MOTORSPORT: Australian F1 GP more go than no

The 2020 Australian Grand Prix, due to kick off the Formula 1 season next weekend, continues to withstand the ravages of the Coronavirus, despite the greatly worsened situation in Italy – home of Ferrari as well as a smaller F1 team and tyre supplier Pirelli.

While the Melbourne race still looks like going ahead on Sunday, spectators have been banned from Bahrain's GP the following weekend and the new race in Vietnam is in grave doubt.

Anyone who has been in Italy recently and is seeking to go to the April 3-5 event in Hanoi will have to spend 14 days in quarantine first.

China's GP, scheduled as the fourth round of the world championship in Shanghai on April 17-19, was postponed weeks ago.

Italy is the country worst affected outside China by the coronavirus, which originated in Chinese city Wuhai.

Northern Italy is now in lockdown, with 16 million people quarantined after the death toll in the country from the illness approaches 400, with 7500 cases of it reported.

Modena, the province that includes Ferrari's headquarters at Maranello, is among the areas where people are forbidden to leave unless for "undeferable work needs".

The Ferrari cars for Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc to race in Melbourne were already en route before the Italian government tightened measures designed to contain the coronavirus at the weekend.

Most of the Ferrari team members due to be at the Oz GP also are believed to have got out in time.

Ferrari said at the weekend its people were continuing to travel "unless we receive communications to the contrary".

"We are monitoring and evaluating the situation and are in close contact with the relevant authorities and all organisations involved", it said.

The airport at Bologna, 45km from Maranello, is outside the lockdown zone.

So is the Faenza base of AlphaTauri, the Red Bull junior team that was Scuderia Toro Rosso until the end of last season and originally Minardi.

Pirelli is based in Milan, the city at the centre of the coronavirus outbreak in Italy.

Many of Pirelli's staff scheduled to be in Melbourne this week were already outside the country.

The estimated 200 people in the Ferrari, AlphaTauri and Pirelli contingents for Melbourne won't be allowed to return to Italy before at least April 3 under the country's tightened health restrictions.

Victoria's top health officials will have the final say on whether the 25th Melbourne GP goes ahead this week, but Australian Grand Prix Corporation chief executive Andrew Westacott has been at pains to say that it's still "all systems go".

F1's sporting director Ross Brawn has said that if the race happens without any of the 10 teams it would not be an official world title GP with championship points.

Victoria's tourism, sport and major events minister Martin Pakula has said that the health issue around the coronavirus is still "extremely dynamic" and that "to some extent there are matters that are out of our control".

Motorsport's world governing body, the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), has established a "crisis cell" monitoring the implications of the virus, which is wreaking havoc on sports events around the world. Some major-league soccer marches in Italy at the weekend were played with spectators excluded.

F1 team members and organisational staff arriving at Melbourne's Tullamarine airport have been subject to checks and questioning regarding their health.

Planes have been arriving at Avalon airport near Geelong with the cars for the race and the equipment teams require for the GP, as well as TV gear for the international telecast.

The AGPC claims ticket sales for the event have held up well, with all 27,000 grandstand seats sold for Sunday's race and only limited grandstand seats available on other days.

Gates open to the public at 9:30am on Thursday.