The promoters of the Vietnam Grand Prix hope to announce a new date for their first F1 race within the next two months.
The inaugural event on the new Hanoi street circuit was supposed to take place from April 3rd-5th, but was cancelled earlier this week.In a statement on Thursday the race promoters said “our race has been postponed only and not cancelled”. However they are yet to announce when the event will go ahead.
“Currently the Hanoi People’s Committee and Vietnam Grand Prix LLC are working tirelessly with F1, FIA and all relevant parties to find the best possible course for the event to ensure the safety of all participants,” the statement added.
Any tickets purchased for the original race dates “remains fully valid along with their available benefits and will be automatically updated to the new 2020 race schedule when announced,” the promoters added. “We hope to have a new date within one to two months based on the official reschedule date announced by the FIA and F1.”
The FIA, F1 and teams are holding a remote conference meeting today to discuss how to reorganise the calendar after the first four race dates were cancelled.
Any ticket holders who wish to refund their purchases can do so via the Vietnam Grand Prix website.
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Jere (@jerejj)
19th March 2020, 13:07
Well, Vietnam’s chance of surviving for this year isn’t as high as that of Bahrain, for instance, given the distance to Europe, and the temporary circuit-features, although temperature-wise, it’d be better for F1 around the end-of-November/beginning-of-December than Shanghai.
Chaitanya
19th March 2020, 14:08
Vietnam is close enough to Japan to slot there if some other venue is willing to move.
Jere (@jerejj)
19th March 2020, 14:58
@Chaitanya The point is, would all the surrounding venues be willing to give up on their existing slots just for that? I doubt they would.
Chaitanya
19th March 2020, 16:46
Just checked the calender and its either Russia or US who have give up the slot so true its very difficult to reschedule the Vietnam GP without making significant changes around. Also both Russia and US are around fall and unless Russian GP is moved around Summer break local climate of both those countries is playing spaner in the works.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
19th March 2020, 14:10
@jerejj – there’s often non-practical considerations that drive these decisions, which overrule practical reasons like time, cost and distance (to travel to and set up the venue).
Vietnam and Zandvoort are both new GPs that have come about under Liberty. The ability to tout and promote the GP as being the “first ever” and “first since the last x years” has immense benefits from both a PR and investor perspective, especially in a year that has been hit like this.
If there are no medical reasons that prevent the Vietnam GP going ahead, I can see Liberty pulling out all the stops. The promoters in Vietnam also seen genuinely interested in the GP, so I’m sure they’ll also meet in the middle in making it happen.
Jere (@jerejj)
19th March 2020, 14:55
@phylyp From Dieter’s post about the race calendar-subject:
“Likely to be the second casualty: Logistics make it challenging to slot the race into the calendar, while its street circuit format presents similar obstacles to those in Melbourne. Add in hosting fees that ride on the back of China’s travel costs and there is little appetite to force a stand-alone race into a packed schedule.In addition, notwithstanding press releases to the contrary, sources on the ground suggest that Vietnam needs another year to prepare for its inaugural event, while pre-Covid ticket demand was such that numerous grandstands were taken off sale.”
– I was quite hopeful about the Vietnamese GPs chances despite its temporary circuit-status until this paragraph. Haven’t been as hopeful after.
https://www.racefans.net/2020/03/18/analysis-why-f1s-best-case-scenario-now-is-a-19-race-2020-season/
Phylyp (@phylyp)
19th March 2020, 14:57
@jerejj – good points, thanks for sharing that excerpt.