F1 to cancel Canadian Grand Prix as McLaren boss Zak Brown admits sport’s ‘very fragile state’

An F1 boss has pointed to a potentially dire future for the sport as the Formula One’s hand has been forced into another big call.

Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo look concerned.

While sports inside certain countries may have options, Formula One is facing a horror year that would be completely wiped out if the coronavirus crisis continues.

It appeared clear with the sport’s reticence to cancel the Australian Grand Prix until the morning of the event that despite the perceived rivers of gold propping the sport up, a cancellation would leave the Formula One vulnerable.

Since the Australian Grand Prix has been cancelled, along with the Monaco Grand Prix, while Bahrain, Vietnam, Chinese, Dutch, Spanish and Azerbaijan Grands Prix having all been postponed until later in the year.

As it currently stands, number nine may not be too far away with the Canadian Grand Prix set to be postponed as well with the nation on lockdown.

While the race is set to take place on June 14, it’s still a long way away, but with travel restrictions in place, it’s unclear whether all teams will be able to make the race even if it was held.

Canadian driver Patrick Carpentier believes it will ultimately be cancelled with Ferrari to be stopped from flying to Montreal.

McLaren’s Carlos Sainz during testing.

"Ferrari is an important part of F1, so if they cancelled Melbourne because McLaren was affected by the coronavirus, they will not come to Montreal because Ferrari will not be there,” he said.

"Right now, it would be very, very, very frowned upon for Ferrari to go racing while nearly 1000 people die there every day.

"I hope that the race will happen, but in my opinion it is impossible."

But McLaren CEO Zak Brown has cast a dire warning for the F1 grid, revealing “four teams” could potentially disappear if the COVID-19 crisis isn’t handled well.

“Could I see – through what is going on right now in the world if we don’t tackle this situation head on very aggressively – two teams disappearing? Yeah,” he told BBC Sport. “In fact, I could see four teams disappearing if this isn’t handled the right way.

“And then, given how long it takes to ramp up an F1 team, and given the economic and health crisis we are in right now, to think there would be people lined up to take over those teams like there has historically been … I don’t think the timing could be worse from that standpoint.

“So I think F1 is in a very fragile state at the moment.”

Zak Brown looks on during the Supercars Australian Grand Prix round in 2018.

McLaren became the first F1 team to furlough staff on Wednesday, with remaining employees, including drivers Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz, taking a wage cut.

But the Woking-based team’s chief said more changes are required to help the sport through these uncharted waters, including a considerable reduction to the $175 million ($A292m) budget cap due to come into force in 2021.

Brown told the BBC that all teams have agreed to lower this year’s budget to $150m ($A250m) but the McLaren boss wants a further drop before a meeting about the state of F1 on Monday.

Speaking over the weekend, Aussie Daniel Ricciardo said he was still busy training and wasn’t treating it like a holiday, even though the drivers may not get back until much later in the year.

“We don’t actually know when we’re going to go and compete again and I think when we do get going, our calendar will be looking pretty hectic and I think they’re going try to condense and squeeze as much as they can until the new year,” Ricciardo said. “When I do get that call, I want to be ready.

“I would love June to happen but at the moment, they’ve push or cancelled or postponed everything until mid-June but that’s the perfect world but I think it will be later than that. But you know what it’s like, if you get into holiday mode, you create more work for yourself.”

— with AAP