Chinese GP 'hugely uncertain' to take place in April - promoter

The Chinese GP promoter is seeking a postponement of its scheduled April 11th race to the back half of the F1 season due to a recent spike in COVID-19 numbers.

Authorities in China are imposing new coronavirus restrictions in cities near Beijing after a spate of recent outbreaks, while the country is also imposing a 14-day quarantine for all international arrivals.

Last year's Chinese GP in Shanghai was the first round of the F1 world championship to be cancelled. For now, the event's promoter is seeking a new date for the race in the latter part of the 2021 season.

"We have been in contact [with F1] via conference call almost every week," Yibin Yang, the general manager of race promoter Juss Event, told local media on Saturday.

"Despite the calendar being in place as usual, I think it’s hugely uncertain the F1 race would take place in the first half of the year, in April.

"We aim to swap it to the second half of the year, and we have formally submitted the request that we hope to move it to the second half of the year."

A postponement of the Chinese GP would be the second disruption suffered this year by F1. The Australian GP in Melbourne which was set to open the sport's 23-race campaign in March is also seeking a new date later in the year.

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While Bahrain is now expected to kick off the season, Portimao and Imola are currently in line to fill the April 11 and April 25 slots according to Motorsport.com, with the latter date initially earmarked for the inaugural Vietnam GP.

But adding both venues to the schedule would either boost F1's 2021 agenda to a massive 25 races - a very unlikely prospect and one that the teams would vehemently oppose - or imply the outright cancellation of the Melbourne and Shanghai races.

And if the upcoming gaps aren't filled by the aforementioned venues, pushing Australia and China to the back half of the year will prove challenging as there are only four free weekends available on the schedule between the end of the summer and the final race in Abu Dhabi in early December.

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