Formula 1 motorsport director Ross Brawn has admitted the sport could run championship races with significantly smaller grids if needed because of the Coronavirus.

Earlier this month Brawn said the sport would not hold “a Formula 1 world championship race” if some teams were prevented from entering a country due to the Coronavirus, “because that would be unfair”.

Brawn’s original comments appeared to leave open the possibility of F1 reducing races to non-championship status if some teams could not attend. However speaking after the cancellation of the Australian Grand Prix, he admitted the rules allow points-scoring races to be run with much smaller fields than the current 20 cars if needed.

“We need 12 cars or more to hold a championship race although that, actually, is at the discretion of the FIA,” Brawn told Sky.

“They could choose, in unusual circumstances, to allow less than that. But 12 cars is what’s written there.”

The F1 sporting regulations state that an event “may be cancelled if fewer than 12 cars are available for it”, not that it has to be, meaning races could be held with 11 or fewer cars.

F1 grids dipped as low as 18 cars as recently as 2014. The 2005 United States Grand Prix famously saw only six cars take the start, though 20 had qualified. The smallest entry for an F1 race was at the season-opening Argentinian Grand Prix in 1958, which attracted just 10 cars.

How is Formula 1 planning to reorganise its calendar as it faces the unprecedented disruption caused by the Coronavirus? Read Dieter Rencken’s RacingLines column later today on RaceFans for the inside story.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2020 F1 season