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As Formula 1 prepares to get back to racing, team principals are having to put contingency plans in place in the event a key member of personnel goes down with coronavirus during the season. But the worse-case nightmare scenario is what happens if that team member turns out to be one of the drivers?
The 2020 season came within hours of getting underway in March before the Australian Grand Prix was abandoned at the very last minute when a member of the McLaren team working at the Albert Park Circuit tested positive for coronavirus. F1 CEO Chase Carey has made it clear that when the season does finally get underway in July, races will still go ahead even if one or more teams in the paddock are hit by an outbreak of COVID-19: "An infection will not lead to a cancellation,” he stated emphatically in a recent interview.
Most team personnel even at the most senior level can be replaced by colleagues, but one place where a substitution will send shockwaves through the championship is if it's one of the drivers who succumb to the virus. What will each of the teams do then?
Mercedes
Mercedes are the hot favourites to win another brace of titles in 2020, with Lewis Hamilton odds-on to collect a seventh drivers world championship. Almost the only way that this outcome could seemingly be threatened is if Hamilton were to get sick: even an asymptomatic case of coronavirus would force him into quarantine, and the packed schedule of back-to-back races in July and August means missing at least three races. In a truncated season, it would be almost impossible to come back from that to successfully retain his title.
While Valtteri Bottas might benefit from having such an opening to finally clinch a maiden championship, the Finn is just as vulnerable in the event he goes down ill. With speculation that he could be replaced at Brackley next year by the likes of Esteban Ocon or George Russell, he needs the opportunity to really show what he can do in 2020 - and that can't happen if he's stuck in bed, even if neither Ocon and Russell are likely to be released by their current teams to stake an early claim in the absence of one or both of the regular drivers.
Fortunately, the Silver Arrows are hardly short of some top-quality candidates:
Stoffel Vandoorne
A veteran of 41 Grand Prix races with McLaren, many felt that Stoffel Vandoorne got the thin end of the wedge when the troubled team cleared the decks at the end of 2018 in favour of an all-new driver line-up, and continue to believe he should still be on the F1 grid today. Mercedes saw an opportunity and signed the Belgian up to their brand new Formula E team, as well as being their official F1 reserve driver for 2020. Coming off a virtual high of winning the Formula E Race At Home Esports title during the extended coronavirus shutdown, Vandoorne is absolutely ready to go if and when the call does come.
© ABB FIA Formula E
Esteban Gutierrez
In the event that Vandoorne wasn't able to step in - or if both Hamilton and Bottas were simultaneously struck down by the bug - Mercedes could also look to their simulator driver Esteban Gutiérrez. The Mexican made his F1 debut with Sauber in 2013, spent a year as test and reserve driver for Ferrari before joining Haas in 2016 and the following year trying his hand at Formula E and IndyCar. The only problem is that Gutierrez' former FIA superlicence has expired, and without a waiver he will need to complete 300km of F1 testing to be eligible to race again.
©Mercedes
