Lewis Hamilton says he is “devastated” that he will miss out on this weekend’s Sakhir Grand Prix after testing positive for Covid-19.
The Mercedes driver’s team confirmed this morning he had tested positive for the virus on Monday, they day after he won the Bahrain Grand Prix.“I’m devastated that I won’t be racing this weekend,” said Hamilton on social media. “Since we started the season in June my team and I have been taking all the precautions we possibly can and following the regulations everywhere we’ve been in order to stay safe.”
Hamilton last tested negative for the virus on Sunday. “Unfortunately, even though I returned three negative results this past week, I woke up yesterday morning with mild symptoms and requested another test which came back positive,” he said. “I’ve immediately gone into self-isolation for 10 days.”
Hamilton has already won this year’s world championship and has taken victory in 11 of the 15 races so far this year.
“I’m gutted not to be able to race this weekend but my priority is to follow the protocols and advice to protect others,” he continued. “I’m really lucky that I feel okay with only mild symptoms and will do my best to stay fit and healthy.
“Please look after yourselves out there. You can never be too careful. These are worrying times for everyone and we need to make sure we are looking after ourselves and each other. Stay positive.”
Mercedes is yet to announce who will take his place for this weekend’s race.
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2020 F1 season
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Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
1st December 2020, 12:46
He grassed himself. Commendable, now merc has plenty of time to pick a replacement.
Just sign the expletive contract!
Red Andy (@red-andy)
1st December 2020, 12:54
I wouldn’t worry, he’ll still somehow find a way to win the race.
Red Andy (@red-andy)
1st December 2020, 12:56
Also, in the context of Covid-19, was it wise to sign off his statement with “Stay positive”?
baasbas
1st December 2020, 13:21
Was worth at least a good chuckle methinks..
Kind of wondering if he did that on purpose
F1oSaurus (@)
1st December 2020, 13:31
ROFL
BradB (@bl0rq)
1st December 2020, 16:42
2019: Stay away from negative people
2020: Stay away from positive people
Qeki (@qeki)
1st December 2020, 17:22
:D
The Skeptic (@)
2nd December 2020, 2:23
ROFLOL! It has been that kind of season for Lewis.
Let’s hope that he is back for the season finale.
Vinay
1st December 2020, 13:02
The record for the most consecutive race starts comes to a halt. Get well soon Lewis. Just glad that this will have no bearing on the championship.
melanos
1st December 2020, 13:48
Don’t worry, he’ll win anyway, no need to show up
Jere (@jerejj)
1st December 2020, 13:58
@Vinay You mean starting from his debut in the 2007 Australian GP. He’s finished every race from the 2018 British GP onwards, so this streak will come to an end.
Vinay
1st December 2020, 14:18
@jerejj yes I was referring to the 265 consecutive race entries and starts from 2007.
faulty (@faulty)
1st December 2020, 14:55
If he doesn’t enter the GP weekend is the streak broken?
Vinay
1st December 2020, 15:17
Yes it gets broken. Alonso for eg had 176 consecutive entries till Abu Dhabi 2014. He had a preseason accident and missed the opening round at Australia in 2015. His streak ended then.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
2nd December 2020, 0:05
It’s certainly a good record for hamilton, means you’re good enough that you don’t get replaced, constantly motivated and accident-free, if I recall it’s more races than schumacher had in his first stint.
Davethechicken
1st December 2020, 13:02
Wasn’t much social distancing in Turkey after the wdc. My missus was enraged, whilst watching…
Was >2 weeks though, until yesterday
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
1st December 2020, 14:09
They are all tested regularly and wear masks, he goes to his engineers in his bubble after the race.
Davethechicken
1st December 2020, 14:28
Tony, I do understand the whole bubble thing. I am also actively involved in treating patients with covid19.
The thing is relying a on negative testing is false reassurance.
In healthcare settings a negative test is meaningless. A positive test is however significant.
A bubble is as flimsy as its weakest link.
The bigger the bubble the more chance it will burst.
BradB (@bl0rq)
1st December 2020, 16:44
Go away, doomer.
Davethechicken
1st December 2020, 17:03
Thanks for contributing
DeanR
2nd December 2020, 14:37
And your contribution was better? Delusions of grandeur
Daniel
1st December 2020, 13:04
He did the right thing requesting a test to avoid putting others at risk.
Very surprised to see he has it now after testing negative for a week within a small bubble at the F1 event. Hope Red Bull are testing their drivers now as they both notably came into contact with him on Sunday.
Gives someone else a chance at least.
Davethechicken
1st December 2020, 13:08
Their bubbles are not small. How many people did LH hug after Turkey on screen alone? Dozens on TV alone.
A negative test does not mean you don’t have covid. The test has a high false negative rate.
Asymptomatic spread is a real problem.
BradB (@bl0rq)
1st December 2020, 16:55
Yes it does. The false rate is well under a few %. Asymptomatic spread IS NOT A THING. Stop spreading dangerous misinformation.
Davethechicken
1st December 2020, 17:05
Sure, whatever you say.
How do you think he got it? He let someone with a fever and loss of smell cough in his face?
Or maybe just maybe someone without symptoms?
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
1st December 2020, 23:59
@bl0rq Your claim about asymptomatic spread is false, especially as you’ve conflated it with pre-symptomatic spread (which as far as can be ascertained is the #1 cause of spread, due to symptomatic people largely self-isolating due to current advice).
At the moment, the lowest estimate reliable sources have for asymptomatic spread is 25% of the total infections. Others give it as high as 70%. Certainly none give it as “below a few percent”.
The lowest estimate for pre-symptomatic is 40% and the highest 70% (obviously, the highest proportions for asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic cannot both be true as this would be considerably higher than 100% of the total infections happening). The footnotes for CDC’s item on community spread should help with checking research.
A recent research project in Liverpool showed that in the community, rapid testing missed more cases of coronavirus than it caught. It is reliable as a two-tailed test when there’s a viral load consistent with hospital admission (which is why it’s still used widely in hospitals without complaint), but in the community, there is indeed a high negative rate. This makes sense as it is aiming to avoid false positives (in technical terms, it’s a single-tailed test) that would make legal enforcement of ignoring the consequences of a positive test difficult. If the rapid test says you have COVID-19, there’s no point arguing with it!
Please stop spreading dangerous misinformation that is likely to make people avoid self-isolating if exposed to COVID-19.
faulty (@faulty)
1st December 2020, 14:56
@Daniel
Could you imagine if he gave them the infection?
Saad Mughal
1st December 2020, 16:29
I’m not surprised. There have been loads of false positives as well as false negatives. The pcr test really doesn’t tell you whether a person is currently infected or contagious or not.
Davethechicken
1st December 2020, 17:06
+1
erikje
1st December 2020, 19:54
It does and its about 99% trustworthy.
More then i can say about these misinformation pieces..
DeanR
2nd December 2020, 14:49
“About 99%” and you then proceed to have a dig at “misinformation pieces”. Ironic.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
1st December 2020, 13:06
Wonder if that affects other Mercedes staff too who will have to stay isolated for 10 days as well.
Coventry Climax
1st December 2020, 13:17
Immediately after the race (Bahrein 1) Lewis went to his team to do the usual ‘highfiving’. He wasn’t wearing a mask though, that was only given to him afterwards, before he went to the weighing.
I think there a lot of testing to be done, with anyone who came into contact with Lewis during the weekend.
ppzzus (@ppzzus)
1st December 2020, 13:40
So he raced and won with covid 19? GOAT status confirmed
ian dearing
1st December 2020, 17:25
Come to think of it, he did look a bit done in and the post race celebrations were a bit muted. Although I put that down to just another day at the office for Ham after beating the all time win record, the 7th team win and the 7th WDC.
ryanoceros (@ryanoceros)
1st December 2020, 18:28
Could this possibly be because an hour and a half earlier they witnessed a colleague crash in a ball of fire without knowing if he survived or was seriously injured, then watched it played back to them for the next 30 minutes? Muted celebration indeed.
ian dearing
1st December 2020, 21:20
Could be. But in this case he did say it was physically tiring. And accident or no, he is usually switched on for the post race interviews, etc. As he obviously was during the lull when he tweeted.
Dan (@canon1753)
1st December 2020, 14:28
Get well, Lewis!
Saad Mughal
1st December 2020, 16:30
Come on Keith, you cannot test positive for covid 19 :)
Ajaxn
1st December 2020, 17:59
I must admit, after the last race Lewis was noticiable relaxed with regards to social isolation from his team mates. Hands were waved, masks slow to go on…. and now we hear this. I hope no one else in the team has it. A moot to all those following Hamilton – BE SAFE!
Hopefully Hamilton will have secured that new contract before he races again.
Bulgarian (@bulgarian)
1st December 2020, 18:25
I will pray for Hamilton’s health every day! Get well, Lewis!
Mercedes team need to learn from this and make sure all the safety measures are double checked for the next 2 GPs.
Jason Blankenship (@jblank)
1st December 2020, 23:37
He will recover and that’s a good thing but as someone who has been over Hamilton and his desire for constant attention and affirmation, I am glad he will not be racing. We may have a very unpredictable and exciting race with maybe a surprise winner, so I will hopefully be enjoying this sign of the future F1, post-Hamilton and I hope Wolff does the right thing and puts Russell in the car.
Roberto Giacometti
2nd December 2020, 1:04
I smell a rat – bet you if championship was still alive , this would NOT have happened . Once again , mercedes benz skullduggery.
Boomerang
2nd December 2020, 21:10
Get well Lewis and get back to winning races as soon as possible! I love the way you do it :-)
Dave
4th December 2020, 16:08
At least he won’t ram into Albon.