The Shanghai International Circuit , which hosted the Chinese Grand Prix 16 times between 2004 and 2019, is being converted into an emergency hospital for the treatment of COVID-19 patients. This is one of the responses of the local authorities to the current outbreak of the disease in the city, which has returned to figures from the beginning of 2020.
An emergency hospital with tents and containers is being set up, especially taking advantage of the car parks on the site, which is about 40 kilometers from the city center. The facility will reportedly have a total of 14,000 beds , so that the growing number of COVID-19 cases can be treated.
Shanghai is not the first Formula 1 circuit to become a hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez , home of the Mexican GP , was also used for that purpose in 2020.
It is not the only time that the tracks have become improvised help areas. For example, the Nürburgring circuit suspended racing there for a few weeks in 2021, so that the paddock and pit areas could serve as a shelter and base camp for emergency services during the Ahr Valley floods.
The move does not affect the 2022 Formula 1 race calendar as the Shanghai circuit is not part of the current season. The last race held on the track was in 2019, when the 1,000th Grand Prix in the history of the category was held.
In fact, it was the first circuit to cancel a race due to the pandemic. The 2020 Chinese Grand Prix, which should have been the fourth of the season, started off being postponed, but due to the difficulties caused by the pandemic and an already very compact schedule, it could not be held.
The Shanghai track is also the only one that was part of that year’s calendar that was canceled and has not returned yet, since both the Japanese and Canadian Grand Prix have returned to form part of the list. of tracks that Formula 1 will visit in this 2022 season.
