F1: Azerbaijan, Singapore, Japan Races Cancelled

As expected, the 2020 Azerbaijan, Singapore and Japanese Grands Prix have all been cancelled due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Azerbaijan had already been postponed from its original June date, and had been pencilled in to replace the Singapore Grand Prix on September 20th. However, a mixture of government restrictions and the massive logistical issues of hosting street races in Singapore and the Azerbaijani capital of Baku, one of which being the long preparation period needing organisers to commit to the event early on.

The fate of the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka were realised soon after the cancellation of MotoGP's Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi, which was due to be held a week after F1's Suzuka race. F1 said 'ongoing travel restrictions' were the main reason for the event's cancellation.

As a result, F1 is struggling to put together a string of fly-away races, with a large gap being opened up between the Italian Grand Prix at Monza on September 6th and the US Grand Prix on October 25th (and even this event is likely to be cancelled), with only the Russian Grand Prix at Sochi listed between those events on September 27th. 

The official statement from F1 said: 

"We are confident in our plans to have between 15-18 races by the time our season concludes in Abu Dhabi in mid-December and expect to publish the finalised calendar before we start our season in Austria.

“As a result of the ongoing challenges presented by COVID-19, we and our promoters in Azerbaijan, Singapore and Japan have taken the decision to cancel their races for the 2020 season.

"These decisions have been taken due to the different challenges our promoters face in those countries.

“At the same time we have made significant progress with existing and new promoters on the revised calendar and have been particularly encouraged by the interest that has been shown by new venues in hosting a Formula 1 race during the 2020 season."