Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Formula 2 is not set to replace the called-off Melbourne feature race following its “really sad” cancellation due to extreme wet weather.
Only the Saturday sprint race would be run during the championship’s season-opening trip to Australia, with Sunday’s feature race falling foul of the conditions despite two attempts to get it underway.
“It was really bad news, let’s put it that way,” said F2 CEO Bruno Michel when asked by Formula Scout about the cancellation and the possibility for the race to be rerun elsewhere.
“We knew when we arrived on Sunday that the timing of the race was not good with the weather forecast. We tried, we tried as much [as we could], I spent the start of the race in the race control tower to see what could be done.
“We were looking at every moment that we could start the race and we started at some point behind the safety car thinking maybe it’s going to get better and maybe we’re going to be able to do a few laps.
“Then we had the comments of all the drivers on the track, saying it’s too dangerous, the visibility is absolutely nil, and we don’t want to take the risk. And of course in that case, we follow their comments and we decided not to do it.
“[This] is happening very, very rarely, but it happened. When you fly so many kilometres to go to Melbourne and to do only the sprint race, it’s not a very nice feeling.”
With the championship’s original statement declaring the race as cancelled rather than postponed, Michel confirmed there are no plans to schedule a replacement race later in the season.
“Are we going to replace this race? No, I don’t think so. It is what it is and at the end of the day we have 14 weekends with two races per weekend, so it’s not going to make a massive difference.
“But it was really sad not to do it, sad for the fans and spectators and sad for everybody.”