Formula 1’s two Italian teams expect to participate in next week’s Australian Grand Prix as planned, despite the Italian government imposing a quarantine on millions of people due to the Coronavirus.
Ferrari said its staff are already on their way to Melbourne for next week’s season-opening race.“Following measures announced by the Italian government last night, we are monitoring and evaluating the situation and are in close contact with the relevant authorities and all orgnisations involved,” saod the team in a statement on Sunday.
The authorities in Italy have imposed a quarantine which will affect an estimated 16 million people. The region covered extends as far as Modena, where Ferrari are based.
“For Ferrari, compliance with the government regulations represents the primary guarantee for ensuring the safety of its employees and their families which is our priority. Every single decision will be made with respect to this principle.
“Part of the team and equipment have already arrived in Melbourne and the departures for the remaining members of the team are going ahead as programmed unless we receive communications to the contrary.”
AlphaTauri confirmed to RaceFans its base in Ravenna is not affected by the new restrictions. Its staff are already on their way to Australia and the team expects to be able to participate.
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Jere (@jerejj)
8th March 2020, 15:39
Good news.
BaKano (@bakano)
8th March 2020, 15:53
For the ones that already left that is good but it is interesting that not all of Ferrari staff have left already but from Alpha Tauri did!
I guess that for the first flyway races, the staff was not planning to fly back home, so it seems all good for the moment being.
Jere (@jerejj)
8th March 2020, 17:27
@bakano Since the Bahrain GP takes place on subsequent weekends with the Australian GP this time, they wouldn’t return to Europe in-between anyway. The Vietnamese GP a fortnight after Bahrain is a different matter, though.
bosyber (@bosyber)
8th March 2020, 18:16
Good reminder that for Ferrari, it’s not just about F1 – they are big enough they have had to be looking at measures for their factory for a while, that’s a a large staff, and the well-being of the company to look after – I am sure they have been talking to the various authorities a lot in the past weeks.
So, good to have confirmation so far they as well as Aplha Tauri are doing okay and will make the race.
BasCB (@bascb)
8th March 2020, 19:12
I’d expect many of the team personell wouldn’t have spent the last week or so in the modena area anyway, just out of precaution. I can imagine for Torro Rosso – sorry white bull – or maybe having it as SAT (scuderia Apha Tauri)? – whatever, I wanted to say they might well have spent some extra time in the RB tech centre to practice ahead of leaving for Australia.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
8th March 2020, 19:24
Currently the per capita infections in Italy is around 122 per million people, which is more than twice that of China. While it is probably too early to cancel or postpone the Italian GP, shouldn’t F1 be saying there is the potential that it will be cancelled?
matt90 (@matt90)
8th March 2020, 21:35
Since the quarantine plan was leaked ahead of it being made official, I wonder if Ferrari sent out as many staff in a rush earlier than planned.
NS Biker (@rekibsn)
8th March 2020, 23:00
Very likely they anticipated this sort of issue and had equipment and staff on their way to Australia well ahead of the quarantine announcement. There will be a logistics group who’s job it is to coordinate the details.
It may be a different story once the schedule get’s back to Europe and the teams are run out of the home bases.
This may be a disadvantage for the Italian and Swiss based operations.
Djangles LeVaughn (@royal-spark)
8th March 2020, 22:04
Did they suggest to the Italian government they would leave their HQs in hazmat suits?
stefano (@alfa145)
8th March 2020, 23:28
I tought ToroRosso AlphaTauri were based in Faenza, not Ravenna…?
Jon Bee
9th March 2020, 0:02
I shall be following the Aussie media to see how this goes down, down under.
I reckon one sniff from a Ferrari staffer and there will be an avalanche of complaints from the Melbourne locals.
rapu54
9th March 2020, 4:26
Melbourne’s mania for sport may be costly, as the Indian Well tennis tournament is canceled due to a positive CV case in the area, the GP powers ahead. Yesterday 86,000 people watched a cricket match here and 100,000 + will be at the GP, risky business. As we can see what has happened in Italy thing can quickly go sour, fingers crossed.
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
9th March 2020, 4:45
It’s interesting that different promoters/venues/countries are adopting different philosophies when it comes to their races.
Melbourne – sports mad & full steam ahead. Whether immigration authorities actually allow every visitor flying in entry might be a different matter but the Melbourne organisers just want as many people as possible.
Bahrain – hasn’t really had much in the way of crowds in the past so they’re just going to hold the race with no spectators.
Vietnam – so far still going ahead but may limit entry to people flying in from certain areas
China – postponed / cancelled
It’s be interesting to see whether there’s a spike in cases after this weekends race or whether the “let’s just carry on regardless” attitude taken works out.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
9th March 2020, 5:45
Australia, with 80 reported infections, has an infection rate of 3.2 per million; Bahrain, with 85 infections, has an infection rate of 51.8 per million, which is close to China’s 56.3 per million; Vietnam, with 30 infections, has an infection rate of 0.3 per million; the Netherlands, with 265 infections, has an infection rate of 15.5 per million.
It looks like the decision to exclude the public from the Bahrain GP was a sensible decision when one considers the number of sick is, relative to its population, almost the same as China had when it closed the Chinese GP.