IndyCar shows that the current F1 calendar is hanging by a thread
Team Penske Multimedia
General
- GPblog.com
IndyCar seemed to be doing well two months ago when they started their season on the Texas oval. They should have postponed the important Indianapolis 500, but they were able to race as much as a month earlier than they did for Formula 1 and were also driving with spectators earlier this month.
Unfortunately everyone who cares about the series and motorsport as a whole seems to have cheered too soon. According to reports from Racer.com, IndyCar will announce this Monday that two of their planned events will not take place due to the threat of the coronavirus.
Regionally very different measures
These are the races in Portland (Oregon) and Laguna Seca (California). Two states where COVID-19 is quite prominent and where the authorities are more inclined to take measures against it. The governor of Oregon recently ruled that people should not gather in groups of more than 100 people, and with that the IndyCar race is off the track.
It shows that the level of infection of the virus not only varies enormously regionally, but also the response of policy makers. Formula 1 is trying to avoid a similar scenario by only organising races in Europe this year, but even then the championship runs the risk of losing several Grand Prix weekends. For example, at the moment there are already doubts about the Spanish Grand Prix in two weeks' time.
Two races in one weekend
IndyCar tries as good and as bad as they can to maintain their championship and does so through two races in the same weekend. In all likelihood there will therefore be an additional race in Mid-Ohio and Gateway.
In Formula 1 it's all a bit more complicated. So far they have chosen not to deviate from one race per Grand Prix weekend. Should Spain not go ahead, a third race could take place that weekend at Silverstone, but further on in the schedule that might not be possible anymore and two races in one weekend are the only way out.