Zak Brown: Formula 1 can;'t wait on the UK

Zak Brown

Brown: Formula 1 can't wait on the UK

McLaren boss says that the sport must continue if the rest of the world is 'ready to go'

Ewan Gale

Friday 22 May 2020 12:05 Updated: 12:42

McLaren CEO Zak Brown has said that Formula 1 must not allow UK politics to prevent the world championship from returning to action.

The championship had hoped to begin the season on July 5 with back-to-back races at the Red Bull Ring in Austria followed by further back-to-back races at Silverstone - a one-week break separating the two events.

However, a proposed 14-day quarantine period for all international arrivals to the UK has put the British races in doubt.

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“I know F1 and the FIA are still working hard with Government on this exemption. Everyone wants a Silverstone." Brown told the Evening Standard

"I think it would be a shame to not have a British Grand Prix and race everywhere else in Europe.”

“The Silverstone quarantine stuff is new news, a moving target, and we’ve not been told anything definitively. It throws a wrench in the plan for Silverstone, because there are options to just race in Europe and maybe not come back so often.

“It would be a shame to miss the British Grand Prix but, if all the other countries are ready to go, we can’t let any one country stop F1 from happening if the rest of the world is ready for us,”

Seven or the ten Formula 1 teams are based in the UK, and the quarantine period, an announcement on which is expected on Friday afternoon, would make it impossible for personnel to return home between races due to the congested revised schedule.

“It’s just unfortunate it ends up being England, as so much of the infrastructure is based here. If we get restricted in our homeland, that’s going to make manoeuvring around a big challenge.”

"If you do go on the road for two months, then teams will do what they need to do to go racing. But that’s certainly not an ideal situation, especially with what’s going on; to have people’s loved ones not being with them for two months or not have the ability to come back for a few days,” he said.

“I’m hoping we can work through this by being responsible and working with Government, being very cautious and not putting anyone at risk. Failing that, we can at least not restrict the balance of our movement. The draconian [scenario] is we’re in lockdown, and we have to work around avoiding the UK, which would be unfortunate.”

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