London, April 6 (IANS) McLaren boss Zak Brown has said that the coronavirus pandemic has plunged Formula One into “a very fragile state”.
The opening eight races of the 2020 season have been either cancelled or postponed, with major doubts over the 14 remaining ones, as the pandemic continues.
“This is potentially devastating to teams, and if (it is devastating) to enough teams then it’s very threatening to F1 as a whole,” Brown told local media on Sunday, reports Xinhua news agency.
“In fact, I could see four teams disappearing if this isn’t handled the right way,” he added.
Former Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone has already said that the 2020/21 Championship should be cancelled.
“We should stop the championship this year and start again next year, hopefully, because I can’t see it’s going to be possible to get the right number of races in that count for a championship,” the 89-year-old told BBC Radio.
“There’s got to be eight from memory, and I can’t see them getting that in. It’s a difficult situation.”
The season is a special one for current champion Lewis Hamilton, who stands a chance at matching Michael Schumacher’s record of seven championship wins. Ecclestone said that should the season go through and Hamilton wins a truncated championship, the achievement won’t be belittled.
–IANS
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