Supercars will retain the ‘event drop’ rule for the 2021 season in an apparent safety net to the ongoing threat posed by the pandemic.

Should a driver or team be forced to withdraw from any Supercars event due to the coronavirus, the final championship points for both the drivers’ and teams’ championships will be adjusted.

The points will be calculated by dropping the worst event points from every driver’s and team’s final score.

The update to this year’s Operations Manual reads: “14.1.7 If a Driver or Competitor is forced to withdraw from an Event by Covid-19, the final championship points for both the Driver’s and Team’s championship’s will then be calculated by dropping the worst Event points from all Drivers’ final point score.”

The rule was initially introduced in the lead-up to the third event in last year’s Supercars Championship at Sydney Motorsport Park.

While the rule was brought in during the height of the pandemic, at no point was it enacted.

Supercars CEO Sean Seamer spoke last week of how the category had in general taken forward learnings from the COVID-affected 2020 championship.

“A lot of what we learned last year we’ve carried over,” said Seamer.

“Everything we learned last year that was positive had been ingrained for this year and a few years into the future.”

Each event ordinarily carries with it a maximum of 300 points, although the introduction of fastest lap bonus points for sprint rounds means those occasions will have as many as 315 up for grabs now.

The 2021 Repco Supercars Championship will get underway over February 26-28 with the Mount Panorama 500.