Cetilar Racing became the first withdrawal from the FIA World Endurance Championship‘s 1,000 Miles of Sebring before the race itself got cancelled.
Due to the widespread of coronavirus in Italy over the past month, the team – Italian backed with an Italian driver line-up and team principal – had made the decision to not go racing in America.
Team principal Roberto Lacorte is also the vice president and CEO of Pharmanutra SpA, a pharmaceutical company. Although no statement has come from the team following their withdrawal, Lacorte has insisted that all racing funds the team would have used for the Floridian round will be donated to multiple Italian intensive care units dealing with the coronavirus outbreak.
In opposition, the AF Corse factory team stated that, before the cancelation of the Sebring round, they foresaw no coronavirus issues preventing them from travelling to the sixth round of the championship. Travel from Italy is currently locked down unless for business or emergency reasons in certain circumstances.
