With Formula 1 releasing the provisional schedule to return to racing, questions about the season and safety were bound to arise. The sport answered a few of these questions in an article on Formula1.com Tuesday morning.
Formula 1 believe that July is a good time to return to the track, having seen other sports like football return in closed events.
The sport has also said that everyone is on board with the plan. All the drivers, teams, promoters, governments, and other F1 partners all believe in the measures put in place, and feel safe to return to the track.
In an attempt to guarantee safety, F1 have detailed how they plan to test for the virus and ensure safety.
“The measures F1 have set out mean that all personnel at races (including local personnel such as marshals, medical teams and security) will be tested and cleared before a race weekend, with regular testing continuing to take place over the weekend,” says the article.
“This, alongside teams operating in bubbles and following local government guidelines such as social distancing, will ensure F1 minimises contact with the wider local community. F1 also has the capability to provide extra screening and testing if necessary.”
“Privately sourced PPE and hygiene materials will need to be provided by the race promoter for local personnel to mitigate any risks, if for example a marshal is required to assist a driver.”
“Local personnel engaged by the race promoter will be located at specific parts of the circuit for their duties and will be asked to remain at their posts and observe social distancing.”
F1 also answered how they will enforce social distancing.
“F1 will follow all local country guidelines and procedures. Teams will isolate from each other and any moving around non-race critical areas such as the paddock will have the 2m social distance implemented,” the article states.
“All procedures and rules will be strictly enforced at race venues as well as for travel and accommodation, with F1 saying breaches of procedures will be dealt with immediately.”
The sport is fully confident that these measures will be effective in isolating and stopping the spread of any potential cases should one be caught in the paddock.
On top of all of this, the number of personnel at tracks will be greatly reduced from the roughly 2,000 people that work at a grand prix on a normal race weekend.
Aside from the absence of hundreds of thousands of spectators on a race weekend, there will be zero guests allowed in the paddock instead of an average of 3,000.
F1 team personnel has also been knocked from 130 to 80, with only a total of 1,200 essential personnel in total compared to an average of anywhere from 3,000-5,000.
Finally, with a plan for remote broadcasting in place, only 60 broadcast personnel are needed instead of over 250 for a standard race weekend.
While the situation remains fluid across the globe, it’s a promising plan that will hopefully bring racing to our screens safely.
