F1 considered not counting races in case of a COVID-19 infection

1990 was the last Formula 1 championship in which only eleven of the sixteen races counted towards the final result. However, because of the coronavirus, Ross Brawn also considered that for 2020.

That's what Brawn interviewed Racefans.net. The Formula 1 boss is talking about the chances of a driver infected with the virus missing races. If that's the case, a system where the fewest races of your season are lost in the final results can ensure that those drivers don't lose too many points.

Brawn rejects own idea

However, the plan was shot down, because according to Brawn, the return of that rule would also have a lot of disadvantages. ''The teams would use this to their advantage and thus deliberately dive into the garage before some races in order to save parts. With a crash or reliability problem they would stop the race immediately'', says Brawn.

''If you don't score any points in that race anyway, you might as well save the bike and go into the pits and have a better chance of winning the next race. So the rule gives the teams an extra tactical option and we didn't want that'', concludes Brawn, who doesn't rule out that an exception might be made for a specific case, but that it's not on the agenda.