F1 to test paddock members for COVID-19 'every two days'

Formula 1 boss Ross Brawn says the sport will set up a dedicated unit on race weekends that will test members of the paddock for COVID-19 every two days.

Formula 1 is currently projecting to start its in Austria in early July with a double-header event that will be held behind closed doors at the Red Bull Ring.

The sport, which has yet to receive the green light from local governments to stage its races, is still in the process of defining the safety protocol that will minimize risks of contagion in the paddock and within F1's "biosphere'.

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However, Brawn has outlined the testing scheme that will likely be in force at this summer's events that will all be held without any spectators.

"We're working together with the FIA, and the FIA are putting together a great structure for what we need," Brawn explained in a Sky F1 podcast.

"Everyone will be tested, and will have clearance before they can go in. And then every two days they'll be tested whilst they're in the paddock.

"That will be an authorised authority and will be consistent, certainly for all the European races we'll be using the same facility to conduct that testing.

"We can ensure that everybody has been tested who is in that environment [is] tested regularly."

One assumes that F1 will rely on a rapid diagnostics test to evaluate team personnel, with such tests generally yielding a result for COVID-19 within 10 to 30 minutes.

But Brawn also highlighted the specific measures that will restrict physical contact between teams and their respective staff.
"We'll have restrictions on how people move around within the paddock," Brawn added.

"We can't have staff that socially distance so we have to create an environment within itself that is effectively a small bubble of isolation.

"The teams will stay within their own groups. They won't mingle with other teams and they'll stay in their own hotels. There will be no motorhomes there.

"There's a tremendous amount of work going on between ourselves and the FIA and I'm very encouraged by what I'm seeing and what I'm hearing that we'll be able to provide a safe environment and we can."

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