Formula 1 has outlined a series of measures it will take at race weekends in response to the spread of the Coronavirus.
“F1 has itself implemented a number of measures based upon advice from Public Health England, including the suspension of all non-essential travel,” the championship announced on Monday.“Dedicated teams of experts will be deployed at airports, transit points and at circuits to safeguard personnel, focused on the diagnosis, management and extraction of suspected cases. Bespoke quarantine points are being installed by promoters for any suspected cases.”
The series has already cancelled April’s Chinese Grand Prix which was due to be the fourth round of the championship, and is seeking to reschedule it later in the year. The Bahrain Grand Prix promoters announced yesterday their race will not be open to spectators.
“Due to the fluid nature of the virus, F1 will continue to take a scientific approach to the situation, acting on daily advice from the official health authorities and the advice or measures each host promoter may enact,” the series added.
“For F1, the FIA and all teams and promoters, the safety of our people is at all times paramount.”
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Islander
9th March 2020, 20:55
That’s a feeble response to the situation.
For me life and limb is far more important than F1. I’ve been saying for days: drastic measures are what we need now. And leadership.
grat
9th March 2020, 21:04
Alright then. What would you do?
If you’ve only been saying something for days, you’re about a month or two behind most major health organizations.
Ivan Vinitskyy (@ivan-vinitskyy)
9th March 2020, 21:10
yeah, those organizations that allowed the virus to spread across the globe? those that still don’t suggest to close airports? So much success your health organizations have shows, we better listen to them!
GtisBetter (@)
9th March 2020, 22:57
They don’t have power. It’s up to governments to act. I am not sure how they have “allowed” the virus to spread. What do you think they should have done?
Brett
9th March 2020, 23:42
Should we ban all travel permanently to protect the 60,000 people world wide that die of influenza EVERY year?
grat
10th March 2020, 13:38
Still a cop out. What would you do differently?
Search for articles on “patient zero seattle”– How one person coming back from Wuhan started the chain reaction in Washington state.
He did everything right, the health officials took precautions, they found the 60 odd people he’d interacted with since returning to the states– and it still didn’t contain it.
So. What would you do? How would you do better?
Forrest Gump (@forrestgump)
9th March 2020, 21:16
bbc.com is now reporting a countrywide expansion of their virus policies:
“Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said that people would only be permitted to travel for work or family emergencies.
He said the measures, which come into effect on Tuesday, were to defend the most fragile members of society.
Italy’s coronavirus death toll jumped on Monday by 97 to 463. It is the worst-hit country after China
In a televised address on Monday, Mr Conte said that the best thing for the citizens of Italy was to stay at home.
bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
9th March 2020, 22:11
F1 is arguably the most affected sport in this situation. That many people with such a diverse range of nationalities and bases trying to do that much travel, covering every corner of the earth. I honestly doubt there is going to be much of a season. Imagine if there was a just a suspected case within the F1 community? I think we’ll see cancellation after cancellation.
Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
10th March 2020, 8:09
Other motorsports series, tennis, golf, the upcoming football European Championships, and the Olympics might have something to say about that.
Jon Bee
9th March 2020, 22:19
Considering the advanced age of the majority of FIA officials, I reckon they’re taking a chance. I’d put money on 74 year old Jean Todt being absent until Coronavirus disappears.
I wonder what the Aussies think of F1 playing fast and loose with their health and disappearing into the sunset on Sunday.
a (@aaaa)
10th March 2020, 8:39
I for one, think it would have been best, if a travel ban was introduced into Australia prior to this weekend, ( I have been waiting & hoping for it for some weeks now)
I am also somewhat appreciable that Italy has closed it’s travel boarders.(unbelievable!)
The FIA & Australian government should be taking a more direct approach.However we ARE talking about the pinnacle of capitalism, so I guess the show must go on…The Japanese government must be so worried about the Olympics, there is no way that, the 2020 Olympics can be anything more than just a participant’s only event ,IMO. Please remember to wash your hands at least 3 times a day seems to be the only precaution available to us currently.
Jere (@jerejj)
10th March 2020, 13:42
@aaaa I’ve been doing that more than three times a day long before the Coronavirus first started to spread around from China in the latter half of January.
NCMag
9th March 2020, 23:42
There’s a lockdown and medical meltdown in Italy. It doesn’t look good in Spain, France, Germany, UK either. And remember this virus has an incubation period, meaning a lot of people are carrying it without knowing it. I am surprised at the level of irresponsibility exhibited by the FIA, F1, and AusGP organizers. Thousands of ppl just came from the virus-hit continent, and they are just going about with it? Really?
Jon Bee
9th March 2020, 23:59
The whole of Italy has now been locked down. Every F1 team should be turned round at the airport and sent back home. This is ridiculous. It’s time for some sensible precautions to be taken by the FIA and F1, otherwise this head-in-the-sand behaviour could lead to the end of F1. Other international sports have made sensible decisions, why is F1 being so pig headed.
Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
10th March 2020, 8:15
Unless F1 is forced to do so by governments of hosting countries the insurance doesn’t kick in and multiple GP organizers, other involved parties, F1 teams and even Liberty Media itself might go bust as a consequence.
The most sensible thing to do for F1 is to listen to the various health organizations, take measures like these and adhere to governmental instructions to cancel if the time comes.
NS Biker (@rekibsn)
10th March 2020, 3:48
Between 2010 and present day, in the Unites States alone, there have been over 215 Million influenza infections that resulted in over 337,000 deaths. The maximum being 61,000 in the 2017/18 season. Basically 80% of everyone in the US has endured influenza in the last 10 years. Some more than once I am sure.
All in spite of available vaccines, yet this somehow seems to be accepted as normal ….. and we can’t stop it.
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/index.html
The net influenza death rate is approx 0.16% where as the rate for Covid-19 is hovering around 1.8 %. Effectively 10 times as deadly.
https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus
On one hand, containment of Covid-19 should be manageable but the BIG concern is the potential for an exponential increase in the number of infections and resulting deaths. A billion infections, 16+ million dead.
Bad news, the global number of infections is growing about 30% per day. Do the math … that’s nuts.
Good news, the number of new infections in China is dropping. Down around 30% per day. But the numbers are still going up. More good news, the number of recovered / discharged is about 150% of the number currently infected, encouraging.
This is one of those classic cases where if everything blows up in our faces, somewhere down the road the realization sets in … “we should have done more sooner”. Sooner is now.
I will be the first to bemoan the loss of even a single F1 event, but if we can’t get through the next 4 weeks without bringing this under control, the season will be lost and the economic implications will be … extensive.
Yes, it just might be time to put this whole F1 thing on the back burner for a month and see where the world is at.
By mid April we will know.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
10th March 2020, 4:18
Yesterday the total number of infected people was 109635 (March 08, 2020, 17:55 GMT), today the total number of infected people is 114010 (March 09, 2020, 18:22 GMT), so an increase of 4375, or an increase of 4%.
Kevin
10th March 2020, 18:01
The number of infections didn’t increase. The test results just came in. People can still be infected without the results. The tone for this panic was set by the Chinese government’s initial reaction. The outside world saw this as extreme and shocking. It’s an authoritative country. They react like that. We just happened to see footage of the reaction and upped our worry based off of what we saw their reaction was. I lived in Seattle 6 years and moved away last summer. I still have friends and acquaintances out there who have vulnerable immune systems and they aren’t worrying to this extent. They protect themselves and go on about their daily activities. Most people were out enjoying the weather yesterday without masks. It’s the governments running these places though that are acting drastic that freak people out.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
10th March 2020, 4:09
Currently the rate of infection in Australia is 3.7 known infections per million people. So I think the precautions taken are reasonable.
anon
10th March 2020, 7:50
Ross Brawn, Jean Todt and the Australian Prime Minister should be forced to shake hands and greet every Italian entering the paddock.
If this causes the virus to spread their will be blood on peoples hands.
ColdFly (@)
10th March 2020, 7:50
What will be ‘bespoke’ about the quarantine points? People with symptoms can pick their preferred wall colours?
bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
10th March 2020, 8:04
@coldfly Yeah, this seemed very odd phrasing to me also.
BasCB (@bascb)
10th March 2020, 8:23
It seems Vietnam is introducing tighter restrictions (suspended visa exemptions) on travel from most European countries now, that might make things even harder for the race to take place there.