Australian Grand Prix CEO Travis Auld anticipates no impact on this weekend’s Formula One season-opener at Melbourne’s Albert Park from the travel issues caused by the conflict in the Middle East.
The US and Israeli bombing of Iran at the weekend was followed by retaliatory strikes on Gulf states with the result that all activity in one of the world’s main aviation hubs has ceased.
Formula One teams recently completed pre-season testing in the Gulf state of Bahrain, and many team personnel were scheduled to pass through Qatar or the UAE on their journey to Australia for Sunday’s race.
“No doubt the events of the weekend have thrown out the travel plans for the teams and F1 themselves,” Auld told Fox Sports on Monday.
“F1 are experts at moving people around the world, so they’ve quickly rescheduled flights. I’m told everyone’s locked in and arriving within the required timeframes, and there’ll be no impact on our race.
“It’s certainly been a busy 48 hours, particularly for F1.”
The season-opener will be followed later this month by races in China and Japan before the first of the Gulf races on the Formula One calendar in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia in April.
“I’m sure [F1] are thinking ahead to what the implications might be,” he said.
“As it stands at the moment, there are no issues for us, but I’d imagine beyond us they’ll be thinking about what they might do to their calendar if they need to.”
Auld said the nature of the Albert Park venue made it unlikely Melbourne would be able to step in and stage another race if the conflict meant Bahrain or Saudi Arabia were unable to host their rounds.
“Obviously we spent a lot of time constructing this circuit, and straight after the race we pull it all back down again so the community can use it,” he said.
“They’ll have other plans in place, as you would imagine, for a whole series of reasons.”
Reuters
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