The FIA has confirmed that Sergio Perez’s positive Covid-19 result was the only case of the virus detected in the latest round of testing.
All Profile 1 Attendees at grands prix – which includes teams, drivers, personnel and media – have to undergo testing for Covid-19 every five days.
It was confirmed on Thursday that Perez tested positive for Covid-19 and will miss the British Grand Prix, with Nico Hulkenberg acting as substitute at Racing Point.
Prior to Perez’s result only two other positive cases were detected across the opening events, both during the build-up to the Hungarian Grand Prix.
On Friday Formula 1’s governing body confirmed that 3,909 tests were carried out between last Friday (July 24) and Thursday (July 30), with Perez the only positive case.
Racing Point boss Otmar Szafnauer revealed earlier on Friday that those in Perez’s close bubble had tested negative but were still taking the necessary precautions.
“There are two members of staff that travelled with Checo, his PA and his physio,” he said.
“They’ve both tested negative but they’re isolating as well, for either seven or 10 days and then there are three members of the team that did a simulator session with Checo so they didn’t really come into contact with him because in our simulator, the simulator is in one room and the control centre where they are at is in a totally separate room so we had the social distance required.
“We also wore masks as we always do and PPE as well. As a precaution, they then stayed at home and isolated until they got a negative test so we tested them, all three are negative as well.
“They tested again this morning, they’re at the factory now, working from the factory, they haven’t come into the paddock but my anticipation is that they will be negative again for their second test and then thereafter we’ll see if… we’ll make a decision on whether they can come in… whether they should come into the paddock.
“They’re negative and I’m 100 per cent confident they don’t have the virus but you know, it’s belt and braces so we’re testing them twice.”
