MOTORSPORT: 2020 Oz F1 GP and MotoGP unlikely

Australia faces the very real prospect of not hosting a Formula 1 or MotoGP grand prix in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But the bill will still be in the millions for Victorian taxpayers.

In an exclusive interview with Auto Action magazine this week, Australian Grand Prix Corporation Chief Executive Officer Andrew Westacott has all but shut the door on a reconstituted F1 date at Albert Park in 2020 and made it clear the globe’s premier two-wheeled racing series will struggle to run as scheduled on October 25.

Speaking for the first time since the 2020 race was cancelled on Friday, March 13 – just hours before the first F1 practice session of the season was due – Westacott said a 2020 AGP was “impractical”.

“You soon come to the conclusion it’s a costly, impractical exercise,” Westacott said. “Now we have always never said never, but you look at it in a logical fashion and it appears an unreasonable scenario.”

On the prospects of Aussie Jack Miller and his MotoGP rivals making it to the island, Westacott was almost as downbeat.

“We will be totally dictated by the restrictions authorities are talking about in terms of mass gatherings, attendance without crowds, visitation and border controls, restrictions and quarantine periods,” he said.

“It is one thing to talk about an event and have a willingness from an organiser point of view, but if there is a quarantine period for people coming in from overseas that needs to be factored in as well. And that throws more challenges into a global series.”

Westacott estimated it would be months before the final dollar cost to Victorian taxpayers of the 2020 F1 cancellation would be known.

In broad numbers the GP costs $100 million to run each year and draws in roughly $40 million in revenue, meaning an annual loss of around $60 million. With no revenue in 2020 that loss could blow out to $100 million.

Included in that is the $28 million cost to build and deconstruct the F1 facility in Melbourne parklands and a multi-million dollar F1 sanction fee.

While the construction costs are unavoidable, it is understood the AGPC is trying to have the sanction fee waived.

“It’s being discussed and worked through with Formula 1 in a very sensible manner and I will leave it at that,” Westacott said.

He confirmed insurances would help cover at least some of the anticipated losses.

“We have insurances in place and we are working through those insurances in the normal manner. That will not cover every outgoing and every cost, but there are appropriate insurances in-place and so we are working through that and working closely with government on it.”

The full interview with Andrew Westacott appears in the new issue of Auto Action on sale today.