Formula 1 motorsport boss Ross Brawn has warned the sport can’t ease off on Covid-19, predicting a positive case is inevitable.
So far, F1 has released figures on two rounds of coronavirus testing undertaken across the two weeks in Austria with no cases confirmed from almost 9,000 tests.
This as the paddock has been separated into team ‘bubbles’ with masks made mandatory and social distancing maintained where possible.
“I think when we had the shock of Melbourne, we came back and we kind of had to recover from that but then started to think about what could we do to start racing again,” Brawn said, speaking during the initial rain delay in qualifying on Saturday.
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“I think motor racing is very good at logistics, very good at organising… plan A, plan B, plan C is our bread and butter, that’s what we do all the time.
“With the FIA, Formula 1, promotors and the teams, we started regular meetings to work out a plan and how we could go racing.
“The concept of the biosphere and the big bubble… that means we will get a positive at some stage but we hope then we can control it and minimise the risk,” he claimed.
“My wife was quite concerned about me coming here and I said this should be the safest place for me to ever be, and that was the objective.
“Touch wood we’ve been ok so far but we can’t get complacent.”
There have been some blips with Ferrari warned twice about their drivers, after Sebastian Vettel was seen maskless in the Red Bull camp in Austria and Charles Leclerc broke his bubble meeting friends as he returned to Monaco between races.
And this week will see another test as F1 moves countries for the first time heading from Spielberg to Budapest, where the Hungarian government has imposed very strict limits on movement for UK and non-EU personnel.
“Everyone’s keen to get racing as long as we can offer a safe environment to do it,” Brawn added.
“We need to ensure that formula 1, being an international sport moving around the world, we don’t become a sport that takes COVID into a country.
“We’ve got to be someone who countries can totally rely on being a safe activity to have.”