Williams acting team principal Simon Roberts has tested positive for Covid-19 and will not travel to this weekend’s race in Turkey.
“Simon returned a negative test on Monday during the team’s regular Covid testing schedule, however after displaying minor symptoms he underwent a further test this morning which returned a positive result,” said the team in a statement.“Simon is feeling otherwise well but will now isolate for the required 10-day period as per UK national guidelines whilst supporting trackside operations remotely this weekend.”
Roberts took over in charge of Williams in September following the takeover of the team by new owners Dorilton. In his absence this weekend his duties will be shared between two other members of the team.
“Dave Redding, team manager, and chief engineer of vehicle design, Adam Carter, will assume his responsibilities on the ground in Turkey,” the team confirmed. Head of vehicle performance Dave Robson was not due to be at the track this weekend and will work remotely.
Last weekend Williams said other personnel have also changed roles this weekend as a result of positive Covid-19 tests within the team.
“Simon has not been in close contact with any other members of our race team, and the team will continue to operate trackside as planned,” continued the statement. “As a team, we have been taking part in a robust testing plan alongside adhering to the FIA Covid guidelines.”
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BasCB (@bascb)
11th November 2020, 19:02
Good on the team for being a) transparent about things and b) doing a retest when symtoms that might be Covid develop, regardless of earlier negative test
Jere (@jerejj)
11th November 2020, 20:12
Another one among team people who regularly travel to races, including drivers.
Paul Jones
12th November 2020, 0:16
He’ll be fine, like 99.97% of everyone!
Tristan (@skipgamer)
12th November 2020, 8:13
Wouldn’t you just hate to be that .03%
Saad Mughal
12th November 2020, 16:57
Latest Liverpool tests are now showing just how much of a farce PCR was and still is. PCR tests do not tell you anything meaningful regarding if you are infectious or not. Thats not an opinion. That’s a fact. With the new tests we’re seeing a massive reduction in positive cases, more along the lines of what we would expect based on previous years’ respiratory illnesses. That suggests the current rise in cases and deaths (which are still ambiguous as to whether they were DUE TO covid or WITH covid, as many have reported going to hospital for unrelated medical reasons, testing positive and dying of said unrelated medical reasons, and being put as a covid death) is seasonal and is expected at this time of year. Combine that with the fact that deaths from other respiratory illnesses such as flu are way down suggesting (by scientists) that maybe we have a classification issue. Add to that the media criticizing any alternative opinion to the government advisors on how the situation should be handled, even though said opinion holders are professors in the field and have years of experience in the industry and have debunked the data the government is using to justify measures (in some cases the data was 3 weeks old and had since been revised to be much more accurate but the pm used the old data to back up his policy rather than the revised version because the revised version doesn’t back up his policy at all) and you end up with a very interesting scenario.
I’ll never trust imperial college London again. Not sure how you can after their huge mess ups in modeling. Chemical engineers (I.e. people who aren’t even prominently in the field) are making better assumptions and coming to more realistic conclusions. Conclusions that are turning out to be right again and again
Saad Mughal
12th November 2020, 17:09
Oh yeah forgot to mention Sweden. I see no one else talking about that in the media.
jimmi cynic
12th November 2020, 21:39
So… he’s a hands-off manager. That’s probably for the best.