Formula 1 has announced that the 2021 Japanese Grand Prix has been cancelled, with race organisers citing "ongoing complexities" related to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The race, which was also cancelled last year because of the coronavirus situation, was due to be held in mid-October, the third event in a planned triple header after the Russian Grand Prix and the rescheduled Turkish GP.

But on Wednesday morning it was announced the race at the Suzuka circuit would not be going ahead.

A statement from Formula 1 read: "Following ongoing discussions with the promoter and authorities in Japan the decision has been taken by the Japanese government to cancel the race this season due to ongoing complexities of the pandemic in the country.
"Formula 1 is now working on the details of the revised calendar and will announce the final details in the coming weeks."Formula 1 has proven this year, and in 2020, that we can adapt and find solutions to the ongoing uncertainties and is excited by the level of interest in locations to host Formula 1 events this year and beyond."

Keep an eye on Formula1.com for all the latest news on the 2021 calendar.

The United States could have another team in Formula 1 if the efforts of a former driver prove to be successful.

RACER has learned Andretti Autosport team owner Michael Andretti has been actively pursuing an F1 team to acquire, with multiple sources pointing towards the 1993 McLaren F1 pilot being in discussions with representatives from more than one team, including Haas F1’s Gene Haas.

It’s understood the Haas conversation did not move beyond a basic outreach, which led to Andretti seeking another target in the F1 paddock. After Haas F1, it’s believed the two teams owned by investment firms – Alfa Romeo Sauber, which was sold to Longbow Finance S.A. in 2016, and Williams Grand Prix Engineering, which was bought by Dorilton Capital in 2020 – stand as the best options available for the 1991 CART IndyCar Series champion.

“It would be great, but there’s a long way to go if it were to happen,” Andretti told RACER. “If the right opportunity comes up, we’ll be all over it. But we’re not there yet.”

Haas has the obvious American link, but it has a close partnership with Ferrari, while Williams is a Mercedes customer – something it has in common with Zak Brown’s McLaren. Brown and Andretti are partners in other racing categories, having teamed up in Supercars, Australian GT and Extreme E. Independent of the McLaren CEO, Andretti fields a four-car IndyCar program, a two-car effort in Formula E, a four-car Indy Lights team and has an LMP3 entry in IMSA’s WeatherTech Sports Car Championship.

Alfa Romeo recently extended its title sponsorship in a deal that will have “yearly assessments”, but the F1 team is still run by Sauber Motorsport, based around a less-close partnership with Ferrari than Haas. The location of the Swiss-based team adds a further level of complexity to any deal, but it has an impressive windtunnel facility and a romantic link from Andretti’s point of view, as his father Mario drove for Alfa Romeo in F1 in 1981, as well as two separate stints with Ferrari.

Purchasing an existing F1 team – or at least a stake in one – is a far more economical approach since the signing of the latest Concorde Agreement in 2020 that introduced a $200 million buy-in fee for any new entrants. That fee would be split between the existing teams who would be losing a percentage of revenues as a result, but it had the impact of driving up the value of the 10 teams currently on the grid.

In March, a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission by the new Andretti Acquisitions Corporation was revealed. In the document, AAC declared its goal of taking the company public in order to raise $250 million on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol WNNR (winner).

Button, though, feels he lacked the ability compared to Alonso and Hamilton to still shine even when his car could not do so.

“My greatest weakness was I wasn’t willing to move on from a bad weekend,” he said on The High Performance Podcast.

“But I feel I’ve definitely got over that. One thing I haven’t been able to get over is driving a bad car, that’s my weakness.

“Lewis and Fernando Alonso can jump in a bad car and get more out of it than I can – that’s probably my weakness.”

Two-time Le Mans winner Alonso, a victor with Toyota in 2018 and 2019, did a demonstration run with an Alpine F1 car shortly before the start of this year's event last Saturday.

He then stayed on to watch the start of the race as a guest of the Alpine WEC team and was accompanied by F1 teammate Esteban Ocon after the Hungarian GP winner had sampled the track in a GT4 car.

Alonso, who has extended his Alpine F1 contract to cover 2022, believes it won't take much to be adjust the cars to suit the venue, but concedes that the high-speed circuit would need changes for obvious safety reasons.

Formula 1 has only staged a race at the track once before, in 1967, when the race was won by Jack Brabham.

Speaking on Thursday ahead of the Belgian GP, Alonso described the experience of driving the track in an F1 car as "very special", even though he did not complete a full lap at speed.

Regarding a potential quick F1 lap time, Alonso expects it would be substantially faster than the 2021 24 hours pole of 3m23.9s set by Kamui Kobayashi, or even Kobayashi's record lap of 3m14.79s from 2017.

"I think the simulation says like something under three minutes," he said. "But then you have to execute the lap. And it was not that easy, because honestly with the F1 car, I felt the long straights were a little bit unusual for our tyres, our cars.

"The braking points after the long straights were a bit tricky because the front tyres tried to lock up and things like that. So if you really go for it, and you push, it will be quite stressful.

"So in a way I was I was happy that it was just a demo lap!"

Asked if F1 cars could one day race at the circuit – as some fans suggested after Saturday's demo – Alonso said that despite his concerns, it wouldn't take much to adapt the cars themselves.

"It could be fun for sure to race there, I think it will not take too much in terms of preparation or engineering to go to tracks like Le Mans," he said.

"Even with very short time, I think our car was basically prepared to do that demo lap. And it was close to a race situation.

"But I don't know, at those speeds and talking about safety standards, we will probably have to change few things in the track itself.

"It will be way too fast, and way too narrow in some of the sections on the straights. So potentially it will require some changes, more on track than basically from the F1 community."

Ocon said he enjoyed his visit to the 24 Hours and, when asked by Motorsport.com if he would consider competing in the future, admitted he hasn't ruled out the possibility.

"It was amazing experience," he said. "I've been watching the race as a spectator when I was younger, but I haven't seen how it was working from the inside.

"So it was a quite interesting to be involved, have a look, and talk to the drivers as well who are involved in the race.

"It's been fun, and I had my first lap as well of the track in a GT4 car, so it's been a mega experience to be there and watch it from a different perspective.

"In the future, never say never, I would say. I'm fully focussed on F1. My aim is to be world champion one day, but if an opportunity comes, it's one of those that you can't say no to."

In a short tweet issued on Thursday morning, F1 said the documentary series will be coming back again next year.

The Netflix series was first aired in 2019 and has been viewed as a great success story for F1’s new owners Liberty Media, as it has triggered a boom in interest amid both young audiences and the American market.

It has also won numerous awards, picking up a BAFTA TV Craft Award and a Telly Award this year on the back of its ongoing success.
The fly-on-the-wall nature of the series, with Netflix picking up story lines from each team over the course of the season, has offered some unique perspectives on events inside F1 teams.

F1’s director of media rights, Ian Holmes, told Motorsport.com earlier this year that the series had opened the sport’s eyes about the potential audience growth the sport could gain.

“What it really demonstrated to us is how many fans might be out there, and how can we talk to existing fans but in a different way,” he said.

“What the Netflix series is showing us is that there is this appetite for content that has no place to be in a [regular] pre-race show. But there is a place for it and people are genuinely fascinated by it.

“The other thing that it’s really demonstrated to us is that what interests people the most is the individuals, the personalities, the rock stars, the drivers, or in some cases maybe a few team principals.

"It's that sort of personality driven programming.

“What I think it has so successfully done is shone a light on that, and this is where the teams deserve an awful lot of credit for their openness and their agreement to embrace the project and allow cameras and microphones in to places they haven't been allowed before.”

No date has been announced for when Series 4 will be broadcast, but it has traditionally been released in the build-up to the new season. F1's 2022 campaign is expected to begin in Bahrain next March.