Drivers may miss sessions under new procedures

Michelle Foster
2020 driver helmets

2020 driver helmets

Formula 1 drivers will be forced to sit out sessions while awaiting test results, says F1 sporting boss Ross Brawn.

Formula 1 will finally go racing next month with Austria’s Red Bull Ring hosting a double header to get the season underway.

The sport’s bosses are taking every precaution possible to ensure the safety of everyone in the paddock, including regular testing.

While the teams have already been adjusting to their new procedures with face masks and social distancing, there is only so much of the latter that can be done while working on a car.

As such should one mechanic test positive, Formula 1 will put the entire team into isolation while testing them all.

And that will include the driver of the car.

“If somebody comes down with the symptoms, you’d have to deal with it straight away,” Brawn explained to Sky Sports.

“If we do get a positive case then we can isolate that case and people who have been in contact with that person very quickly.

“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.”

Asked whether it would mean the driver may be forced to miss a session while waiting for the test results, Brawn said: “Yes it would.”

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