Formula 1’s Director of Motorsports, Ross Brawn, has revealed that everyone in the paddock will be tested for Covid-19 before they can enter, followed by tests every two days to ensure a safe working environment.
F1 recently confirmed its intention to finally start the 2020 season with a double-header weekend in Austria in July, and to allow that to happen it has laid out plans for a biosphere environment whereby the F1 circus would be largely isolated from the general public.
Part of this includes running races behind closed doors and allowing only minimal employees inside the paddock and during a chat with Sky Sports F1, he revealed further details, including regular testing.
“We’re working very closely with the FIA,” said Brawn. “The FIA are doing a great job of putting together the structure that we need and everyone will be tested and will have clearance before they can go [to a paddock].
“Then every two days they’ll be tested whilst in the paddock and that will be with an authorised authority and system. Certainly for all the European races we’ll be using the same facility to conduct that testing and we can assure that everyone has been tested who is in that environment and tested regularly.
“Then we will have restrictions on how people are moving around in the paddock because we cannot socially distance within a team. So we have to create an environment within itself that is effectively a small bubble of isolation and the teams will stay within their own groups, they won’t meet up with other groups and mingle, they will stay in their own hotels.
“There’s no motorhomes going to be there.”
Brawn says there’s still some work to be done to ensure those that do need access to every team and garage, such as FIA representatives and scrutineers are afforded some extra protection.
“Then we’re just working with those people who somewhat have to go to all the garages and what we can do there.
“So there’s a tremendous amount of work going on between ourselves and the FIA and I’m very encouraged by what I’m seeing and hearing that we’ll be able to provide a safe environment that we can still perform properly.”
