Source
r/formula1•
Rusty_Cabbage

Monaco 2021, Am I going?

Hi Guys,

Just looking for a little advice not sure if anyone is in a similar position as me. (Background I'm based in the UK)

During the earlier months of 2020 we realised Silverstone was going to be postponed / cancelled which we already had tickets for, As these were paid for and rolled over to 2021 we decided to take up a neighbours offer to utilise his French home in La Rochelle, more specifically have a road trip, stay in Nice for the F1 then drive up to La Rochelle for a few nights before returning home.

Now the current position I am in - Paid for full weekend tickets through the organiser (formula1monaco.com) Booked and paid for accommodation in Nice via Expedia.

Is anyone else in a similar position? how long do you leave it before considering cancelling or requesting refunds? will the situation be similar to Silverstone 2020 where I may have the option of rolling tickets over? what happens if the event is to go ahead but Covid restrictions prevent me from leaving the UK to go to France?.

No sure if anyone has more information than me or if were all in the same boat of 'wait and see'. There are other travel arrangements I need to make (Eurostar tickets, hotel bookings for the route) but I am hesitant to make these given the situation and honestly dont know what to do considering the race around 4 months away.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Posted Jan 18, 2021, 1:19 PM UTC

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ihavesalad:red-bull: Red Bull•

Honestly no one really knows what to tell you about what will happen in 4 months. The general consensus is to not buy tickets as if life is normal again until life is actually more like that.

Unfortunately Monaco was cancelled this year and I'm not confident it'll stay on the schedule without fans, as that's sort of the whole reason for it existing in the first place. If I were you I'd wait to book any travel until you know for sure it's happening and the rules you'd need to follow for travel (a month away maybe)

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Rusty_CabbageOP•

Thanks for the advice, I'm certainly hesitant as to book anything further, we originally booked in July 2020 when it was looking like the pandemic would have been controlled before now (naive I know). Worryingly its recently been reported that Monaco, Azerbaijan & Canada could all be cancelled, if that were to happen in the next month or so I should imagine it would be easier to arrange refunds (Even though we would understandably be gutted)

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hugoise:kimi-raikkonen: Kimi Räikkönen•

No one is going.

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dl064:mclaren: McLaren•

We had flights to Madeira which went to pot and we got the whole thing back, lock stock and barrel. However that was because their and our country went into en masse lockdown and flights were cancelled all over.

I got relatively lucky there because when you look: if the flight goes ahead and you're not on it, you don't get a penny back unless you can demonstrate a positive COVID-19 test.

My advice, having looked at my insurance in more detail: if you can cancel it now for free, do. UCL is the first university to cancel graduations in June so I suspect Monaco being cancelled is a formality; especially if Melbourne isn't happening in March. Re banking on it being delayed...well, that's your call but if you could do with the money otherwise, I'd bet on it being 2022.

IMHO.

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Rusty_CabbageOP•

Yeah were lucky in that we dont / didnt intend on flying, the intention was to drive down and have a mini road trip (Reims, French Alps, Le-Mans on the way back etc) I can cancel my Nice booking and receive a refund for that as I made sure I could at time of booking. I'm happy to roll the tickets over into 2022 (Like we did last year with Silverstone), I'm just not sure where we stand if the event does in fact go ahead but people from the UK are still unable to travel to France.

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dl064:mclaren: McLaren•

I'm just not sure where we stand if the event does in fact go ahead but people from the UK are still unable to travel to France.

In my specific instance and insurance, we would not have got the money back if the holiday could have gone ahead but we could not travel due to local travel restrictions. We only got 'lucky' because the flights were cancelled at their end. But insurance would've been tough to fight with, I think.

When I really looked through our insurance, they were pretty 'not our problem' if you booked anything post March 2020 that is affected by COVID in whatever way. I could be wrong, of course.

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Rusty_CabbageOP•

That's a bit worrying! having spoken to the Mrs I think our best hope is that its cancelled all together for 2021. Otherwise if we cant travel and it does go ahead I could potentially be left trying to flog the tickets on eBay if I cant obtain a refund.

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dl064:mclaren: McLaren•

Ach, I could well be wrong and insurance would be okay with it. It's just my observation that when I thought I'd have to argue with them, the document was pretty unaccommodating. I also noticed they were very slow, I guess as half the planet tried to get money back from 2020!

I think it'll be cancelled outright before too long, personally. Like the university graduations: the whole point is they're like 'we have to start planning this in earnest now and that feels daft, so let's all just get the disappointment over with'. Surely Monaco are in the same boat. As many have said: they probably made a 23 race calendar knowing they wouldn't all happen.

Could you not just go to Nice and have a lovely time without the race? Worse gigs, bud!

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khryslo:mclaren: McLaren•

If you’re not sure whether you’ll be even able to leave a country then I’d definitely avoid booking and buying anything non-refundable at the very least until March no matter whether GP is cancelled or not. You won’t save some money due to early booking but at least you won’t lose them in case you’re stuck in UK.

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Rusty_CabbageOP•

Cheers u/khryslo I intend on waiting until I book anything further, thankfully the apartment I have booked is refundable its just the tickets which have a ? above them at the moment :-)

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