Formula 1 has identified two COVID-19 positive cases!

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Formula 1 has revealed that two individuals out of 4,997 tests conducted between Friday July 10 and Thursday July 16 have tested positive for COVID-19.

However, F1 says the two members of the paddock who tested positive were not present in Austria and both have been removed from their operations and isolated.

"The FIA and Formula 1 can today confirm that between Friday 10th July and Thursday 16th July, 4,997 tests for COVID-19 have been performed on drivers, teams and personnel," read a joint statement from F1 and the FIA.

"Of these, two people have tested positive. The individuals were not present in Austria, with the affected people removed from operations and isolated.

"Tracing of close contacts completed and isolated. The FIA and Formula 1 are providing this aggregated information for the purposes of competition integrity and transparency.

"No specific details as to teams or individuals will be provided by the FIA or Formula 1 and results will be made public every 7 days."

F1 director of motorsports Ross Brawn said earlier this month that he was expecting a positive case to emerge at some point this summer despite the stringent safety and hygiene measures applied to the paddock and the bubble organization that governs each team's operations.

Formula 1 has scheduled an update on COVID-19 testing every Friday as it provides full transparency on the sport's testing program and its results.

In Hungary, F1 team personnel originating from the UK is restricted to hotel and track next week, with any transgressions by team members and drivers leading to fines of €15,000 euros and to potentially a sentence of imprisonment!

"Everyone’s keen to get racing as long as we can offer a safe environment to do it," said Brawn.

"We need to ensure that Formula 1, being an international sport moving around the world, we don’t become a sport that takes COVID into a country.

"We’ve got to be someone who countries can totally rely on being a safe activity to have."

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