The COVID-19 pandemic caused disruption to motorsport across the world, mirroring its impact across all sports. Across the world and to varying degrees, events and competitions were cancelled or postponed. Motorsport UK - the governing body for the sport in the UK - announced in March that no sanctioned events would take place until May before extending that to the end of June, due to the UK's lockdown following the spread of COVID-19.
Australian Supercars The Supercars Championship had planned to hold the Melbourne 400 supporting the Australian Grand Prix. The event was cancelled the same time the Grand Prix was also cancelled. Although the Championship were seeking to hold a replacement event later in the year, it was ultimately not made up. The Supercars' Tasmania Super400 at Symmons Plains Raceway (originally scheduled for 4–5 April), the Auckland Super400 at Hampton Downs (25–26 April), and the Perth SuperNight at Wanneroo Raceway (16–17 May) rounds were also postponed beyond June. The pandemic saw 23Red Racing withdraw from the championship as its primary sponsor, Milwaukee Tools, ended its deal with the team.
A revised calendar was released on 17 May, with the events at Gold Coast and Newcastle dropped from the calendar and a second race at Bathurst to be held in February 2021. As well, the Melbourne 400 will still count as a round because practice and qualifying had taken place before the event was cancelled. After a second revision on 19 June, the second Bathurst round was reassigned to be part of the 2021 season (replacing the Intercontinental GT Challenge round at Bathurst cancelled because of international travel restrictions), with the Sydney SuperNight round being restored and acting as the season finale. Further revisions saw rounds at Winton, Sandown, Symmons Plains, Wanneroo and the Sydney SuperNight being cancelled, and the Bathurst 1000 now becoming the finale.
Supercars formed the All Stars Eseries to allow its drivers to compete against each other.
Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters The Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters series postponed the start of its championship until August 2020. The Norisring round, which was scheduled on 10–12 July, was cancelled because of the difficulties of assembling the infrastructure required for a street circuit and impossibility to be held behind closed doors.
Drag racing On March 12, the National Hot Rod Association suspended its season while some sportsman classes were already contesting the Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals; the sportsman classes already active at that time would finish their runs behind closed doors, while the professional and remaining sportsman classes were sent home.
The season schedule was revised several times during the suspension,. This is a collection of listings to multiple articles concerning the NHRA's handling of the pandemic. with the season eventually being shortened to eleven events from the original twenty-four; the Countdown to the Championship was scrapped for the season amid the first bouts of the rescheduling. As a result of these changes, with the current schedule revealed as of September 2, Las Vegas saw its two events consolidated into one (which, after the September 2 schedule revisions, became the season finale) with Pomona also reduced to a single race (held prior to the pandemic); the Virginia NHRA Nationals, Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals, Route 66 NHRA Nationals, NHRA Sonoma Nationals, MagicDry Organic Absorbent NHRA Northwest Nationals, and NHRA New England Nationals were removed from the schedule for the season in the earliest schedule modifications; and three additional events were announced in two bursts for Lucas Oil Raceway to relaunch the season from July 11 in order to initially compensate for cancelled events. The Dodge Mile-High NHRA Nationals and Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals were subsequently postponed on July 17, in conjunction with the third additional event at Lucas Oil Raceway added to the former's original dates; the Menards NHRA Heartland Nationals would also subsequently be postponed on July 29, followed by the cancellation of the Southern Nationals on August 10 and the Mopar Express Lane NHRA Nationals on August 17. Further schedule revisions on September 2 saw the schedule reduced further, with the three postponed events that were awaiting rescheduling as well as both Charlotte events (which had initially been consolidated to a single event in earlier schedule revisions), the Thunder Valley Nationals (for logistics reasons), and technically, the other Las Vegas Motor Speedway round (the Las Vegas round, known as the Dodge NHRA Vegas Nationals, was officially cancelled). The NHRA Finals at Pomona was legally moved to the Las Vegas meeting, which is known as the Dodge NHRA Finals (sponsors kept their contracts, but the 2020 Las Vegas race belongs to the World Finals lineage). leaving six previously scheduled events including the rescheduled aforementioned Gatornationals to finish out the season.
The rescheduling has created an event-name related oddity, in that the Mopar Express Lane NHRA SpringNationals have retained its name for the season despite now being scheduled for the weekend after the AAA NHRA Fall Nationals in October.
Despite the pandemic, the NHRA was able to host all races were held with spectators in attendance.
The NHRA then announced the 2021 NHRA season would start at the Gatornationals in March, with the sanctioning body moving the Winternationals and Arizona Nationals to April, hoping that spectator restrictions will be eased by that time. On 15 January 2021, the NHRA announced that the Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park round would be moved to another venue to be determined. On 16 March 2021, the NHRA announced the Auto Club Raceway at Pomona Winternationals was postponed. On 5 May 2021, the NHRA postponed the round at Virginia Motorsports Park while restoring the round at Bristol Dragway, which moves from June (a date clash with the NASCAR weekend in Gladeville, TN) to October. On 14 May 2021, with King County, Washington restrictions still questionable, Pacific Raceways was removed, with the Lucas Oil Winternationals moving to the August date.
Since 2023, the NHRA changes have become permanent. Gainesville starts the season.
Formula racing
Formula One
2020 The early 2020 Formula One season was disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic. Prior to the start of the season, Ferrari and AlphaTauri expressed concern about the spread of the virus and its effect on the championship. Both teams are based in Italy, which has suffered one of the worst outbreaks of the virus outside China, and so both Ferrari and AlphaTauri were therefore concerned over the ability of their staff to leave a quarantine zone that was established in northern Italy. Ross Brawn, the managing director of the sport, announced that Grands Prix would not go ahead if a team were blocked from entering a host nation, but that events could go ahead if a team voluntarily chose not to enter a host nation.
The season opening Australian race was abruptly cancelled shortly before the start of the first free practice session, while the Monaco and French races were eventually cancelled. The cancellation of the Monaco Grand Prix meant that 2020 would mark the first time since that the race has not been held. The Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Canadian, Dutch, Spanish and Vietnamese Grands Prix were postponed, while the Chinese Grand Prix had already been postponed prior to the pandemic. The Dutch Grand Prix would eventually be cancelled on 28 May, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix would eventually be cancelled on 12 June, along with Singapore (due to logistical difficulties associated with establishing a street circuit on short notice) and Japanese (due to travel restrictions by Japanese government). The Canadian Grand Prix would be cancelled on 24 July along with races in Mexico, United States and Brazil due to the travel restrictions in the Americas, while the Spanish Grand Prix would be rescheduled to 16 August on 2 June. On 24 August, the Bahrain Grand Prix would be rescheduled to 29 November and the Chinese Grand Prix was cancelled. On 16 October, the Vietnamese Grand Prix was cancelled. Organizers of the Austrian, British and Hungarian Grands Prix were the first to announce that their races could go ahead, but run without spectators and with teams staffed by minimal personnel. The summer break shut down period—which includes mandatory factory closures as a cost-cutting measure—was also brought forward from August to March and April and was originally extended to three weeks, allowing for postponed races to be held in August.
The sport had planned to overhaul its technical regulations for the championship in one of the largest changes in its seventy-year history. The pandemic prompted these changes to be postponed until , with teams required to enter their cars in the 2021 championship to minimise the financial stress placed on the teams. The sport had also planned to introduce a $175 million budget cap in 2021, which was later revised to $150 million. Teams called for further revisions to $100 million, arguing that the pandemic threatened the future of four of the ten teams.
In March 2020, some Formula One drivers entered virtual versions of several races dubbed "Not The GP". The races were hosted by Jean-Éric Vergne's Veloce Esports, in partnership with Formula One. The online races were contested by current and former Formula One drivers, like Lando Norris, Nicholas Latifi, Stoffel Vandoorne, Esteban Gutiérrez, Emerson Fittipaldi, Nico Hülkenberg, Johnny Herbert and Martin Brundle, as well as celebrities and other sportsmen; Norris in particular, alongside Alex Albon, George Russell, and Charles Leclerc, would spend most of the offseason livestreaming on Twitch. On 29 June 2020, ahead of the season opening race in Austria, McLaren took a loan of £150m from the National Bank of Bahrain to mitigate the effect of coronavirus on the company.
The first few races of the rescheduled 2020 season, included the Austrian, Styrian, Hungarian and two Grands Prix at Silverstone, which all took place in "bio-secure" conditions behind closed doors.
A day prior to the British Grand Prix, Racing Point driver Sergio Pérez was confirmed to have tested positive for the virus following an inconclusive result earlier in the day, ruling him out of the race. Nico Hülkenberg was announced as his replacement for that race, and as well as the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix the following weekend.
Williams was sold to Dorilton Capital due to financial pressures, ending family ownership of and involvement with the team.
Racing Point driver Lance Stroll missed the Eifel Grand Prix after falling ill, which was later diagnosed as COVID-19. He was replaced by Hülkenberg. Lawrence Stroll, owner of the Racing Point team and father of Lance, also tested positive.
On 30 November 2020, a day after winning the Bahrain Grand Prix, Drivers' Champion Lewis Hamilton announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19, claiming to have been experiencing "mild symptoms". During the week leading to the race, he underwent three tests, but all returned negative. Mercedes confirmed that Hamilton would miss the Sakhir Grand Prix in Bahrain later that week as a result. He was replaced by George Russell from Williams who was in turn replaced by Jack Aitken.
2021 Prior to the beginning of the 2021 season, three more drivers – Norris, Charles Leclerc and Pierre Gasly – and Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff all tested positive for COVID-19 in separate occasions. On the eve of pre-season testing at Bahrain, Alfa Romeo team principal Frédéric Vasseur tested positive for COVID-19, hence unable to accompany the team for testing. Prior to the British Grand Prix, McLaren team principal Zak Brown tested positive.