Formula 1’s 2023 Chinese Grand Prix, due to be held on the weekend of April 14-April 16 at the Shanghai International Circuit, has been canceled due to COVID-19 restrictions, F1 announced Dec. 2.
After taking place in 2019, the race was canceled in 2020 and 2021.
The event was never on the provisional 2022 calendar entirely, before being added back for 2023.
F1 signed a three-race deal for China to remain on the F1 calendar following the 2017 race.
China has been strict with COVID-19 compared to other countries F1 host races in, unofficially titled a “zero-COVID policy.”
F1 also confirmed in its statement announcing the change that it was “assessing alternate options” to replace the race on the 2023 calendar.
If no replacement can be found, F1 would have a three-weekend break between the Australian Grand Prix on the weekend of April 2 and the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on the weekend of April 30.
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Michael has watched NASCAR for 20 years and regularly covered the sport from 2013-2021. He moved on to Formula 1, IndyCar, and SRX coverage for the site, while still putting a toe in the water from time-to-time back into the NASCAR pool.
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They forsee the entire country being locked down for another 5 months? Yikes. F1 should probably just move on from China all together.
The problem isn’t necessarily that F1 is worried of the country shutting down, the problem reportedly is more that F1 can’t get a guarantee that anybody on-site testing positive within the sport won’t be thrown into a mandatory quarantine center for X amount of days
How about trying to get Vietnam or Korea back on the schedule?