Daniel Ricciardo reveals pre-Russia Covid scare

Daniel Ricciardo

Ricciardo reveals pre-Russia Covid scare

Ricciardo returned an "inconclusive test" ahead of the Russian Grand Prix in September

Ian Parkes

Wednesday 9 December 2020 14:56

Daniel Ricciardo has revealed he returned an "inconclusive" Covid-19 test ahead of the Russian Grand Prix in September.

Sergio Perez, Lance Stroll and Lewis Hamilton have all missed races this year after contracting the virus this year.

Ricciardo has said he feared he would join this list after returning an inconclusive test.

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"I did wake up one morning with a false-positive, so I had a scare at 6am one morning, said Ricciardo.

"Trying to figure out, okay we've got to get tested again, and there was a bit of panic and that wasn't fun.

"Obviously, I was fine in the end but that obviously was something I hadn't gone through before and then you start playing games in your head like 'do I feel a little..' and 'maybe I do have it and just', but that was a bit of panic one morning."

In order to commence the season in July, F1 placed itself in a bubble with each team operating as its own sub-bubble.

The sport also put in place a rigorous testing regime and has completed over 75,000 tests as up to December 4, with only 89 tests returning positive results.

Ricciardo added: "As the season went on I actually became more and more disciplined with isolating or just taking care of myself, especially after Checo [Perez] got it and I was like 'Okay so this isn't a joke'.

"I was being very careful so I was quite surprised [by the test]. Obviously, in the end I didn't have it but I was scratching my head."

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