Formula 1 responds to street-race cancellation report

Formula 1 have denied any further changes to the 2021 calendar are planned following a report that the three street races in May and June were under threat.

Long-established Dutch magazine Formule1’s website reported that the Monaco Grand Prix, plus the races in Azerbaijan and Canada, would be scrapped for the second consecutive year with an announcement expected next month.

It was claimed this was due to the ongoing global health pandemic and the uncertainty it continues to cause in terms of planning, with an earlier decision needed to be finalised about the viability of street races due to the work required to set up their infrastructure.

But after the Australian Grand Prix was moved from its original season-opening date in March to November, and the race in China postponed indefinitely, Formula 1 have insisted no more alterations to the schedule are intended.

An F1 spokesman told PlanetF1: “We have set out the details of the revised 2021 calendar and there are no other changes. The suggestion street races will not take place are completely wrong.”

Besides the grands prix in Monaco, Azerbaijan and Canada, those in Singapore, Australia and Saudi Arabia can also be classed as street races.

It was also claimed in the Formule1 report that three venues had already been earmarked to fill in for the races said to have been in jeopardy – Istanbul, Mugello and Nurburgring in chronological order.

There is already a TBC slot on the calendar after the cancellation of the proposed race in Vietnam, with a Portuguese Grand Prix expected to be inked in for May 2 to simplify logistics ahead of the visit to Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya a week later.

Imola, which, like Istanbul Park, Mugello, Nurburgring and Portimao, was among the five European circuits that stepped in to bolster last year’s decimated calendar, is due to repeat the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix on April 18.

This is due to the postponement of the Chinese Grand Prix which, like the Melbourne race, could not go ahead in its original slot due to the effects of the pandemic.

The 2021 campaign is therefore due to begin in Bahrain on March 28, with pre-season testing taking place at the same venue exactly a fortnight earlier on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday as a race weekend would be.