Formula One is in “a very fragile state” due to the COVID-19 pandemic and risks losing some of its 10 teams unless some big changes are made, McLaren Racing chief executive Zak Brown said on Sunday.
The season has yet to start, with two races — including the showcase Monaco Grand Prix — canceled and six postponed.
The sport has already made some changes, including postponing a planned major technical rule change from next year to 2022 and agreeing teams would use the same cars next year, but Brown said more was needed.
Photo: AFP
“Could I see — through what is going on right now in the world if we don’t tackle this situation head on very aggressively — two teams disappearing? Yeah,” the American told the BBC. “In fact, I could see four teams disappearing if this isn’t handled the right way.”
The economic and health situation means that it should not be assumed anyone would be lining up to take over any struggling teams, Brown said.
“I don’t think the timing could be worse from that standpoint,” he said. “So I think F1 is in a very fragile state at the moment.”
McLaren last week became the first team to put staff on furlough, while ratings agency Moody’s changed Formula One’s outlook to negative from positive.
Team bosses were due to discuss cost-saving plans on a call yesterday.
A US$150 million budget cap, still well above the spending levels of some smaller teams, is due to come into force next year, but Brown said that there was a push for it to be reduced further — possibly to US$100 million.
“You have everyone at US$150 million, and the strong majority — including one of the big teams — willing to come substantially under US$150 million,” he said, adding that there has also been some discussion about a further postponement of the technical rule changes to 2023.
Meanwhile, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc on Sunday was a dominant winner on his F1 e-sports debut, while World Cup-winning England cricketer Ben Stokes brought up the rear in a virtual Vietnamese Grand Prix.
The 28-lap race was the second in a series organized to provide some entertainment for fans starved of real-life action due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The inaugural Vietnamese Grand Prix was originally scheduled for Sunday, but the virtual race, with the 20 drivers joining remotely from their homes, was staged on a version of Melbourne’s Albert Park.
The Hanoi street circuit is not yet available on the official F1 video game.
“It was unbelievably hard,” said Leclerc, who led from start to finish and took the checkered flag 14.094 seconds clear of Danish Renault junior Christian Lundgaard, with Williams F1 driver George Russell in third place.
“We are sitting on a chair, so there is not even the G-force we have in a real car, but I am sweating like crazy,” added Leclerc, the winner of two races last year in his first season with Ferrari. “The muscles are not hurting, but the concentration and everything, I’ve been sweating a lot.”
Leclerc’s 19-year-old brother, Arthur, was fourth for Ferrari, just ahead of Italian Alfa Romeo driver Antonio Giovinazzi.
Lundgaard would have started on pole, but was given a five-place penalty for exceeding track limits in qualifying.
Jenson Button, the retired 2009 world champion, was 11th, with McLaren teammate Lando Norris failing to start due to technical problems for the second race running.
Norris’ Twitch streaming platform still had more than 77,000 viewers at its peak, while more than 190,000 watched the official livestream on YouTube.
Stokes finished last, behind retired F1 driver Johnny Herbert, but the all-rounder acquitted himself well in a field that included six current F1 drivers and gave a cheerful thumbs up from his living room.
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