VIRUS RESTRICTIONS AFFECTING F1 TEAMS TRAVEL PLANS TO AUSTRALIA

Virus restrictions affecting F1 teams travel plans to Australia – Photo: Suttons

Increasing and constantly changing travel restrictions, medical screenings, quarantines and other concerns due to the worldwide Coronavirus epidemic are causing problems for F1 personnel heading to Melbourne for the Australian Grand Prix.

By DAN KNUTSON

There are also concerns surrounding the two races – Bahrain and Vietnam – that are next on the schedule after Australia.

Outbreaks of the virus, now officially called Covid-19, in Italy have affected Ferrari and AlphaTauri who are based in Italy, plus Alfa Romeo and Haas who have close links with Ferrari. To make matters worse, F1 tyre supplier Pirelli is also based in Italy.

The advance personnel from most F1 teams left for Australia this weekend. The bulk of the crews are scheduled to leave by next weekend.

But Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto has insisted that F1’s commercial owner Liberty Media and the FIA must provide exact information about the virus situation.

“I think what we will need is simply to have assurance before leaving,” Binotto said. “I don’t think we can discover when (the teams arrive in Australia) what can be or what will be the situation. So if there are any medical screenings, we need to know about them.”

Team members, especially if they had arrived from Italy, attending the Formula 2 and Formula 3 test in Bahrain last week had to undergo medical checks at the airport before being allowed into the country. A similar set-up is likely to be in place for F1 teams and spectators who go to the Bahrain Grand Prix scheduled for March 22, one week after the race in Melbourne.

“You need to know exactly what’s about,” Binotto stated. “We need to understand what the consequences are in case of any problem. Obviously we need to protect our employees. We have got collective and individual responsibility towards them. And it’s important, really, to make sure that before leaving, the picture, whatever is the scenario, is known and clear.”

There are other implications. What if F1 personnel are ordered into quarantine – either when entering a country for a race or on the return home?

The teams have already made travel plan changes. The Honda engineers will not return to Japan but stay in Europe before going to Australia. The Italian teams are scrambling to reschedule their flights to Melbourne, and some of them did not return to Italy after the pre-season test in Spain last week.

What happens if the four Italian teams have only some of their personnel at the track at Albert Park? Or perhaps are not able to field their cars at all?

“If teams cannot run for whatever reason, I think it will be unfair to start the season because this is a big disadvantage to whoever it is.” AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost said at a media briefing last week attended by AUTO ACTION.

Do rival teams want to be close to the Italian teams in the confines of the paddock at Albert Park? They certainly had no qualms about that in the Barcelona paddock during pre-season testing.

The Italian teams are not the only ones having to juggle travel plans.

There are growing restrictions of countries not letting people in who have been in airports of other countries with the virus such as Malaysia. And the teams connect through airports in Singapore, Malaysia, Dubai and elsewhere to get to Melbourne and Bahrain. Rather than return to Japan after pre-season testing in Spain, the Honda engineers stayed in Europe.

“Everything is changing hourly,” Tost said, “and this makes it difficult. From our side, we had to change all the flights to Australia because most of our flights were booked via Singapore or Hong Kong or Dubai. It was not easy and the process is still going on. In the factory we had to send out information to the people how to behave; travelling is reduced; we don’t want to have visitors. Also at the test (in Spain) visitors who were coming from the red zone in Italy were not allowed to come.”

The Concorde Agreement states that if there are fewer than 16 cars in a race it does not count for the world championship. The current F1 field consists of 20 cars.

F1 CEO Chase Carey was in Barcelona for pre-season testing last week where he talked with the team bosses. He said he has been in contact with officials in Australia, Bahrain and Vietnam who all assured him that their races would go ahead.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says that the teams have to trust the guidelines set by the appropriate authorities.

“We have to follow guidance from the countries, governments and our own governments and governing bodies,” Horner said. “It is a moving target. It changes almost by the hour at the moment so I think we have to keep a watching brief, be responsible in how we act and logistically moving people around the world at the moment has its challenges. Everybody is finding out which hubs they will be going through to Australia.”

The Chinese Grand Prix scheduled for April 19 has been postponed. A source with contacts in Vietnam told AUTO ACTION that the situation in that country is worse than officials are admitting. There are a growing number of Covid-19 cases in Vietnam. A marathon scheduled in Hue, 600km south of Hanoi here the new F1 track is, for the same weekend as the grand prix has been postponed.

The bottom line is that the F1 teams and Liberty are anxious for the first four races to go ahead as scheduled or at a later date. The organisers for those will pay race hosting fees that total US$200 million, and the teams’ cut is 62 per cent, which is divided unevenly between them.

Yet with the Covid-19 situation constantly changing, nobody can be certain what will happen in the coming months.

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