Marko: "We've got the green light for Spain, quarantine would shut down F1"

General

30 July 2020 at 14:03
Last update 30 July 2020 at 14:21
  • GPblog.com

To keep the F1 circus running during the corona crisis, a mountain of security measures, luck and the cooperation of governments are necessary. Last week there were open doubts as to whether the Spanish Grand Prix could go ahead, but according to Helmut Marko that's all taken care of.

Spain was one of the hardest hit countries in the spring and again COVID-19 seems to reappear here. Especially in the region of Catalonia, where the Grand Prix is being held, the number of infections has increased in recent weeks.

In many countries, travelling to this area is not recommended and in some cases travellers have to spend fourteen days in quarantine. We've seen before that people sometimes want to make an exception for Formula 1 and that's the case now as well.

Strict regulations make exceptions possible

"Fourteen days of quarantine would shut down Formula 1 completely," Helmut Marko told F1-Insider.com. "Despite the rise in corona crashes in Spain, we've got the green light." According to the advisor of Red Bull Racing, this is possible because of the strict regulations that everyone in the paddock adheres to.

This makes it even possible for team members to go home, wherever that is. For example, Marko will return to Graz for business after the upcoming race weekend.He will then skip the Jubilee Grand Prix at Silverstone and will already be in Barcelona a week before the Spanish Grand Prix.