1971. The Dutch GP was missing in 1972 while work was undertaken at Zandvoort, and in 1997 the Portuguese GP was dropped at a late stage because the Estoril circuit bosses hadn't completed the required updates.

It would be almost impossible to compile a definitive list of races lost for commercial reasons. In theory, you should include the first year after any defunct event was last run, even if they didn't always make an official calendar sanctioned by Ecclestone.

If you consider the modern era, at some stage plans were in hand for a 2012 Turkish GP, a 2013 European GP in Valencia, a 2014 Korean GP and a 2014 Indian GP, but ultimately none of those races happened, in each case because the financial burden of building a modern "Tilkedrome" and paying Ecclestone's escalating sanction fees eventually proved too much.

Looking further back, other "lost" events include Fuji 1978, Anderstorp 1979, Las Vegas 1983, Dallas 1985, and Phoenix 1992, and there are many more examples. Even before Ecclestone's time races were sometimes canned because of finances, or more specifically a lack of agreement on start money.

Some events have survived a short blip in their histories and returned to the schedule once commercial issues were sorted out - Montreal was missing in 1987 and 2009, as was Spa in 2003 (when local tobacco advertising laws had an impact) and 2006 (when a lack of time for upgrading work was the official reason).

Perhaps the most intriguing category is that for events which made the calendar, yet never actually happened. It's very easy to propose a grand prix, but actually bringing it to fruition is the difficult bit.

Ecclestone entertained hundreds of would-be promoters over the years, and he was usually pretty successful at weeding out the time wasters. However, it was often a chicken-and-egg situation - the people touting a race required a firm commitment and hence a contract and date on the calendar in order to raise the funds with which to turn their dream into a reality.

A Chinese GP should have been held for the first time at Zhuhai (above) in 1998, while Ecclestone's keen eye for expansion in Asia meant he signed a deal for a Korean GP in 1998-2002

The most spectacular failure of recent times was the New York/New Jersey event at Port Imperial. Herrmann Tilke had designed a street track, preparatory work had began, and David Coulthard had enjoyed a blast around the proposed route with a Red Bull demo car. The race made the 2013 calendar - and yet promoter Leo Hindery didn't get the required backing together, and eventually the project collapsed.

Such a flop is unusual for the modern era. By the early 2000s Bernie had so many successful events, often backed by local or national governments, that he rarely became too involved with people who didn't come through for him. Look further back, however, and there are many long forgotten non-starters.

Moscow was supposed to happen in 1982-83, and New York in 1983-85, while in 1985 street races were tentatively scheduled for both Rome and the Spanish seaside town of Fuengirola.

A Chinese GP should have been held for the first time at Zhuhai (below) in 1998, while Ecclestone's keen eye for expansion in Asia meant he signed a deal for a Korean GP in 1998-2002. And those are just some of the projects that made it to at least a provisional calendar - many more were just pipe dreams.

Only once in history has a grand prix weekend actually got underway and then the race not happened as scheduled. That was at Spa in the spring of 1985, F1's second visit after the Belgian GP venue was shortened. Resurfacing work had taken place shortly before the race weekend, and after the track began to break up on Friday, it was decided that action could not continue, although the supporting F3000 race went ahead on the Saturday.

The grand prix itself was postponed from June 2 to September 15, and with the track fixed, everything ran as planned on the new date.

Remarkably, a world championship race has never been lost to the weather, although Suzuka was closed and locked down on Saturdays due to typhoon activity in 2004 and again in 2019, while in 2015 the US GP's schedule was impacted by the weather.

And yet somehow the actual races have always actually taken place, although on occasion they've had to be shortened, to just 14 soaking official laps in case of the 1991 Australian GP in Adelaide.

The truth is that F1 has been lucky. Perhaps one day that luck will finally run out...