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Picture Credit: Associated Press

In a year where F1 has not been running low on any account whether controversy, accidents and a mega Lewis vs Max battle that even took a turn for the worse, what else could’ve made unpopular news?

Well, it’s here. Right here.

The Japanese Grand Prix, one of the most daunting and widely watched sporting events in the world of motor racing shall not be going ahead in 2021. If you thought that the misery of the 2020 cancellation of the said event was the only woe and things would get better this season, then we’ve all been proven wrong again.

On first thought, cancellation of any Formula 1 event spells disaster for the fan.

Moreover, to have no Suzuka on the calendar, which has witnessed some mighty fine moments in the past, including the battles between two great McLaren legends of the past- Senna and Prost- will hurt all the more.

A popular choice of purists of motorsports, those who find eternal love in circuits like Monza and Spa- Suzuka is one of the last remaining hardcore Formula 1 circuit on the calendar, albeit one that hasn’t really seen any racing fest whatsoever in the last two runs, the cancellation of this year’s contest included.

That being said, why’s it that the Japanese Grand Prix has been done away with where the 2021 World championship is concerned and what led to the cancellation?

A noted publication had the following to say on the cancelled event at the beating heart of Japan-

"There will be no Japanese Grand Prix this season with Formula 1 announcing that the event at the Suzuka circuit has been cancelled over ongoing pandemic fears in the Asian nation."

That said, what’s rather surprising, at least some might find it that way, is that while entire paraphernalia of a sporting extravaganza no smaller than the Olympics (which were completed recently at Tokyo could happen in Japan), a single motor race event cannot take place?

However, what remains as of now is to simply focus on what transpired when the last Japanese Grand Prix went ahead.

In 2019, it was a brilliant win for Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas, who today finds himself heavily challenged by his vastly superior teammate Lewis Hamilton. Though what also made the 2019 event a greatly contested battle was the presence of Sebastian Vettel on the podium, his last at Japan with the Italian stable.

To sum it up, with no Japan now, the remaining calendar now sees only 9 or 10 events at the most unless some new tracks are added at the last moment to elongate a season that was always supposed to have been rather prolonged one.