F1 now "much better equipped" to deal with positive Covid-19 test - Chase Carey

Formula 1

F1 now "much better equipped" to deal with positive Covid-19 test - Carey

Australian Grand Prix situation was dealt with in "real time" as the global picture changed daily

Sam Hall

Sunday 5 July 2020 08:00

Formula 1 CEO Chase Carey believes the sport is in a far stronger position to deal with a positive Covid-19 test than it was back in Australia.

When a member of the McLaren team tested positive for Covid-19 in March at the planned season opener, the world had yet to learn of concepts such as social distancing, with lockdown an idea foreign to most.

“In Australia, we were dealing with things in real-time, and they were coming at us fast and furious," recounted Carey to Sky Sports F1.

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“I’ve told the story before that I was in Vietnam the Thursday before Australia, so when I took off, most of the world was still moving forward. China had an issue, but by the time I landed on Friday morning, a number of events had been cancelled and we had the positive test.

“I think today we’re much better equipped if we have a positive test.

“We’re moving forward. We have precautions, we’ll deal with it, and we have capabilities, we have procedures. We have a 90-page set of guidelines.

“I’ve been tested, as everybody was, before departing. I’ll be tested again on Sunday, as will everybody else. I got tested for temperature coming in.

"We have procedures really set out here at the track, at hotels – so I think we’re much better equipped to deal with it.

“I think we feel we’ve got the right people in place, we’ve got great partners working with us, so I think we’re in a very different place and much more prepared with what we’ve got to deal with.”

Formula 1 has yet to announce venues or dates for grands prix past the initial eight, although GPFans understands a second race in Italy at Mugello is due to take place on the weekend of 12-13 September.

With questions on the calendar and other such issues Carey answered: “Everybody wants to know ‘what is the plan, what are you going to do?’.

"One of the great frustrations is not being able to answer that question as thoroughly as people would like, and so what you need is people's willingness and understanding to what you’re dealing with – a very fluid, a very changing situation where the facts and circumstances are constantly changing, and you’re having to change plans based on those.”

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