Even before COVID-19 tore half its calendar to shreds, Formula One was creaking under the extremes of its own extravagance. A glut of 22 races between March and November threatened to overstretch teams already toiling to design radically different cars for the following season.

Today, with factories shut down and hundreds of staff stood down across the paddock, there is no choice but for the sport to plan the most drastic reset in its history. Annual budgets that nudged £300 million at Mercedes and Ferrari stand to be slashed by two-thirds or more as the bubble finally bursts.

The Mercedes triumvirate of drivers Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton and principal Toto Wolff (centre) have dominated F1 in recent years. Credit:PA

This weekend, the roadshow should have swept into Shanghai for the Chinese Grand Prix, the first event to fall to the advance of coronavirus.

Since its postponement in February, races in Australia, Bahrain, Vietnam, Holland, Spain, Monaco, Azerbaijan and Canada have also been swallowed up, with those in France and Belgium soon to join them as European governments extend bans on mass gatherings until late summer.