Another Formula 1 team has taken steps to safeguard its staff in Italy from the spread of the Coronavirus.
[f1tv2020testa]Italy has quarantined several ‘red zones’ where infections have been detected and is monitoring activity in nearby ‘critical zones’. Over 350 Coronavirus cases have been declared in the country so far and 12 people in the country have died after being infected.
AlphaTauri, whose operation is partly based in Faenza, has implemented several precautionary measures. These include ‘controlling’ four members of staff who have been in contact with people close to the critical zones by having them work at home instead of the factory.
“We are doing what we think is generally a good measure to take,” a spokesperson for the team told RaceFans. “We have implemented even more cleaning procedures inside the factory, increasing the frequency during the day and with high detergent/disinfecting agents.
“We have also mapped all employees, contractors and service suppliers, starting from their residency and we do not have anyone from the red zone. We even asked people coming for areas nearby the red zone [whether] they had gone back home in the past weeks (even if not in the critical zone), and controlled the few people who had contacts with people from areas close to the critical ones, so we have a clear picture of the situation.”
“Our factory is not open to public,” the AlphaTauri spokesperson told RaceFans, “and at the track we try to go on just paying more attention and limiting one-to-one interviews and guest access for people coming from critical countries and zones.
“If it seems OK in our area and in our factory, it’s not difficult to think it might not be so straight forward to go to the next races, but at the moment we are planning regularly, waiting to see what happens.”
Formula 1’s official tyre supplier Pirelli, whose headquarters are in Milan, said it has not put in place any restrictions on its motorsport operations relating to the Coronavirus.
Last week McLaren said it would not allow anyone who had visited China in the past 14 days from visiting its motorhome at this week’s test at Circuit de Catalunya.
Formula 1’s 10 teams are based in four European countries – Italy, Switzerland, France and Britain – while Honda’s engine facility is in Japan. Yesterday the British Foreign Office advised travellers against “all but essential travel” to 11 towns in Italy.On the same day, according to figures from the World Health Organisation, the number of new cases of Coronavirus reported outside China exceeded the number of new cases in China for the first time.
The spread of the Coronavirus has already led to the postponement of the fourth round of the championship in China, where the virus is believed to have originated. However doubts have been raised over other races early in the season including those in Bahrain and Vietnam.
Today the organisers of the Vietnam Grand Prix said they expect their inaugural race to go ahead as planned on April 5th despite the spread of the virus.
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Jere (@jerejj)
26th February 2020, 18:21
Just to be a bit more precise: The team-factories are in ‘three’ different European countries—seven in England, two in Italy, and one in Switzerland. I assume the France-reference is for Renault’s engine-facility in Viry, but that’s only for that department, not the entire team. AlphaTauri – partly in the sense that there’s an aero-department in England, but that’s only an aero-department. The proper team-factory is, of course, in Faenza. Haas, along with their ‘main’ factory in Banbury, have a separate one in the US as well, and Honda, along with their RnD department in Sakura, Tochigi, also have another RnD department in Milton Keynes, where coincidently the RBR-factory is.
Kasim
26th February 2020, 20:17
Odd that pirelli have imposed no restrictions being based in the heart of northern Italy
Phylyp (@phylyp)
26th February 2020, 23:55
If any Pirelli employee is infected by the corona virus, they’ll just say “debris caused it”.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
27th February 2020, 15:36
Not all of northern Italy is equally affected. I assume Pirelli will follow government-provided protocols. If it’s not in a critical/quarantined area, and none of its staff hail from there, it might not need to do anything different to a British or Swiss team.