Cyril Abiteboul: One positive test will wipe out a team for a grand prix weekend

Renault

One positive test will wipe out a team for a grand prix weekend - Abiteboul

Renault boss warns of the implications of a positive coronavirus test

Ian Parkes & Sam Hall

Friday 26 June 2020 14:46 Updated: 15:49

Renault boss Cyril Abiteboul has warned a team will sit out a Formula 1 grand prix if one race personnel tests positive for Covid-19.

F1 has already decided to significantly relax the regularity of Covid-19 testing this season from two days to five.

It has previously been suggested that given the bubble system that will operate within teams that no marque would be forced out of a weekend should a test return positive. Abiteboul has now suggested otherwise.

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"I think it's a balance between the risk and the practicality and the necessity of the operation," Abiteboul told a press conference of invited media, including GPFans. "That balance is difficult to find.

"I think the biggest challenge really would be in the implementation of the operational group and subgroup so that if there is a positive case, it remains limited to a subgroup because there is a risk, and that is still again the dialogue we are having.

"There's a risk that one person, one single person in the team [tests positive], and that the whole team immediately is out, at least for the time of the test because the basis is that the test can take a full day, 24 hours.

"We can see if that test, a positive case happening on a Saturday morning, you are not going to qualify and you're not going to participate in the race."

Abiteboul hopes a sensible solution can be reached that would ensure a team is not denied from competing, although he acknowledged the considerable amount of work that has already gone into returning F1 to the track.

He added: "I see that we still need to have a little bit of a discussion about how to balance risk and common sense and participation in the sport even though I completely understand and praise again the work that has been done between the FIA and the teams."

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