The 2020 British Grand Prix is back up in the air again after Formula One said it would be unable to hold the race at Silverstone on July 19, 202, if their personnel are not given exemptions from proposed UK plans to quarantine international travelers for 14 days.
According to an F1 spokesman: “A 14-day quarantine would make it impossible to have a British Grand Prix this year.”
Currently, F1 has planned to address coronavirus concerns at its planned races by keeping teams apart from each other at the tracks, staying in separate hotels [to which they will be driven in buses] and having all personnel tested before traveling along with every two days while at the races themselves.
F1’s planned start to the 2020 racing season is still expected to begin with the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring on July 5, 2020, followed by an additional race at the same location on July 12, 2020, as the Austrian government has not required a similar 14-day quarantine plan.
If the UK quarantine is in effect, then the British races are expected to be dropped from 2020’s current makeshift schedule and possibly replaced by other races in Europe, with the additional possibility of the teams returning to the UK for racing when the measures have been eased by the British government.
With 10 races already having been cancelled or postponed, F1 chairman Chase Carey has said he is hoping to hold about 16 races starting in July with the Austrian Grand Prix races, followed by either the British races [or races in Hockenheim in Germany if the UK is not available]. After that, there would be four races from the previously scheduled races in Spain, Hungary, Belgium, Italy, France and the Netherlands, before trying to fit in races in Canada, Singapore, Azerbaijan, Russia, China, Japan, USA, Mexico, Brazil, Vietnam, Bahrain and then the season would end in Abu Dhabi on December 13, 2020.