The Australian GP was cancelled last Friday 2 hours before the FP1, after the first F1 case of coronavirus was discovered on Thursday evening. Indeed, a McLaren member resulted positive to the COVID-19 test, with 14 members, who had been in contact with the individual, were put in quarantine.

Following the case and the growing global emergency, the Australian GP had been excluded from the F1 2020 calendar, while the seasons start and viability of upcoming races seem uncertain.

Andrew Westacott, asked about the cancellation, remarked that the announcement was made to avoid confusing the fans.

"It's important to say that we used the word cancellation because of the immediacy of the timing of it," said Westacott.

"It was important to make sure the fans who were here in Melbourne, some of the fans who were at the gate, knew that it wasn't a postponement or didn't get the impression it was a postponement for some period of hours or days or something.

"The word cancellation was used deliberately here."

The organizer continued remarking that he will start the discussion about a new date for the Australian GP.

"I've learned in the world of Formula 1 that you never say never," Westacott said.

"We clearly had been working on the here and now with Chase Carey and the FIA and Formula 1.

"We'll work through matters, but we haven't started to think about future staging or anything like that.

"It's clearly a normal topic of discussion that will happen in the fullness of time."

Nevertheless, Westacotte clarified that the structures put to host the Grand Prix will be dismantled as the area need to become usable again.

"We can't leave it here for months. One of the things we respect here is there are sporting activities here," he said.

"We recognise that one of the privileges we have is to occupy a beautiful park in the CBD of Melbourne, so we want to minimise the impact of the build and the dismantle.

"Clearly this changes the way we dismantle the circuit and return it back, but we can't be leaving it here for days and weeks.

"We would expect to be dismantling and removing the infrastructure and returning it back to the sporting clubs of Albert Park and Melbourne."