Monza hoping for 80pc capacity F1 crowd

Jun.2 (GMM) Monza is hoping to welcome a crowd of up to 80 percent capacity to September’s Italian GP.

As the peak of the pandemic begins to recede, major sports events are grappling with ways to fill up the grandstands once again and end the damaging ‘ghost race’ phenomenon.

The solution under consideration for the Italian GP is separate grandstands and sections for both vaccinated and unvaccinated spectators.

“What we would like to do in Monza for Formula 1 – pandemic situation permitting – is to set up no-covid stands for vaccinated people,” said Angelo Sticchi Damiani, president of Italy’s automobile club Aci.

“And then there would be the other stands with social distancing for people who are tested with 50 percent capacity,” he added.

“While we cannot establish how many people will be vaccinated by 10-11 September, we hope it is many,” Sticchi Damiani continued.

“We certainly cannot hope to reach the 100,000 people we got in 2019, but we hope to fill up the circuit to 70-80 percent.”