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F1 freeze threatens to wreck MASTERS ON MOVE new season
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FORMULA One bosses are considering scrapping the first seven races of the season and starting from scratch in June.
Bahrain and Vietnam fell victim to coronavirus yesterday, joining tomorrow’s Australian Grand Prix and the race in China on April 17.
But after a Mclaren employee tested positive for the virus ahead of the scheduled abandoned opener in Melbourne, F1 chiefs are now targeting Baku on June 7 as the date for a return to action.
That would mean the new Grand Prix in Holland will also be canned, along with the Spanish and Monaco showpieces.
It is understood that some of those
THE Masters could be played close to the Ryder Cup after golf’s opening Major became another sporting casualty.
In an extraordinary 12 hours, The Players Championship was cancelled after one round then the PGA Tour called off the next three events.
That was followed by Augusta National announcing they were abandoning plans for the Masters, due to start on April 9.
World No.4 Justin Thomas said: “Selfishly I want to play but it is way, way beyond that. It is just a wild time right now. It feels surreal.”
Masters chairman Fred Ridley said: “The health and well-being of everyone associated with these events led us to this decision.”
But a new date will not be easy to find in a crowded schedule while Augusta National usually closes from May until October because of the summer heat. September is free
from ALEX SMITH in Melbourne
cancelled events could return to the calendar during August – which has three free weekends due to the summer break.
The decision would follow in Formula E’s footsteps, as the rival motorsport yesterday froze their season for the next two months.
F1 managing director Ross Brawn said: “We have plans to rebuild the season and try to accommodate as many of the lost races as we can.
“I think people have to show some tolerance now in terms of how we build the season, for the rest of the year.”
F1 CEO Chase Carey (inset) waited until
■ in the USA until the Ryder Cup starts on September 25 after the Tour Championship was moved to August to finish the PGA season before the NFL starts.
But that would clash with the European Tour’s BMW PGA event from September 10 to 13.
Irish ace Graeme Mcdowell said: “It is unprecedented. There is no set of rules to follow to deal with something like this.” less than two hours before cars were due on track for the first practice session to ditch this weekend’s action officially. And the American seemed reluctant to pull the plug on any more action yet, while denying world champion Lewis Hamilton’s claims that the only reason the event wasn’t called off early was because “cash is king”. “If cash was king we wouldn’t have made the decision we did,” Carey said.
“You’ve just got to look at how things have changed over the last five days.
“Trying to predict how it’s going to look going forward I just think is unrealistic.”