With Turkey added to the red list of countries by the UK government, Formula 1 has announced that the Turkish GP will not happen and instead will be replaced by back to back races in Austria and the French GP will be pushed ahead by a week. The red list means the list of countries where the UK isn't allowing flights to come or go - and even for F1 personnel, there are no special arrangements considering the bio bubble. Since most F1 teams are based in the UK - like Williams, Red Bull, Mercedes, Aston Martin, McLaren, Alpine and Haas, it will be almost impossible for the race to go ahead without special permissions.
The Turkish GP was only announced as a replacement for the Canadian GP. But that has also been ruled out as COVID-19 cases have risen in the country. Thanks to the second wave of the pandemic which has particularly ravaged countries like India, the British government is being extra careful. Formula 1 has proven quite agile reacting to last-minute cancellations and has been moving the calendar around on the fly.
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There will be twin races in Austria, though F1 isn't using this opportunity to grant it a sprint race. The sprint races will instead happen first at the British GP at Silverstone in July.
This also means that Romain Grosjean's test with Mercedes will be impacted slightly. Originally, the French GP at Paul Ricard was supposed to happen on the weekend of June 29, since this has been pushed ahead he will not get the opportunity to complete a few laps during a race weekend as F1 will be at the Red Bull Ring in Austria.
Romain Grosjean is back racing and finished P2 in IndyCar
Regardless, this isn't robbing Grosjean of time in the 2019 Mercedes W10 as he will still get to test. Grosjean couldn't also change the schedule from his end and push ahead the test to synchronise with the F1 weekend at Paul Ricard as he is driving in IndyCar on the same weekend. Grosjean, who raced last at the Bahrain GP where he had a horrific crash in the Haas, has bid adieu to his F1 career and is now enjoying success in IndyCar. Over the weekend, he qualified in pole position and finished P2 at Indianapolis.
