Szafnauer: The Australian GP could have been completed safely

Racing Point team principal Otmar Szafnauer still believes that Formula 1 could and possibly should have pressed ahead with the Australian Grand Prix after a McLaren team member tested positive for coronavirus.

When race officials announced that the Australian Grand Prix was being postponed, only Red Bull, AlphaTauri and Racing Point were prepared to continue with the weekend. In an interview with CNN, Szafnauer doubled down on this opinion.

"It was difficult to predict the future there in Melbourne, but when I look back at it now, had we raced, I think we would have raced safely," Szafnauer said.

"The risk was very low, and I think we could have put the race on. The Australian government gave us the go-ahead to do so.

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"However, there's a big unknown at the time, and because of the unknown, I think we made a cautious decision not to race."

The weekend was cancelled just three hours ahead of free practice one in Melbourne, but at this point, not a lot was known about the virus so the decision not to race was met with widespread praise - even if the time taken to reach the decision was equally criticised.

"On Thursday night at 1:30, 2 in the morning, we left the meeting, and at that point, the majority voted to race," Szafnauer added.

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"We went to bed, got up four hours later, and by the time I got to the paddock, everyone said: 'We're not racing'. I said: 'Yes we are, it was only four hours ago we voted to race.'

"We took a risk-averse stance, and that was probably the right thing to do. However, looking back, had we raced, I think we would have done so safely."

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