Formula 1 has confirmed that the Chinese Grand Prix will not go ahead in 2023.

The 2023 F1 calendar was announced earlier this year and included a return to Shanghai, as well as a debut for Las Vegas and a visit back to Qatar.

Indeed, an intended 24 races were on the schedule but that will, for now, drop to 23 with the Chinese GP cancelled for another year.

F1 has not raced in the country since 2019, thanks to the covid pandemic, and the ongoing pursual of zero-covid in the nation, with all the restrictions that entails, means that it will be at least another year before we return there.

There have been weeks of protests in China against continued covid restrictions, leading the government there to indicate they would start loosening things slightly.

Reuters report there will be an easing of quarantine rules and a reduction in mass testing, after several areas of the country saw citizens express their anger and frustration on the streets of some major Chinese cities.

How things develop in the next few weeks in China will soon be discovered, but F1 has made the decision now to cancel the event to give enough time to potentially find a replacement and get all the logistics involved sorted, should a new Grand Prix elsewhere be agreed.

Indeed, it now remains to be seen if a replacement event is indeed announced in the slot of the Chinese GP, which had been scheduled for April 14-16.

2018 Chinese GP field

SHANGHAI, CHINA - APRIL 15: A general view of the action during the Formula One Grand Prix of China at Shanghai International Circuit on April 15, 2018 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by Charles Coates/Getty Images)

A number of circuits will be interested in hosting a Grand Prix, with Portimao in Portugal just one potential alternative.

There are other interested parties in hosting a race in the mid-April slot and talks between them and F1 are going, so there has been no definite decision made by F1 as to where we go instead, if indeed we go anywhere at all.

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