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Formula 1’s Spanish Grand Prix should go ahead as planned despite the country’s escalating COVID-19 difficulties prompting its removal from the UK’s ‘travel corridors’ exemption list.
Spain had maintained a relatively low rate of new infections for over a month but cases have spiked over the last two weeks, with as many as 4,581 new cases in one day on July 20.
That has prompted the UK foreign office to remove Spain from the list of countries where people do not have to self-isolate when arriving into the UK, just three weeks before the Spanish GP at Barcelona.
Seven of the 10 F1 teams are based in the UK and avoiding travel difficulties prompted by the coronavirus pandemic has been crucial to the championship being able to begin.
The 2020 season finally started earlier this month with strict safety protocols allowing two races in Austria and then a third event in Hungary.
Teams are presently planning for this weekend’s British Grand Prix, the first of two races at Silverstone before the scheduled Spanish round.
F1 should avoid impact from Spain’s problematic situational shift – unless it gets so bad F1 reviews the risk it poses and decides it is too great – because of its strict COVID-19 safety protocols and the UK travel exemptions such procedures guarantee for elite sporting competitions.
So, while Spain as a country cannot benefit from ‘travel corridors’ with the UK, F1 personnel can.
Otherwise they would have to respect the general obligation for people who arrive in England from a non-exempt country or territory to self-isolate for 14 days.
This is important because keeping teams on the road for an extended period of time would not be guaranteed to solve the problem, as the next race after the Spanish GP is two weeks later in Belgium – which so far requires quarantine periods for those arriving from Spain.
Plus, it would mean personnel must complete back-to-back races in the UK before travelling to Spain, staying away from home for the week between races, then completing another triple-header across Belgium (Spa) and Italy (Monza and Mugello).
The reason for F1’s own exemption to travel restrictions is UK law currently allows elite sportspersons and essential additional support staff such as medical and technical personnel, and essential broadcast staff, to travel to and/or from the UK for elite sports events without the need for self-isolation if they comply with certain conditions.
And if Spanish McLaren driver Carlos Sainz Jr needed to travel from Spain to the UK for the British Grand Prix, for example, this would be OK because the rules also accommodate international personnel within the same conditions.
This has been agreed on the basis that the sporting competition involved has conducted meticulous planning and formed mitigation strategies, “effectively operating so far as possible within a distinct bubble”.
F1 has done exactly that, with personnel Austria and Hungary forced to adhere to a strict testing regime, adopt social-distancing measures and minimise interaction with other “sub-bubbles” in the paddock.
It included more than 15,000 COVID-19 tests across drivers, teams and personnel, with only two positive cases for people who were not on-site in Austria and were not part of the teams or in a prominent position.
Ferrari was warned twice and Red Bull once after it was revealed that Charles Leclerc, Sebastian Vettel, Christian Horner and Dr Helmut Marko ignored elements of the guidelines.
And the FIA has reiterated the need for the COVID-19 threat to be respected to avoid complacency after a very encouraging first three races within these restrictions.
“It has been a learning experience for all of us, there’s been minor tweaks on the way but overall, as a process and as a structure, I think we’re about there so I’m proud of what we’ve done,” said FIA race director Michael Masi after the Hungarian Grand Prix.
“There is certainly a level of confidence, I think one part is not to be complacent.
“It’s probably the big part and the fact that we have got through the three events with only the two cases – but effectively outside of the paddock – one thing that we all need to be conscious of is that COVID-19 is very much around us and everywhere, globally.¨
“So we can’t just drop the ball getting to Silverstone and think we’re invincible.
“The only thing I can say is that my biggest fear is becoming complacent and we need to stick with the process that we’ve developed.”
