The Vietnam F1 Grand Prix, initially scheduled for April and then canceled due to the novel coronavirus outbreak will definitely not take place in 2020, the organizers announced on Friday, without mentioning whether there would be or not an edition in 2021.
According to reports, Vietnam has recorded over 1,110 COVID-19 infections, with 35 deaths, Ministry of Health data showed. The country has not had any new source of contamination for more than a month.
“We are unable to host the most prestigious and exciting motorsport event in Vietnam in 2020 due to the COVID-19 epidemic,” Le Ngoc Chi, chairman of the organizing committee, said.
“It was a very difficult decision for all of us to make, but in the end it was the only possible solution after carefully considering all the safety criteria as well as the current conditions of the evolution of the epidemic in the world,” he added.
The 2020 edition of the Vietnam GP was to be the first to be organized by the country, which had signed a 10-year agreement with F1 to organize GPs.
Scheduled to be the 3rd race of the season and scheduled for Hanoi in April, the Vietnam GP had, at the end of March, had to be postponed due to the start of the pandemic, along with several other GPs.
Following these different postponements or cancellations, the F1 organizers ended up presenting a new revamped calendar for the 2020 season, hoping to be able to re-enter several GPs, including that of Vietnam, at later dates by the end of the season.
Since the restart of F1, several cases of COVID-19 contamination have been recorded in the teams or on the circuit staff.
