F1 News

Horner: It reminds me of the crisis of 2008, but this goes beyond

Horner: "It reminds me of the crisis of 2008, but this goes beyond"

31-03-2020 15:57

GPblog.com

The F1 plants are closed for three weeks by order of the FIA. With this measure, the summer shutdown has in fact been brought forward. Later it already became clear that the factories where the power sources are made must remain closed for a longer period of time. Christian Horner expects that the other factories of the teams will also remain closed.

Because of the deadly coronavirus, the F1 calendar is completely upset. The FIA, the FOM and the F1 teams are in constant consultation to determine when and how the 2020 championship can (partly) go ahead.

There will have to be a lot of shifting. The summer recess that is normally held in August has already been moved forward. For three weeks the factories of the teams working on the cars have been closed. According to Christian Horner, team boss of Red Bull Racing, there is a good chance that this mandatory factory closure will be extended.

On Tuesday the FIA revealed that the organization has more power to put order in the sport.

Factories closed until May

In conversation with the BBC, the team boss ventilates his view on the matter: "During the stop we have a moment of discussion every week. I see the extension of the mandatory stop as the only option at the moment. It could be extended until the end of April or the beginning of May. By then we can look further. We'll talk about it in the next few days."

According to Horner, it's the only fair way. F1 is and will remain a fierce competition: "It's fair and logical now that everyone sticks to the same rules and to the stop until everyone is able to get back to work".

Similar to 2008

Because there is no racing there is also considerably less money coming in. Especially for the smaller teams this can be a bad thing. On the other hand, large companies standing behind teams like Mercedes and Renault can choose to stop the F1 project if it causes too much loss.

Horner continues: "Of course we follow closely what the government has said. The teams and all the leaders are in constant contact with each other so that there is as much consistency as possible".

"The fact that all teams interact so positively and proactively in this day and age is beautiful. It reminds me a lot of the financial crisis of 2008, but it goes much further than that".