Mercedes, Sochi, 2020

Mercedes team member tests positive for Covid-19 ahead of Eifel GP

2020 Eifel Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by and

A member of the Mercedes Formula 1 team has tested positive for Covid-19.

A spokesperson for Mercedes confirmed to RaceFans a positive case has occurred within its race team and is being handled in accordance with FIA protocols.

The case does not involve either of the team’s drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.

Hamilton said the positive case was “sad to hear, for the guys that work so hard.

“We obviously had this week in between [races] and those guys work so hard to stay safe and be here on the weekends. So it’s definitely a concern.

“It’s obviously important for everyone around the world to know that, to be continuously reminded that this thing has not disappeared, it’s still here. We still need to continue to follow protocols and wear masks and keep our hands clean and keep our distances.”

Mercedes will have to make changes in order to account for the positive test. “I can’t say what it’s going to do to the weekend,” said Hamilton. “We have a lot of great people within our team. It’s not just about one person. So we’ll try and make him proud this weekend.

“It’s just going to take a different type of work, it’s going to take a lot of work still to make sure that we continue on without any disturbances.”

Last week the FIA and Formula 1 confirmed 10 positive cases had been identified among 1,822 tests which had been conducted. However all of these involved “ancillary personnel” and not F1 team members.

Mercedes is not the first F1 team to experience a positive Covid-19 test this year. A McLaren team member tested positive for Covid-19 during the Australian Grand Prix weekend, before the event was cancelled. Sergio Perez missed two races after testing positive at Silverstone.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2020 F1 season

Browse all 2020 F1 season articles

22 comments on “Mercedes team member tests positive for Covid-19 ahead of Eifel GP”

  1. Where are “ancillary personnel” doing their jobs? Are they German based “roadies” or marshalls?

    1. That could be. They have the people that setup the garage, the motorhome etc. Then they have the drivers, catering staff etc too.

  2. Serious covid-fatigue has set in here. I bet those two hardly felt a thing.

    1. Yep many people I know personally have tested positive with no symptoms. Back at work etc after two weeks. I do know someone who sadly passed away too. They were elderly and had underlying conditions.

      Please research and fact check for yourselves though everyone. What does a positive PCR test mean according to the inventor and the CDC themselves? How many cycles are considered acceptable and how many are considered unreliable? What are the details of the WHO approved test? https://youtu.be/kr04gHbP5MQ?t=20m45s

      1. Fact checking is good Saad.
        Only weird that you link a known charlatan piece from a lawyer pretending to understand medical issues on YouTube.

        Unlike with virus containing, in fact checking it’s good to leave your (preconception) bubble.

        1. Said lawyer quotes from medical professionals like Micheal levitt, and many other in the field of infectious disease. I posted the video because it was well laid out and easy to understand. I could also post many scientific papers about the matter but I don’t think many would read them.

          Look at the data. Cases through the roof but deaths about normal for this time of year. The coronavirus exists and is a deadly virus. But not nearly as deadly as they predicted. In March we had an issue and I can understand the measures then. But now we’re not seeing anything abnormal. Just a high amount of cases. But when you test 250000 people a day that’s what’s gonna happen. Most aren’t even symptomatic and contagious. Again, there’s a paper on this too. Don’t look at conspiracy theories. Look at scientific data. Not what the governments and media show you in terms of projections and expected impacts like deaths etc. Go and extract the actual data for yourself from the various sources.

          One thing is striking in the data you’ll see. Sweden

          1. Saad, you claim to read scientific reports, but you miss the simple obvious facts in front of you.

            Current est. mortality rate for COVID-19 is 0.65% (incl. Asymptomatics in the denominator). This is only lower than the March number (appr. 1%) due to early detection and better medical treatment.
            (common flu mortality is well under 0.1%)
            Just for the fun of it try to explain 210k COVID-19 deaths in the USA in 7 months (or at an annualised rate of 360k) versus the typical 15-62k per annum for the seasonal flu.

            You can argue that sacrificing some of the elderly to conquer the disease is worth it, but don’t repeat those who prey on the innocent by arguing that ‘it’s just like the flu’.

    2. Yes, they might not have felt a thing as you put it, but it’s where they took the virus that’s important. Surprised we have to still spell this out. If this thing was left unchecked, it would be far far worse.

      1. Even WHO now admits covid measures are far more deadly with deaths in the millions, and admit fatality ratio is around 0.5 – 1% which is not far from normal flu. In reality the fatality rate is probably lower because they count each who had covid, even if they didn’t specifically die from that, plus testing is mostly done on people with symptoms.

        https://apps.who.int/gpmb/assets/annual_report/GPMB_AR_2020_EN.pdf

        https://www.who.int/news-room/commentaries/detail/estimating-mortality-from-covid-19

        1. @balue

          fatality ratio is around 0.5 – 1% which is not far from normal flu.

          Indeed fatality rate is in that range (was around 1% in March, now around 0.65% due to early detection and beter medical care).
          They DON’T count all deceased who had COVID! Please check WHO also for who is counted as COVID-19 death. (some countries – e.g. Belgium – count also suspected cases). They do include asymptomatic cases in the denominator (otherwise mortality would sit as high as 3%).

          But you really miss the point if you think the common flu has a mortality “not far from (that)”.
          The seasonal flu has a mortality which is ‘less than 0.1%’. And here you will find that real mortality is indeed lower (hence ‘less than’) as they never fully count the people who catch the flu but have no symptoms (the denominator most likely is understated).

          I understand (and partially agree with) people who argue that some of the prevention measures (general lock-down) might be worse than the decease. But it is ignorant to argue (against all the known facts) that COVID-19 is not that much worse than a common flu.

          1. @coldfly No, they are counted as covid deaths “unless there is a clear alternative cause of death” no matter the conditions of the patient, but several countries just count deaths as those with covid and those are also included in the total count.

            And like I said, the percentage of deaths is of course related to those infected, and this is underreported as so many have no symptoms at all and will therefore not be tested. Even people with mild symptoms are generally not advised to be tested as not to put a strain on health services and testing equipment, so possibly the current death rate could be halved with this number corrected.

            It’s true that normal flu are not really tested for, but calculated as excessive deaths over the norm, but even then you have to factor in that there are well working vaccines which are taken by people in the risk group which will greatly reduce death rates, so the two are in reality probably not far from each other. At least not to warrant this crazy reaction.

          2. @balue, you are right about the “unless there is a clear alternative cause of death”, but you left out the important part: to count as a COVID-19 victim you ‘need to be tested positive prior’ as well.
            Thus people who die and were not tested previously are not counted (except in countries like Belgium). Many cases were missed (less so recently) as the disease and fatalities were so many initially.
            An extensive study showed that excess death in many countries (Western countries with solid statistics) was double that of the counted COVID-19 death (again except for Belgium).

            The second statement is incomplete as well.
            If you do a simple death/infections you get to 3% mortality rate. This is higher as it excludes those people who have COVID-19 but are not tested.
            But the current consensus true mortality rate of 0.65% is based on including all infected people. (based on some studies in which they tested all people, rather than just those with symptoms).

            I don’t mind that much what people propose as the best way to live with or protect a country from the virus. I do annoyed though when people claim OCVID-19 ‘is just like the flu’ or other ill informed statements. Or those amateur statisticians who claim that the victims would have died anyway (factually correct, but any murderer could claim the same).

      2. Serendipity as there’s just a new study out where 36 000 random people were tested and 86% of those did not report any specific symptoms on the day of the test, proving that fatality ratio based on current testing is seriously flawed.

        https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2020/oct/symptoms-covid-19-are-poor-marker-infection

        1. I should say 86% of those who were infected

          1. That has been known since April (antibody tests) and included in the mortality rate numbers you referenced above.
            If you exclude those people then mortality would be 3% (just divide know cases by known death in most countries).

            PS asymptomatic includes those people who are infected (and infectious) but 1-4 before they show symptoms, and people who were infected and still infectious) many days after mild symptoms subside (including mild case where the patient takes an Aspirin).

    1. Saad, were it not for lockdowns and people bring cautious, Covid would have taken millions of more lives in these past six months. It’s far more contagious than Sars, it’s not the same, sorry.

      1. Where’s your scientific proof of that fact? We have much proof to the contrary in fact.

        Sweden.

        Many recent scientific papers also conclude that lockdown and masks and gloves have had no affect on the spread of the virus. But the governments have followed flawed computer models and imposed strict measures. Computer models which predicted the uk to have 500000 deaths even with a lockdown in place. Models which predicted Sweden to have 50000 deaths with a lockdown in place. The reality was that they had 5800 or so without a lockdown.

        I’m willing to take you up on that statement. But you’ve got no evidence to back it up.

    2. @coldfly Since I cannot reply to you up there I’ll do it here. All of what you mentioned is assumption. Many deaths that are attributed to COVID were not in fact caused by the disease. Pathologists have spoken about the causes of death in COVID patients on the news too. I’ve experienced it first hand where a family member died of a heart attack. No COVID symptoms at all but when we got access to the death certificate it said COVID. We said to them that the person didn’t even have symptoms so how could they be killed by it? They died after 3 successive heart attacks. They said if you want the body now, sign here, if you want to change the certificate you’ll have to wait for 3 weeks until you can her the body. Of course we wanted the body so we signed. Add to that the fact that many doctors especially in the US have described the funding structure which is in full favour of declaring COVID cases and deaths. (They get loads of money for that). Add to their the fact that in many countries the authorities emptied hospitals of COVID patients and put them in care homes to make room for more patients (which never really came) allowing a much easier and deadly spread of the virus. So all of what you said is based on the assumption that the figures quoted are correct which evidence suggests they are not. Your assumption about early detection and medical treatment being the reason it’s lower has no basis. Early detection using a method not even approved to be a diagnostic measure by its inventor and detection of what exactly? We don’t know because the test doesn’t tell us. Did we detect a live active virus? Or a dead virus, a fragment of a virus, a fragment of the previous coronavirus (because don’t forget the new coronavirus is similar to the prior one in some aspects. The PCR test which was made for the prior virus also recognises the new one proving they’re similar in some ways and also proving they’re similar enough for the body to recognise the new one if you had the previous one). Your assumption about medical treatment: what medical treatment? COVID patients are not being treated. They’re being put on respirators and ventilators which have their own risks and complications. If you mean vaccines then vaccines while in some cases good, are not the be all end all cure. It’s not a silver bullet. But certain well known individuals want to push it as much as possible because it’s gonna line their pockets very soon. All the talk of ‘no immunity’ and stuff like that. You wonder where all this has come from all of a sudden. You don’t even need to be educated well to know something doesn’t add up. Comparisons to the Spanish flu again and again. Something which happened 100 years ago, which we don’t have much data for. Why not compare to the previous coronavirus since the new one is a cousin? No that would be too sensible not to mention the fact that the previous one was also blown out of proportion.

      The US can be explained as follows
      https://youtu.be/8UvFhIFzaac?t=21m55s

      The virus is bad for some people. All viruses are. Is it that bad that we must lock down the whole country as we’re starting to do now, to the extent that people with other illnesses can’t even get appointments for let’s say cancer diagnosis or a necessary operation? On top of that you have a mental health crisis and add to that unemployment and the governments giving out benefits due to that. Then reclaiming it back through tax hikes. The whole country in a frenzy because of a coronavirus which has in the past always been known as the virus which causes the common cold. What turned it from that into as mr Johnson says ‘the uk will never be able to return to the old normal’? What turned it from that into ‘something we don’t know or understand’ and the false notion that ‘no one has any immunity’? What started comparisons to the Spanish flu? And the drive for a vaccine as if that’s the be all end all. And we’ll get passes too that we’ve had the vaccine and we’re immune. I say what about those people who actually had the virus and symptoms? If it’s that simple they should already be immune too.

      We’ll probably find out in the next couple of years what’s really happening. This pandemic has all the hallmarks of something fishy. What exactly is the question

      The governments advisors and the main stream media all collectively narrating the same story to ‘fear the coronavirus’ as one US official put it the other day.

      1. Also you didn’t comment on Sweden and the outrageous modelling that took place which turned out to be way off

        1. Sorry about your loss, Saad. Not sure where you’re from, but in to be counted as a COVID death it is not just the death certificate that counts. I have no time to explain it to you. But a simple search will give you the answer. 100% fool proof no, but it discredits all the conspiracy and ‘just a flu’ theories.

          Please don’t follow those weirdos on youtube; use your common sense. Look at the USA numbers again (as per my post above) and you will agree that it is much more than a common flu or ‘fishy’.

          1. ‘ Sorry about your loss, Saad’ thanks I appreciate it.

Comments are closed.