“Melbourne has been — it’s not officially announced, but it will be”- Lawrence Stroll claims Australian Grand Prix has been postponed.
Amidst the COVID-19 recent widespread, there have been reports of Australian Grand Prix getting postponed from the 2021 calendar, and Bahrain Grand Prix becoming the opening race of the year.
Lawrence Stroll, the owner of newly introduced Aston Martin team, has claimed that the race in Melbourne will be cancelled from this year’s calendar.
“Melbourne has been — it’s not officially announced, but it will be — not cancelled but postponed. We will go there sometime in the fall (autumn), and the first race will be Bahrain,” said the Canadian billionaire to ESPN.
He was speaking ahead of his announcement of introducing major IT firm Cognizant as the title sponsors of Aston Martin.
Following months will be difficult.
Last year, the whole schedule had to be re-organized due to the pandemic as multiple races were cancelled, adding onto it, Stroll has claimed that the following 3-4 months will be difficult.
“I do believe we’re in for a difficult two or three months,” said Stroll. “There is a light at the end of the tunnel with the vaccine. I think the first few races will be slightly challenging.
“But Formula One management and the FIA, I really take my hat off to them to deliver 17 races as we did last year in 23 weeks, without really any major hiccups, in an imposing manner.
“I think the worst is behind us and we’ve learnt through last year how to proceed with this year,” he concluded. Last year, Stroll and his son Lance, who would be paired with Sebastian Vettel next season for Aston Martin, were found positive of the virus.
Additionally, Sergio Perez, Stroll’s former employee at Racing Point, was also detected positive of virus and was temporarily replaced by Nico Hulkenberg.