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The Formula 1 (F1) Portuguese Grand Prix, which will take place at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve (AIA), in Portimão, between next Friday and Sunday, will have less public than initially planned, but Paulo Pinheiro, director of this structure, ensures that it is still awaiting the final decision of the General Directorate of Health (DGS) on how many people there may be in the venue, although it admits that there cannot be more than 27,500 spectators. “It is the event of my life. It costs a lot, a lot to see this happen to this golden opportunity and it is a fight until the last hour, ”he told PÚBLICO.
Due to the covid-19 pandemic, and from the moment it was decided that the event would have an audience in the benches, it was always known that the capacity for 90 thousand people in the AIA would never be exhausted, but the perspective of those responsible for the space It was that it could occupy at least 40% of the capacity and, to date, around 30 thousand tickets have been sold.
However, the increase in people infected with covid-19 – with the country observing, in the last week, several days in which there were more than two thousand daily infections – led DGS to rethink the number of spectators who attend sporting events , like F1 and also the MotoGP race, scheduled for the same place between November 20 and 22. This was confirmed by the General Director of Health, Graça Freitas, at the press conference last Friday, stating that the DGS “is reviewing the program [destas provas] in terms of audience ”.
Paulo Pinheiro confirms that there have been contacts with the DGS with a view to reducing the audience in the race next weekend, and confirmed to Lusa the information advanced by TSF that no more than 27,500 spectators can be present at the AIA, but the PUBLIC did not want to give concrete figures. “This is an assumption, based on conversations with health authorities, but we don’t know yet. It can be 25 thousand or 30 thousand spectators. We are waiting for an official confirmation, ”he said.
It is true that about 30 thousand tickets have already been sold, but it is also true, says the head of the AIA, that there have been “many requests for invalidity from foreigners who cannot travel.” If, even with returns, the number stipulated by DGS is less than the tickets sold, there will be people with tickets who will not be able to be at the racetrack. How the selection of outsiders will be made is something that Paulo Pinheiro cannot yet define. “I have no idea, only with the final information we can work,” he says. But one thing is clear: “In the end, we will have to give the money back to the people.”
Without sleeping “for three days,” as he confesses, Paulo Pinheiro says he is “absolutely sure” that the event will take place without danger. “We would not propose to have an audience if we did not have that certainty. They were three months of tireless work, with a lot of technical work, and we really believe that we think of everything. We did everything humanly possible, but I am not the one who decides, I have to limit myself to following the instructions of the health authorities ”, he says.
And that, he guarantees, will be done, although he does not hide the disappointment. “It is very, very sad that we depend on situations that we do not control, especially because in the Algarve, even with tourists, the situation [da covid-19] it has always been very controlled, ”he says.
According to this Sunday’s bulletin from the DGS, which reported 1,856 new cases of covid-19 infection in the last 24 hours across the country, only 28 were registered in the Algarve. The region has, to date, 2,199 confirmed cases and 22 deaths, none in the last day.
