How the virus outbreak could affect the Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas

The issue centers not on Texas, but on Thailand.

The U.S. round scheduled for April 3 through 5 at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, comes two weeks after the OR Thailand Grand Prix. Currently, the United States has imposed restrictions only on travelers coming from China. In recent days, however, Israel became the first country to place restrictions on travelers from Thailand (along with Singapore, Hong Kong and Macau).

With the Thailand and U.S. rounds two weeks apart, if the U.S. government imposed similar restrictions on anyone traveling from Thailand, it would be impossible for racers, team members and MotoGP officials to spend 14 days in quarantine.

How likely is that? The answer is as unpredictable as the trajectory of the contagion itself.

As of yesterday, the World Health Organization reported 73,332 confirmed cases of the virus worldwide, but only 35 in Thailand. With the race still a month away, however, the situation could change significantly. A month from now, public perception could be that the virus is contained and not much of a concern. Or, if cases continue to grow as they have, it could look a lot more serious and worrisome.

So far, MotoGP organizer Dorna has said that the Thai round is still on. (The Formula One race in Shanghai, scheduled for April, has been canceled already.) If the Thai MotoGP round were canceled, that would actually make the Americas GP more secure, because travel restrictions seem to be the only thing that could cancel the U.S. round. (The opening four rounds of the series, from Qatar to Thailand to the United States to Argentina, put the teams through a lot of travel before returning to Europe.)

If the U.S. round can't take place on the first weekend in April, it will have to be canceled. With 20 rounds scheduled this year (plus a few mid-season test sessions), stretching to the November 15 final round at Valencia in Spain, there's no hope of rescheduling a round that has to be postponed, especially one in a location like the United States that's so far from other races. There's simply no time to travel that far and squeeze in another race.

If the U.S. GP does go on, I also wonder whether attendance could be affected. Will people want to go to the track where all the race teams have flown in from East Asia? I guess a lot of that depends on what happens between now and April and how the public perception of the risk of the virus changes.

The MotoGP world championship is a more worldwide sport than ever, which means it can't escape what's happening in the world.