System One postponed the Australian Grand Prix from March to November as a result of it will not have been doable for a whole lot of staff employees to quarantine for 14 days upon their arrival, the sports activities minister of Victoria state mentioned on Wednesday.

The Melbourne race is often the season-opener however was given a brand new date of Nov. 21 in adjustments introduced to the 2021 schedule on Tuesday amid the COVID-19 disaster. The season will now begin in Bahrain on March 28.

The Australian Open tennis Grand Slam begins in Melbourne subsequent month and Victoria’s sports activities minister, Martin Pakula mentioned it was simpler for that sport to take care of the quarantine guidelines.

“Tennis has been ready to try this … however it’s not one thing that has been doable for System One,” Pakula advised reporters.

“In these circumstances … once you’ve bought the mix of that, the variety of returning Australians … in our view that made it higher to have a Grand Prix later within the 12 months if that was doable.

“One of many beauties of shopping for your self 10 months is that I think issues will look totally different in November to how they appear in January.”

Australian Grand Prix Company chief govt Andrew Westacott mentioned preparations for System One race would have been affected if it went forward in March, with staff employees spending most of their time in resort rooms.

“Once you take a look at the preparations of organising very huge companies … and the logistics and challenges they face coming into a brand new season, it wasn’t doable to have them function in a strict quarantine association,” Westacott mentioned.

Pakula mentioned he hoped that the race might return to its conventional slot in 2022.