Barcelona still in talks over May 10 race

Barcelona in early May in jeopardy

(GMM) Barcelona remains in talks about how the coronavirus situation will affect the forthcoming Spanish GP.

With Australia, Bahrain, Vietnam and China all postponed, it was reported that Zandvoort and Barcelona – the first two races in Europe – would be the next to get the axe.

But Circuit de Catalunya boss Joan Fontsere says talks are still taking place.

"We have made ourselves available to Liberty Media," he told local RAC 1 radio.

"We have spoken with them to discuss the possibility of relocating the race to the second half of 2020, or the possibility of postponing until 2021 is also on the table," Fontsere added.

"Then Formula 1 issued a statement saying that the season will not start until the end of May, which means that our race on May 10 will not be held on May 10.

"Now we are working to see what possibilities we can explore. The logistics and our climate mean we have many choices as we could easily adapt to another time of the year," he said.

"In the next few days we will talk to all of the parties involved, but it is clear that the situation is beyond the expectations of the whole world."

Fontsere admitted that the coronavirus situation will be a harsh financial blow.

"The drop in tickets for Formula 1 and MotoGP is insane," he said. "It is very hard and will be very difficult to recover the commercial activity of those days.

"It will also be very difficult to see the grandstands full and that is something that we have also discussed with Formula 1."