How F1 will bring social distancing to the paddock – and who will be allowed in

2020 F1 season

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With the FIA and Formula 1 working apace on plans to return the sport to action – initially behind closed gates – much of the initial preparation revolves around procedures to minimise the risk of contagion amongst the sport’s personnel, whether drivers, team employees, officials and marshals, broadcast crews or media members.

Given that F1 is responsible only for commercial aspects of the sport, the primary safety burden falls upon the FIA, which carries ultimate accountability for all safety and security aspects of F1. Thus Covid-19 procedures effectively fall under the direction of Professor Gerard Saillant.

The 75-year-old, recognised as one of the top orthopaedic surgeons in the world, has operated on the likes of Michael Schumacher and Clay Regazzoni. Now the President of the FIA Medical Commission and Head of the (French) Institute of Brain and Spinal Cord, he succeeded Professor Sid Watkins in charge of the FIA Institute in 2011.

Professor Saillant this week granted RaceFans an interview to share the benefit of his insight into how F1 will implement procedures to safeguard all involved in staging races behind closed doors while the world emerges from the Covid-19 pandemic. Saillant’s own research into the neurological effects of the pathogen has led him to fascinating conclusions. He believes the loss of taste and smell associated with the illness may point to “damage that is more important than we can know,” adding, “the first priority is to understand the neurological impact”.

Professor Gerard Saillant
“The goal is to create a ‘clean cluster’ in each team”
Saillant believes the solution to preventing spread of the virus amongst F1 personnel lies in creating a voluntary “hub” for each individual, with a minimum of a one-metre radius being enforced where possible. Should an individual become infected, those within the hub would be the first to be tested, gradually working outwards.

“So if you are positive three days after arriving [at the circuit], it’s very easy to see on your hub. You’ll see a lot of people [in the paddock during the event], but nobody less than one metre.

“For social distancing, physical distancing in the paddock, it’s easy for any journalist or manager,” he said. “But in the garage it’s more difficult, of course, around the body.

“But I think with a mask, with a helmet, with special gloves, with washing your hands as soon as possible the risk is very low, it’s never zero but it is very, very low. It’s possible to manage something like that in principle.

“I think there’s a problem if we have unfortunately, one body positive. If it’s a [technician] in the garage, we have to check immediately all the people working with him in the garage, we have to check with the new test.

“If it’s negative, we can continue, maybe to do a new test day after two days after. But I think the goal is to create a kind of clean cluster in each team.”

The first race of the heavily postponed 2020 F1 season is now due to take place at the Red Bull Ring on July 5th. Saillant’s team is already in discussions with the Austrian authorities about procedures.

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“There is interaction between the national and international regulations, between the logistics issue and the technical and the economical aspect, and one is depending on the other,” he explained.

Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Ring, 2019
F1 will race in Austria – but without fans
“For Austria we are discussing with local authorities how to pass the border, and after passing the border how to go to the circuit, to the paddock.

“I think that when we are accepted in Austria, you can sit two days [in quarantine] in Austria and I think the best could be the team transfer to the circuit to have a test, a temperature test, but also a PCR [polymerase chain reaction] test to know if you are positive or negative.”

The professor believes that tests should be scheduled for all personnel every three days on a rotational basis, with results known within 90 minutes. “It’s a lot of money, it’s a lot of people, it’s a lot of staff and so on, but that is the principle.”

While the ‘cluster’ could work within teams, he is concerned cross-infection could occur elsewhere. “Outside the circuit, how to go to the hotel in the same bus at the same place and to be everybody in the same hotel… I think it’s a more logistical problems than medical ones.”

According to Saillant teams should be restricted to no more than 60-80 heads each, with marshals, officials and the media adding another 400 to bring the total to around 1,200 – close to the number projected in our blueprint for races behind closed doors published last month.

Should the media be counted among the numbers of essential visitors to the locked-down paddock? Unprompted, the FIA’s top authority on medical matters states they do. Saillant believes media presence is vital to provide monitoring and for independent reporting of what is a unique human experiment.

“I think the role of journalists is very important to show that if we do this, even if we try to organise their grand prix [presence], it’s a kind of laboratory,” he said during the video call. “I have a lot of discussion with the IOC [International Olympic Committee], with the WHO [World Health Organization], and they are waiting for us, waiting to see what we do.”

Sebastian Vettel speaks to the media, Ferrari, 2019
The presence of journalists is “very important”, says Saillant
RaceFans understands from a source in the loop that after these plans were presented to the GPDA executive via video conference on Friday morning they were “positively received”, and the committee members undertaking to explain the steps to the membership.

Professor Saillant believes F1’s approach will prove valuable “for certain [other] projects in the next year”. The “hub and bubble” experiment may prove instructive even for non-sporting activities.

But he also believes a way must be found to bring racing back in the face of the unprecedented disruption being experienced worldwide. “The show must go on,” he says.

“Human beings, people, are very flexible and able to adapt to any situation. We have a crisis of course, but you have to recover and show that it’s possible to change. We have to change our mentality.”

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8 comments on “How F1 will bring social distancing to the paddock – and who will be allowed in”

  1. Sooner or later the world, including Formula 1, will need to get going again. This is as good a plan as any.

    1. It sure is. Reading this makes me feel better about F1 doing this – it fits with what F1 is good at: finding an organisational & technical solution to complex issues and implement them with little regards for the cost to finetune them @gpfacts.

      To me this actually makes it feel less nonsense for them to actually go racing already, since they will be able to give solid feedback to the world about this approach to moving on. I am sure some of this will be useable in almost all work & travel environments.

      Also very positive that they cound the media as essential part of it.

  2. Really interesting interview, thanks. It’s exactly detailed pieces like this and the previous talk with Wurz that make me believe racing can resume sooner rather than later.

  3. Thanks Dieter (@dieterrencken) for this article. It’s good to hear what the FIA are thinking. As Professor Saillant said, other sports are watching to see how successful this will be, so F1 needs to set a good example. Also, I’m pleased there are plans to allow independent media in (assuming they’ve been tested).

  4. It seems likely that the UK government will introduce 14 day quarantine for all entrants in the next couple of days. As most of the teams are UK based, the idea of a race weekly or even fortnightly would be impossible if the teams have to quarantine for 14 days each time they return to the UK. Quarantine would mean they would have to stay at home and not go to the factory. While all the clever internet communication gear such as Zoom means they could maintain good contact, it is still not possible to operate a spanner online.
    Until there is no quarantine when entering the UK, its difficult to see how races could be managed

    1. If the purpose of a 14 day quarantine is to ensure that any and all individuals are virus-free, it would seem reasonable that if during that 14 day period they came down with it, that they would be quarantined until virus free. Seems reasonable.
      In order to put races on, in what-ever form that is, the plan includes considerable testing. If a person is tested day 1 and again day 2, or 3 or as the proposal is worded, every 3 days, then the 14 day quarantine should not be required. The testing establishes the virus free result in less than 3 days. Test positive and off to isolation for as long as it takes.
      This same scenario should hold up for travelers returning to their home port (so to speak) …. or am I missing something.?

      1. Probably not the best choice of words on my part. If the UK government insist on all people entering the country having to quarantine for 14 days (which is highly likely), the UK based teams could go off to, say Austria and race. When they return they all have to go into 14 days quarantine in private homes. They would be able to do work from home, although that would be tricky for a mechanic. They would not be able to go to the next race until after the end of the quarantine period. So if we say they race in Austria on July 5th and return to the UK on the 6th or 7th. They would not finish quarantine until the 21st, making the first possible race date as the 26th – a 3 week gap rather than the 2 week normal gap. 5 races in Europe would take a minimum of 15 weeks. Brawn has suggested doing Europe as 3 head to head weekends and then one off. That would not be possible unless the teams stay away from the UK and that is unlikely unless teams have more than one group and rotate them – which is not feasible. There is also a possibility that other European countries may require quarantine and then there would be more difficulties with the non-UK based teams coming to Silverstone as they would all have to arrive at least 2 weeks before the opening day of the GP to complete quarantine. Currently, Belgium and Italy require visitors to quarantine and the Netherlands require visitors from Italy to quarantine.
        The proposed UK quarantine is the biggest problem though because so many teams are based here and its difficult to see how 15-18 races (Carey’s wish) could be completed this year, even including non-European races unless the teams don’t return to the UK between races – which is also not really feasible.
        Hope that explains things a bit better….

        1. The concern and understanding is clear. Not problem there.
          If the likes of the FIA, FOM and Professor Gerard Saillant can convince the various countries that testing is a valid option to quarantine, then moving people and equipment without the 14 day interruption would be accepted.
          At some point this will have to happen. Question is when.
          Ironically, the Italian’s will likely come out of this with more herd immunity than anyone else.

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