Pirelli's Isola puts his life on COVID-19 frontline in Lombardy

Pirelli F1 boss Mario Isola is using the sport's current shutdown period to help fight the coronavirus crisis in Europe's most affected region, Italy's Lombardy province.

Isola, a certified paramedic and ambulance driver, is on the frontline, daily helping infected patients in an area considered as the epicenter of the COVID-19 disease on the European continent.

Lombardy, which includes Italy's financial capital Milan, has suffered a heavy toll since the onslaught in February of the novel virus, with over 7,500 people losing their life.

Overall, Italy has reported over 132,000 positive cases and 16,523 deceased.

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Working among the infected on the country's frontline is a risky proposition, but Isola wouldn't want to have it any other way.

"Motorsport may have stopped for now, but at Pirelli we are all working as hard as ever," said the 50-year-old, quoted by Formula1.com.

"Not just in our ordinary jobs, but also to deal with the challenge that we are all facing together.

"From my point of view, I’ve been carrying on the same volunteer ambulance shifts as always and doing what I can to help.

"Just because we have the coronavirus [in Italy], it doesn’t stop people becoming ill as usual, so people volunteering in any role becomes even more important, and I have been giving all the time I can to the ambulance."

©Pirelli

Isola undertook last week his first night shift amid the crisis, a mentally and physically taxing job.

"The hardest part of the job now is that you cannot carry any relatives of the patient in the ambulance to hospital," he explained to The Sun's F1 reporter Ben Hunt

"Usually, you take anybody from the family who is available to come because it is important to have that support for them.

"But now, to avoid contact with any patient, it is forbidden to take anyone other than the ambulance team.

"I have spoken to many of my colleagues, we are a community and we have a chat. We share what happens," he added.

"What they say is the worst thing is that, while you normally find yourself in a very difficult situation, now the biggest impact on you is on the psychological side."

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