F1 explains late call to cancel Australian Grand Prix: "Formula 1 has to function"

The situation remained very much unclear in the hours leading up to the communique, with contradicting reports coming out of Melbourne by different sources.

McLaren had of course already withdrawn from the race as one of their employees on location tested positively for COVID-19. 15 employees were put into quarantine to prevent the disease from further spreading.

In the aftermath of the scrapping of the Australian Grand Prix, the Bahrain and Vietnamese Grands Prix have both been called off too, with the Monaco Grand Prix being the most likely season opener at the moment on May 24th.

“We were very keen to have the race,” Brawn said on Formula1.com. 

"We have a big impact on the economy here and it has an impact on our economy as well.

“Formula 1 has to function, we have to make it work so we looked at the whole situation and when we decided to go, we looked at the different dynamics. Probably what has surprised everyone is the rapid expansion of this problem. The escalation of new cases, certainly in countries like Italy, where it’s gone almost vertical. No one could have expected that."

Modena, the home base of Ferrari, is right in the middle of the worst-hit zone in Italy. They were still allowed by the Italian government to travel to Melbourne, but Brawn remained in close contact with his former team during the process.

“I have spoken to [Ferrari chief] Mattia Binotto many times in the last few weeks, his mood changed in the last five or seven days, from what he was seeing in Italy. So we were on this ship that sailed and we were optimistic we could get through it, that we could get Formula 1 started and just bring a bit of relief in difficult times.

“Once we had the positive case, once one team couldn’t race because of that, clearly we had a problem we needed to address.”