That's true, but in the long term it could be a harmful. Big manufacturers and sponsors need people watching more than FOM's money, and most people is not interested in cars enough to pay for F1.
I would hate to be a killjoy, but the cancellation of the Chinese GP is maybe not the last we heard from coronavirus. The best way to stop an epidemy of that scale is to suspend the uncontrolled flow of people crisscrossing the globe for tourism or attending events. Already many countries have cases of contamination, and with a virus of that strength, you never know what comes next.
A friend of mine is Vietnamese and he cancelled his trip to Vietnam in April because of fear of corona virus. United Airlines has cancelled all flights to China including Hong Kong through April 24th. Beijing, Shanghai and HK are major routes into Hanoi by plane if you come from Europe of America. IMO, this event is going to have a tough time getting foreigners to come. The question will be if the teams decide its not worth it and don't participate.
Now this: Beijing motor show likely to be postponed due to coronavirus Global automotive industry may be forced to shut down more major events as the virus spreads https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/motor-shows-beijing-motor-show/beijing-motor-show-likely-be-postponed-due-coronavirus Speculation is growing that the Beijing motor show in April will be postponed in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. This would follow the postponed Formula 1 race in Shanghai and the cancelled Mobile World Congress technology show in Barcelona.
https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-singapore-map-shows-spread-worst-hit-outside-china-2020-2?IR=T Even Singapore F1 might be under threat ..
Fairly recent history has shown that a lot of westerners under estimated the Vietnamese. My first inclination for my friend Marc was to say that perhaps things would have gone better under French Colonial rule but that would be too obvious. Honestly, wasn't COTA still in a state of construction mere days before their first Grand Prix out in Austin? Seems to me there were a lot of "Wet Paint" signs everywhere in 2012 and even a thread here where many (if not most) didn't think it would be done on time. What seems amazing is that Vietnam can pull off a Grand Prix but Miami seems to be stuck in neutral and can't seem to get the deal off the ground. BHW
Like many communist countries, Vietnam must have a way of dealing with people's "objections" to large projects. The same methods couldn't be applied in the US, probably.
The Vietnam GP is happening not because they´re building the track with gulag workers, but because the government is really willing to pay for it and the locals can make money from it, even if they don´t give a dang about Formula 1. If the Miami GP can´t make money and the local authorities can´t pay Liberty´s bribe, it won´t happen.
I’ve been to Vietnam a number of times. I have no doubt the track and facilities will be ready. The Coronavirus is the bigger problem.
I've cancelled ALL INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL for the entire year until someone puts a lid on the pandemic. Not worth the risk, and sure some might think the media is blowing everything out of proportions but I'd rather not be the unlucky bloke added to the stat sheet. No one has a vaccine. No one knows the incubation period. Previously stated as 14 days, but now there have been dozens of incidents on record beyond 27 days ie contagious for over 27 days. No one really knows how many people each infected individual can transmit the virus to; previously they claimed 2-3 persons yet, we keep seeing more and more outbreaks in countries where the source has not even been from anyone who traveled to China! Each person is taking down over dozens of people with them. Look at the latest outbreak in South Korea...1 grandma super spreader infected over 40 people from 1 sunday service and the majority of them didn't even have any direct contact with her. No one knows regardless of how healthy or young you are that you will survive the virus. There are those infected who showed zero symptoms for weeks, had no underlying health conditions, were under the age of 30, didn't smoke etc and boom, within days of showing illness, they either die of pneumonia or lung failure or organs just fail from "antibody injury" where the body tries so hard to kill off the virus but ends up destroying everything else with it. A 29 yr old chinese doctor in perfect health recently died from the virus... No one knows if the virus is natural or engineered/leaked from a lab. Bet your ass if it was engineered, it will mutate like nothing else in nature and experts are already screaming "disease x" and the window to prevent a pandemic is almost already closed and stateside people are already bracing for it to "yet spread". No one knows how much "cover-up" and "underreporting" China has really been doing ie sh*t is definitely worse than it seems in China. Everyday the numbers get bigger and bigger...South Korea incidents have tripled pretty much overnight: https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6
Since you can catch the coronavirus EVERYWHERE in the world, I can't see how stopping travelling can protect people. I hope they find a vaccine for it very soon; in between more hygiene is the solution.
Almost every western countries already have cases of coronavirus, and people get the virus without travelling. You cannot put the world on quarantine: people and goods have to travel. But as usual, the media like to stir up hysteria.
I could just as well catch the virus travelling on the London Underground. There you meet plenty of people from abroad who have just landed at the Heathrow airport. We already have reported casualties in Europe (Italy), and none of them has been near China !
In another thread we were just discussing the ridiculous numbers of Chinese tourists in Italy. No mystery where it came from.
If it's as obvious as you say it is, "ridiculous number of chinese tourists", then it should be easy. Other countries have been able to trace exact sources under more obscure circumstances...