Formula 1 bosses are set to delay the start of the new 2020 season until June after the Bahrain and Vietnam Grands Prix were postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The season-opening Australian Grand Prix was cancelled on Friday, just 90 minutes before practice was due to begin, following McLaren’s withdrawal from the event after one of their mechanics tested positive for COVID-19.

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And now next weekend’s race in Bahrain, which was set to go ahead behind closed doors, and the inaugural race in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi have since both been called off.

Formula 1 chiefs released a statement on Friday afternoon claiming they ‘expect to begin the Championship in Europe at the end of May’.

However, according to Press Association it’s more likely that will be pushed back until the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, pencilled in for June 7, at the earliest.

As it stands, the season is due to end in Abu Dhabi on November 29.

However PA also claim that race could be pushed back until December to allow room for next month’s already postponed Chinese Grand Prix, and the race in Hanoi to be squeezed back into a rejigged calendar.

The Dutch Grand Prix, the first race in the Netherlands for 36 years, is due to take place on May 3, but that might now be moved to August, with the sport’s customary summer break scrapped. As many as 18 races might be staged in six months.

The historic Monaco Grand Prix, set for May 24, could become the sport’s biggest casualty, while there may also be no room for the races in Bahrain and Spain.

There are no plans for the Australian GP in Melbourne to be rescheduled for later in the year.

“The scale of this is massive,” said F1 motorsport boss Ross Brawn. “We want to try and build the Formula One season back up, but we have to be realistic when that can start again.

“The teams survive on their funding from races. Each race you lose, it has an impact.

“There is a strong resilience in Formula One and we have got plans to rebuild the season and try to accommodate as many of the lost races.

“People need to show tolerance in terms of how we build the rest of the year, and the teams are in the right place to understand this necessity.”

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Six-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, who had already been deeply critical of the sport’s move to head to Melbourne, welcomed F1’s decision.

“The reality is, this is really serious with people dying every day,” Hamilton, who left Australia on Friday, said on Twitter.

“Lots of people [are] ill and even if they are not ill, many people [are] being affected financially and emotionally.”

Fourteen McLaren staff have been placed into quarantine after coming into contact with their infected colleague, who tested positive for the virus on Thursday night.

All returning members of Hamilton’s Mercedes race team meanwhile, will not attend their HQ in Brackley over the next fortnight to avoid the potential of passing on a disease which has killed more than 5,000 people.

Source: TalkSport.com Motorsport