The 2020 USA Grand Prix – currently scheduled for October 25, 2020 – is in jeopardy of being held as the city of Austin, Texas, has imposed restrictions on events with an attendance of more than 25 people through the end of December 2020 due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic recovery.
Barring a change in the recovery process between now and then, that leaves two possible scenarios for Formula One – outright cancellation or, most likely, holding the event without spectators.
Austin is currently in Stage Three of its reopening plan, which allows low-risk people to gather, shop and dine out in groups of no more than 10 people. Large events like the USA Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas are not likely through the end of the year as the coronavirus pandemic continues, Austin Public Health officials said this week.
“The large events are the first thing that we turned off and are going to be the last thing we’re going to turn back on because of that risk of exposing lots of people to one another, particularly individuals of the same household,” Austin-Travis County Health Authority Dr. Mark Escott said.
In order to consider holding large events, Escott said the city would have to move into Stage One, the safest level of the city’s phased re-opening plan. In Stage 1, high-risk residents would have to avoid gatherings of 25 people or more. The size of gatherings for low-risk people during Stage 1 has not yet been determined.
“We are working on a plan to help forecast what we think is going to be reasonable, but looking through the end of December, we don’t have any indications at this stage that we would be able to mitigate risk enough to have large events,” Escott said.