I swear you are better at F1 journalism than the journalists out there.
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7:15AM in Melbourne. Still no official word. Some team staff, track workers, marshals are already at the circuit. Thereās spectators starting to queue at the gates which are due to open in an hour or so.
Itās believed that while the cancellation decision has been made by the teams and F1, nothing is going to be said until the FOM, local and state officials and health authorities finish their meeting - which was due to start at 7:00. Presumably for the insurance issue, the cancellation needs to be made by them.
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So according to my wifeās Daily Mail, itās off. Reddit posts claim the marshalls are ready for Friday practise.
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Officially cancelled. Eventually. Only took them until just 2 hours before the scheduled start of FP1.
Following the confirmation that a member of the McLaren Racing Team has tested positive for COVID-19 and the teamās decision to withdraw from the Australian Grand Prix, Formula 1 and the FIA convened a meeting of the other nine team principals on Thursday evening. Those discussions concluded with a majority view of the teams that the race should not go ahead. Formula 1 and the FIA, with the full support of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation (AGPC) have therefore taken the decision that all Formula 1 activity for the Australian Grand Prix is cancelled.
We appreciate this is very disappointing news for the thousands of fans due to attend the race and all ticket holders will receive a full refund and a further announcement will be communicated in due course.
All parties took into consideration the huge efforts of the AGPC, Motorsport Australia, staff and volunteers to stage the opening round of the 2020 FIA Formula One World Championship in Melbourne, however concluded that the safety of all members of the Formula 1 family and the wider community, as well as the fairness of the competition take priority.
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Still maintain that it should never have been left so late in the game to make the decision, but, for what itās worth, hereās the official āas it happenedā story about the Australian GP cancelation from F1:
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An interesting listen to from the horses mouth
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Speculation - Bahrain to be cancelled, Spain and Monaco also. Vietnam and Holland to be rescheduled, no mid-season break, opening round to be Baku in June.
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Easiest title win for Hamilton.
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what do guys thinks is the chance that we have no race this year? Is that even possible?
I am think this is just getting started and might get worse. So we might see more races cancel before june.
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At this point in time I guess anything is still possible. This virus is having a huge impact on everything, not just F1. And to be honest, if by June we havenāt managed to at least get it under control and new infections are plateauing, the planet will have far more serious issues to worry about than when the next GP will be.
But, with my eternally optimistic glass half full outlookā¦ if F1 is able to get the 2020 season back on track (
) in June, I think we could still get a fairly decent 16/17 race season out of it.
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16/17 race in half year is still a lot hope we get that at least. the wait for race is going to be long 
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| Date | Venue | Grand Prix |
|---|---|---|
| Cancelled | Melbourne | Australia |
| 22 March 2020 | Sakhir | Bahrain |
| 5 April 2020 | Hanoi | Vietnam |
| Postponed | Shanghai | China |
| 3 May 2020 | Zandvoort | Dutch |
| 10 May 2020 | Barcelona | Spain |
| 24 May 2020 | Monaco | Monaco |
| 7 June 2020 | Baku | Azerbaijan |
| 14 June 2020 | Montreal | Canada |
| 28 June 2020 | Le Castellet | France |
| 5 July 2020 | Spielberg | Austria |
| 19 July 2020 | Silverstone | British |
| 2 August 2020 | Budapest | Hungary |
| 30 August 2020 | Spa | Belgium |
| 6 September 2020 | Monza | Italy |
| 20 September 2020 | Singapore | Singapore |
| 27 September 2020 | Sochi | Russia |
| 11 October 2020 | Suzuka | Japan |
| 25 October 2020 | Austin | United States |
| 1 November 2020 | Mexico City | Mexico City |
| 15 November 2020 | Sao Paulo | Brazil |
| 29 November 2020 | Abu Dhabi | Abu Dhabi |
Technically, as the calendar stands at the moment there are still 15 races from Azerbaijan to the end of the season. Thatās more than enough to constitute an official F1 World Championship season - the minimum number required is 8 GPs.
But presumably theyāll want to try hold as many races as possible in order to minimise losses to all concerned, soā¦
Thereās a week both before and after the British GP, so maybe Monaco can go in there - F1 would hate to lose its glittery event.
Then thereās the 4 week break (with 3 Sundays) between Belgium and Italy. Easily get Holland in there (donāt want to lose itās return to the F1 calendar). And maybe even Spain in there too.
It would be nice to give Thailand their debut, or China a reschedule slot to bring some post-virus cheer to them, sometime around the Singapore-Russia-Japan flyaways, but that would mean a triple header set of race weekends. Also itās doubtful that Hanoi would work as itās a street circuit and I doubt theyād be willing to set it all up again.
They could even possibly extend the season into December and have the Bahrain race back to back with Abu Dhabi as the season closer.
Difficult all round, but doable.
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2020 is a stupid year. I was looking forward to F1 so much.
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And there it isā¦
Also:
Formula 1 and the FIA say they will continue to work closely with the race promoters in Bahrain and Vietnam to monitor the situation and study the viability of potential alternative dates for both races.
They also state that they expect the 2020 championship is expected to begin in Europe at the end of May ā but this will be regularly reviewed.
So maybe from Monaco, scheduled for 24 May. Nice, high-profile show event to open the season with I suppose. Damn shitty venue to see the 2020 cars in any serious racing action for the first time though.
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Greg donāt you have any work to do?
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Lol. In typical Gregās Luck fashion, Iād planned to have a totally clear schedule today so that I could actually watch all of the Aussie GP action from the early hours of this morning. 
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I wonder if the F1 Festival in Sandton is going to go ahead.
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Donāt want to jinx it, but in between all of the Australia shenanigans yesterday Dieter Rencken did post a tweet about rumours heād heardā¦
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