The Aston Martin Formula 1 team has isolated two members of its staff who have tested positive for Covid-19 in Bahrain.
A spokesperson told RaceFans the team is taking all necessary precautions.The team, formerly known as Racing Point, was hit by Covid-19 on multiple occasions last year.
Both its drivers were forced to missed races following positive tests during 2020: Sergio Perez at Silverstone and Lance Stroll at the Nurburgring. The team’s owner Lawrence Stroll also tested positive at the same time as his son.
Following those cases, the team’s CEO Otmar Szafnauer confirmed four other positive tests had also been identified, bringing their total to seven at the time.
The Bahrain government offered Covid-19 vaccinations to all personnel associated with the grand prix and last week’s pre-season test. Formula 1 said at the time that “as a UK-based organisation [it] has no plans to be vaccinated as a travelling group ahead of the already established roll-out of vaccines through the health system in the UK.”
However members of some non-UK-based teams, including Ferrari and AlphaTauri, have taken advantage of the opportunity to be vaccinated.
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Notable positive Covid-19 cases in F1
| Date | Individual/s | Team/other | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18/03/2020 | One team member | McLaren | |
| 30/07/2020 | Sergio Perez | Racing Point | Missed British and 70th Anniversary grands prix |
| 08/10/2020 | Six team members | Mercedes | |
| 13/10/2020 | Two team members | Renault | |
| 21/10/2020 | Lawrence Stroll | Racing Point | |
| 21/10/2020 | Lance Stroll | Racing Point | Missed Eifel Grand Prix |
| 30/10/2020 | Four team members | Racing Point | |
| 11/11/2020 | Simon Roberts | Williams | |
| 16/11/2020 | Mario Isola | Pirelli | |
| 26/11/2020 | Jonathan Wheatley | Red Bull | |
| 1/12/2020 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | Missed Sakhir Grand Prix |
| 5/1/2021 | Lando Norris | McLaren | |
| 13/1/2021 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | |
| 25/1/2021 | Toto Wolff | Mercedes | |
| 31/1/2021 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | |
| 11/3/2021 | Frederic Vasseur | Alfa Romeo | |
| 25/3/2021 | Two team members | Aston Martin |
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StephenH
25th March 2021, 20:35
Eep.
Sush Meerkat
25th March 2021, 21:25
What are they doing so wrong to have so many cases of covid?
Alberto
25th March 2021, 21:44
They are travelling abroad. Most likely caught commercial flights, or travelled through airports and taxis, hotels etc. What’s so surprising about it? They all are being cautious but you can contract it from unexpected places if you aren’t isolating. Especially now that some places started to open up. I don’t think anyone expects everyone to be present on every race when they travel all over the place.
erikje
25th March 2021, 22:45
probably the only team then ;)..
The rest is able without travel or without Covid.. do the math..
Sush Meerkat
25th March 2021, 22:50
This is my point, the other teams seem to do fine
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
26th March 2021, 2:09
Given that the team, and probably a lot of its staff, is based in the UK, it’s hardly surprising.
What surprises me is that more from the UK based teams haven’t had it, although I doubt that the numbers from their factories have been made public.
ColdFly (@)
26th March 2021, 7:15
Most UK based teams saw the possible negative press fallout as a bigger issue than offering it en mass to all team members, and also the UK is way ahead in its vaccination rollout.
@dbradock
I don’t see the cases in F1 (full travelling teams rather than only small group of drivers) to be so far ahead of the various national infection averages of close to 20%.
@Sush Meerkat
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
26th March 2021, 11:05
Being in the UK isn’t a good start, statistically. (It’s pretty good now but last year, the case count for the UK was very high).
Aston Martin/Racing Point tests all its staff every week, and (according to them) were the first UK-based team to institute that policy (I think Ferrari had such a system at the same time). It’s possible other teams missed cases through not testing factory staff in the early parts of last season (I think testing’s more widespread now, even if reporting may not be among 100% factory-based tests). Note that the article does not state whether this is part of the travelling team or the factory.
Finally, we did see glitches in the protocols last year. It’s not clear whether some teams had more glitches, or more badly-timed glitches, than others. (If Racing Point had 10 times more adherence than any other team, but every time the protocol dropped resulted in virus spread, they’d still end up with more cases than other teams due to the small sample size).
stefano (@alfa145)
25th March 2021, 21:39
heeere we go…
Coventry Climax
25th March 2021, 23:23
“Formula 1 said at the time that “as a UK-based organisation [it] has no plans to be vaccinated as a travelling group ahead of the already established roll-out of vaccines through the health system in the UK.””
How dumb can you be? (Oh wait, DRS.) Typically misplaced british gentlemanship. You’d think they’d take their responsability regarding their host countries, the non-british in the entire circus and all the others they may come into contact with. That’s not ‘taking advantage of’, that’s gratefully accepting an offer made.
Tristan (@skipgamer)
26th March 2021, 0:04
Incredible that F1 is being so stupid. How could you not get vaccinated given the chance? They’re not a damned UK only organisation. They’re global, few enterprises are as global as F1.
It’s an absolutely damning disgrace of F1 management.
macaque (@macaque)
26th March 2021, 4:47
Let’s not forget that vaccinated people can also get infected. So even as more and more f1 people get the vaccine, there could still be cases like this, and drivers could still miss races because of positive tests.
ColdFly (@)
26th March 2021, 7:17
Good point, @macaque
swh1386 (@swh1386)
26th March 2021, 0:50
Nice of team Stroll to actually tell us this time
NS Biker (@rekibsn)
26th March 2021, 2:53
There were reports of several of the drivers, Perez for one, and some teams that took the opportunity to get vaccinated on arrival prior to testing.
Have to agree with Coventry C. that it is irresponsible for F1 to intentionally pass up on an available means of protecting the teams and all those that they will come in contact with over the next 4 months.
No wonder we have DRS.
sumedh
26th March 2021, 3:42
Indeed. All teams should have taken the vaccine. In fact, as per the 2021 season, Bahrain is the only location where they are actually going to be present at an interval of 21 days allowing the teams to take both doses. Otherwise, they are going to have to fly back from anywhere to the 1st dose location which will be a hassle by itself given the varying quarantine rules.
Manmohan
26th March 2021, 3:20
Its not like Formula 1 is using up Vaccines meant for poor countries or something. Currently many countries have stocks of vaccines available, which are being used slowly due to Vaccine Hesitancy. Manufacturers would be quite happy to share Vaccines if the Bahraini Govt has paid for them. Famous personalities taking vaccines would have sent a positive message regarding Vaccine hesitancy, although I agree it might make some people call Formula 1 elitist and privileged. But for the huge stakes that go into conducting a race successfully, I think the teams owe it to F1 to not let nationalism get in the way of vaccination, if strong bio bubble can’t be maintained. I have been a supporter of Aston since the Force India days, but their Covid biobubble enforcement seems very bad.
Qeki (@qeki)
26th March 2021, 6:19
2 cases doesn’t seem as much when you think how many people there really are in the paddock.