F1 is pressing ahead with a revised race schedule for the rest of the year, but fans in Vietnam hoping to see an actual race in the country might be disappointed.
The just-updated 2020 Formula 1 race schedule has 17 events and differs from the pre-COVID-19 pandemic schedule. Hanoi had been awarded a race for this year, but the capital city is now absent from the list, which includes races in Turkey, Bahrain and Abu Dhabi. The latter, planned for December 13, will conclude the 2020 season.
Apart from Vietnam, the Asian leg of the championship originally included China, Japan, Azerbaijan, and Singapore, all of which have pulled out due to the coronavirus pandemic. The racing organization released an official statement explaining: "We are all disappointed that we have not been able to return to some of our planned races this year." The status of the Vietnamese Grand Prix is "postponed," but F1 is expected to make an official announcement soon about the Hanoi race.
Tickets for the Hanoi grand prix went on sale in July 2019, with construction of the 5.5-kilometer racetrack next to My Dinh National Stadium starting several months prior. In early June, when Vietnam was experiencing weeks without any community-spread infections, country officials had expressed hopes that the race would be rescheduled from April 2020 to November 2020. The recent outbreak in Da Nang seems to have made this impossible.
Hanoi has signed a 10-year contract to host F1 races in an attempt to bolster tourism and increase the national image.
[Photo via Flickr user LG]
