Currently, F1 is in the middle of an unusually long break in between races. The Australian GP, which was the season’s third round, took place on the 2nd of April and the next race is scheduled to be on the 30th of April. This long enforced break came after the cancellation of the Chinese GP, which couldn’t go ahead for the fourth year in a row.
China is contracted to be on the F1 calendar until 2025, but this deal was signed ahead of the 2022 season. Since then, we have now gone through two seasons where the race at the Shanghai International Circuit ended up being canceled.
F1 extends deal with Chinese Grand Prix until 2025 #ChineseGP 🇨🇳 #F1 pic.twitter.com/H9xzRzNoLR
— Formula 1 (@F1) November 6, 2021
This year’s cancellation has led to a large break for teams and drivers, who are taking these three weeks to rest, regroup and focus on the coming races. But why does the Chinese GP keep getting canceled despite being on the F1 calendar every year? What makes this race so difficult to go ahead as planned?
Why did Chinese GP get canceled?
China was the place of origin for the Covid 19 virus that created havoc during its onset back in 2020. That year, most of the races in the F1 calendar were canceled, including China. However, even as the world began to open up in 2021, China didn’t.
In both 2021 and 2022, they decided to not go ahead with the Chinese GP because the country was still struggling with the pandemic. Towards the end of 2022, almost every single country removed all restrictions related to the Covid 19 virus, except for China. As a result, the decision to not go ahead with the race in Shanghai was taken in December last year.
BREAKING: Formula 1 has cancelled the 2023 Chinese Grand Prix, as a result of the country’s strict Covid policies. pic.twitter.com/W1HeZS3u5O
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) December 2, 2022
Most of China was still in lockdown while this decision was made. Since then, restrictions have been eased. However, by then, it was too late to include it on the F1 calendar once again as organizers had decided to scrap it. As a result, the Chinese GP got cancelled for the fourth year in a row and we are currently in the middle of a large mid-season break.
Will there be any replacement for China?
In 2023, we were supposed to see 24 races in the calendar making it the biggest F1 season of all time. With the removal of the Chinse GP, there are now 23 races in the schedule, which still makes it the season with the most number of races in history.
There were talks of the Chinese GP being replaced by another race, to stay aligned with original number of races- 24. However, F1 decided to stay with 23 races and insist that the Chinese GP will be back in 2024 after discussion with the local organizers.
