Bryn Lennon – Formula 1Getty Images
The 2021 Formula 1 calendar has its third race of the season dated May 2, seven days before the Spanish Grand Prix that will take place again in Barcelona. What the aforementioned third Grand Prize does not have is headquarters.
Grand Prize to be confirmed
From the first modification of the calendar in which Australia was delayed until the end of the year and China was left without a place, it was assumed that it would be Portimao who will occupy the appointment to be announced, however, time advances and Formula 1 does not finish moving token.
Both parties agreed on the event. The 2020 race left a good taste in the mouth, the Portuguese public was dedicated and the promoters of Portimao want to make a niche for themselves in the elite European Formula 1 calendar. However, for it to be a reality, Portugal needs an audience.
2020 left a very bad memory in this regard. Not only was the capacity restricted without practically warning, but many of the attendees, who had been able to maintain their place, were retained at the access doors, missing the event, beyond the irony of not being able to pass by not crowding the bleachers, regardless of whether they are crowding the access doors.
Neither Portugal nor F1 want something similar to happen again, and the truth is that half a year later, the situation continues to have the same degree of uncertainty as in 2020. The health situation is unstable, with continuously rising and falling curves that make it impossible predict what may happen the first weekend in May.
While both parties continue to negotiate the economic amount that justifies taking certain risks, time is running out to the point that the FOM is already thinking of possible alternatives.
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The return of the Sakhir Grand Prix
A double race in Bahrain, perhaps rescuing the Sakhir track, is on the table. It’s been done before and the teams would already be there. A safe value, within what it fits. But there is a timing problem. And it is that between Bahrain and Imola there are two weeks of margin. A double in Bahrain would reduce this to a week, something unfeasible at least under current conditions, where those arriving in Italy must quarantine at their homes before being able to carry out their daily activities.
The most feasible would then be to delay the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in Imola for a week, something that although it is not crazy, and even the circuit appreciates it in search of a more stable health situation, it requires a formal agreement between all the parts, as well as a logistics headache just two months away.
Formula 1 must make a decision and time is running out.
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