The country is about to hold its first major sporting event in almost a year with February’s Australian Open. Those involved in the tennis grand slam are required to go through a 14 day quarantine period.
If the same applies to the F1 paddock, holding a grand prix is thought to be untenable. It would require staff to fly to Australia three weeks in advance of the season start date in preparation, clashing with the only preseason test held March 2-4.
As a result Bahrain looks set to step-in amid a calendar reshuffle. Any rescheduling of Melbourne would likely have to take place after the F1 summer break due to weather conditions.
There are only four free weekends between August break and end of season race at Abu Dhabi on December 5. These are on September 19, October 17 , November 7 and November 21, affording limited opportunity for a reschedule.