The Vietnamese Grand Prix is set to be removed from the 2021 F1 calendar, raising doubts over whether the race will ever take place.
Reports in the U.K. media on Tuesday said the move had been triggered by the arrest of local government official Nguyen Duc Chung on corruption charges.
Though Nguyen's arrest is not related to the hosting of the race, the BBC reported that Vietnamese officials have told F1 that the government has other priorities than staging a Grand Prix, including recovery from both a typhoon and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Set to take place on a temporary circuit around the streets of the capital Hanoi, the Vietnamese Grand Prix had been scheduled to join the F1 calendar in April this year, but the race was postponed and then canceled as the pandemic worsened.
The space on the 2021 calendar vacated by Vietnam could yet be filled by one of the circuits drafted in at short notice this year to replace races lost to the pandemic. Portugal's Portimao circuit, Imola in Italy, and Turkey's Istanbul Park track are likely to be in contention to replace Hanoi.