U.S. GP in danger as health official warns against "large events" in 2020

The United States Grand Prix is in serious doubt after Austin's public health medical director warned against staging large scale events, such as Formula 1, in 2020. NASCAR may have returned in the U.S. this week, but Dr. Mark Escott has declared the hosting of larger events, specifically F1 at the Circuit of the Americas, may not be possible this season.

“We are working on a plan to help forecast what we think is going to be reasonable," Escott wrote in his assessment for the Austin American-Statesman.

"But looking through the end of December, we don’t have any indications at this stage that we would be able to mitigate risk enough to have large events, particularly ones [with] over 2,500 [spectators],”

"The large events are the first thing that we turned off and are going to be the last thing we’re going to turn back on because of that risk of exposing lots of people to one another, particularly individuals of the same household.”

Originally scheduled to take place on October 25, the U.S. Grand Prix, held at the Circuit of the Americas, has remained a fixture on a possible calendar for a revised 2020 season.

GPFans understand that an official announcement on a revised calendar will be made next week.

There is a slim chance of the event being behind closed doors, but it is understood that due to the finances involved, even if F1 offered to help subsidise, it may not be feasible on this occasion.

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