Canadian GP Out, Turkey GP In

[fritticaldi]

Local news are reporting that the Canadian GP scheduled for June 13th, 2021 has been cancelled. It is the second consecutive year that the F1 cars dont race in Montreal. Their are rumours that Istanbul, Turkey could re-enter the F1 schedule as a replacement. It would be logical because of its proximity to Azerbaijan which is the race previous to the now cancelled Canadian GP.

[LM10]

What’s the reason? Finances? Surely not Corona (in terms of infection risk) as they must have adapted to the situation by now, obviously. Can’t imagine them being unable to let a GP without visitors take place.

[fritticaldi]

Public Health has said that even with no attendance the fact that approx. 2500 crew members, media etc all arriving from different places is high risk of spreading the virus.

[Wouter]

Local news are reporting that the Canadian GP scheduled for June 13th, 2021 has been cancelled.

Corrections

A previous version of this story stated that the Canadian Grand Prix is cancelled, based on a report by Radio-Canada.
In fact, Radio-Canada is now reporting the race's future is uncertain and Montreal public health is recommending that it not take place.
Apr 15, 2021 2:57 PM ET

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal ... -1.5988769

[mclaren111]

What’s the reason? Finances? Surely not Corona (in terms of infection risk) as they must have adapted to the situation by now, obviously. Can’t imagine them being unable to let a GP without visitors take place.

Corrupt Politicians...

[LM10]

Public Health has said that even with no attendance the fact that approx. 2500 crew members, media etc all arriving from different places is high risk of spreading the virus.

Yea... that rather sounds like a kind of an excuse. „Corrupt politicians” like mclaren111 told is a more realistic explanation.
Over a year into the pandemic, so much more knowledge, well working measurements and vaccination going on already, it should be possible to make it happen. F1 took place in numerous countries last season. No major problems.

[carisi2k]

Well they do seem to have gotten the Brazilian variant which is immune to the vaccine and kills more younger people. They are probably going in to a complete lockdown again and they don't want to have an incident like Aus GP 2020 where overseas visitors are bringing the virus in to the country.

[Just_a_fan]

Public Health has said that even with no attendance the fact that approx. 2500 crew members, media etc all arriving from different places is high risk of spreading the virus.

Yea... that rather sounds like a kind of an excuse. „Corrupt politicians” like mclaren111 told is a more realistic explanation.
Over a year into the pandemic, so much more knowledge, well working measurements and vaccination going on already, it should be possible to make it happen. F1 took place in numerous countries last season. No major problems.

Corrupt politicians? Really?

F1 is a sideshow and most sensible people will put possible public health concerns above the needs of a sideshow.

[LM10]

Well they do seem to have gotten the Brazilian variant which is immune to the vaccine and kills more younger people. They are probably going in to a complete lockdown again and they don't want to have an incident like Aus GP 2020 where overseas visitors are bringing the virus in to the country.

No, it’s not. It still protects, just a bit less effective.

[LM10]

Public Health has said that even with no attendance the fact that approx. 2500 crew members, media etc all arriving from different places is high risk of spreading the virus.

Yea... that rather sounds like a kind of an excuse. „Corrupt politicians” like mclaren111 told is a more realistic explanation.
Over a year into the pandemic, so much more knowledge, well working measurements and vaccination going on already, it should be possible to make it happen. F1 took place in numerous countries last season. No major problems.

Corrupt politicians? Really?

F1 is a sideshow and most sensible people will put possible public health concerns above the needs of a sideshow.

Well, not saying that’s the case, it would just be a higher possibility in my opinion as more corrupt politicians exist than the other way around.

We have evidence from last year that with strict measurements it’s absolutely possible to make it work and not put public health in danger. F1 staff get tested multiple times and wear masks at all times, on top of staying in their bubbles. Oh and quite a bit of them have been vaccinated already.

[hollus]

A bit of context: This virus is also often called Sars2.
Remember the original Sars from 2003? It scared the whole world, but it only hit in a few places... one of them Canada. In particular Toronto. I got there 2 years later, and I remember well the crazy stories from colleagues working in the Hospitals at the time. Back then it felt like a Sci-Fi story.
What I mean to say is that Canada has a history of having successfully dealt with, contained and eradicated a similar virus.
And thus they might be less inclined to encourage international travel.
Not that it will help this time, but they tried the clam strategy before with some success.

[Shrieker]

Public Health has said that even with no attendance the fact that approx. 2500 crew members, media etc all arriving from different places is high risk of spreading the virus.

And the exact opposite is true for Turkey lol.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see F1 cars race on our track again, but we've crossed into 60k+ new cases every day, with 200+ deceased people declared daily. That number is probably more like 500-600 in reality. The administration is claiming it's the UK variant, but there are some doubts that it's actually mutated into another variant, but lack of genome sequencing facilities makes it impossible to know what really is going on. It is rumored to be easier spreading and more deadly in all age groups.

Administration has declared a partial lockdown, so we may actually see the number of cases go down within the next 2 months. But things sure as hell don't look bright right now.

[Baulz]

What’s the reason? Finances? Surely not Corona (in terms of infection risk) as they must have adapted to the situation by now, obviously. Can’t imagine them being unable to let a GP without visitors take place.

Corrupt Politicians...

Canada is currently experiencing a massive 3rd wave of Covid and hitting record numbers of new cases daily. The money needed to subsidize the race can be better spent elsewhere, plus there is little benefit to the country by holding a ghost race.

I will miss having the race in Montreal again this year, but have been enjoying the variety of old tracks being back on the schedule again.

[mclaren111]

Must agree with you regarding the old race tracks... Very nice...

[Just_a_fan]

A bit of context: This virus is also often called Sars2.

Its name is SARS-CoV-2. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2.