FORMULA ONE chiefs have drawn up a forensic plan to try and prevent an outbreak of COVID-19 as they prepare to kick off their season.
The sport has been forced to scrap the first half of the campaign due to the coronavirus pandemic but has now been given the green light to host the Austrian GP on July 5.
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Hamilton is used to flying privately en route to winning F1 races but now all drivers will have to do so
A second race at the Red Bull Ring will be held a week later on July 12 ahead of six more confirmed races and SunSport can reveal the extreme measures that are being put in place to stop the disease including:
- Specialist private flights to an airbase
- Confining teams in solitary hotels away from the public
- Special dining arrangements
- Track and trace measures for all staff
- Extensive decontamination of the garages and other areas
F1 will hire private jets and are looking to put on larger aircraft to fly teams and essential personnel direct to Zeltweg Air Base – the home of the Austrian Air Force.
In doing so, they will avoid the usual airport departure lounges and big airports to reduce the risk of exposure to the public.
All people boarding the flight will have been tested for the coronavirus.
Austrian rules mean that incoming visitors will have to have a negative test no older than three days.
That means staff will all be tested in advance, with some F1 teams already having testing measures in place at their factories.
WORKING IN BUBBLES
Anyone entering the circuit, including truck drivers who have taken freight by road, MUST have proof of a recent negative test.
In further firsts for F1, garages will be split into groups – or what F1 MD Ross Brawn has labelled a “biosphere” – meaning engineers working on one car cannot then go and work on the team’s other car.
Brawn added: “A group of mechanics working on a car, while they will be wearing PPE , it will be very difficult to socially distance.
“But there is no reason why that group of mechanics will necessarily be part of another family of mechanics working on the other car.
“So if we have somebody test positive in one of the groups, then we would have to isolate that group until they could all be tested.
“We would have to isolate that group until we could be sure the virus hadn’t spread but the rest of the team could still function.”
The bubbles will work, stay and dine together with catering all supplied by the Red Bull Ring to stop the need to visit restaurants, which is strictly forbidden.
F1 believe that by dividing the teams into bubbles, should there be any cause for concern, they would self-isolate the individual and their bubble until they get the test results back, which is expected to take just three hours.
Once their work at the track is over, teams will be driven back directly to their hotels – with each bubble staying in different hotels to prevent any interaction with other teams.
Those staff, including drivers, will remain inside the hotel for the duration of their stay and banned from leaving.
Any person found to have violated F1’s conditions will have their paddock passes revoked, while teams would be free to serve their own punishments.
And in a final attempt to quell the threat of any outbreak, while social-distancing measures cannot be in operation due to the nature of the work carried on on the cars, teams will be vigorously cleaning and disinfecting the garages, equipment and race car to ensure a sterile environment.
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Source: Motorsport - thesun.co.uk
