In one of the most interesting examples of a “we’ll see who’s right here” situation in racing we have ever heard of, the organizers of two early season F1 races are taking exceptionally different measures with regard to how their events will be operated. On one side of this situation is Bahrain, the country announcing that it would run their F1 event on March 22 but it would be done in front of zero spectators as their attendance has been blocked and their money refunded by the government. On the other side of the situation is Australia who will be hosting the F1 season opener this weekend and will run the race as normal with hundreds of thousands of fans packing into the track to watch the action.

This is all, of course, because of the Coronavirus which has made its way around the globe after getting started in China. It is not just the F1 series that will have to deal with this. The NBA is already talking about having games with no fans, the NCAA has had talks about March Madness tournament events without any spectators and the largest American racing operations like NASCAR, NHRA, and IndyCar are just getting their respective seasons started as well. Heck, we never even mentioned Major League Baseball which happens to be in the final stages of spring training. The Boston Marathon? Where do you draw the line?

Bahrain is a fine country and it isn’t as though we have lived there but we have been and know loads of guy who have spent months of their lives in the kingdom. They are a small country and the infrastructure may not well hold up to an influx of potentially ill foreign travelers entering the country to see the race and leaving the country having spread this sickness all over the place. Australia has not shown many signs of having a Coronoavirus problem yet and as recently as about a week ago, 86,000 sports fans were jammed into a stadium to watch the Women’s Crucket World Cup final, so they don’t seem to be having much trouble.

Two countries, to incredibly different approaches here and only time will tell who gets it right…if there is such a thing.

Oh, wash your freaking hands and keep your fingers out of your mouth.

Bahrain to run F1 race with no spectators

Australia to run F1 season opener with no changes for spectators