Low Number of Coronavirus Cases in F1 Bubble Surprises FIA Doctor
Professor Gerard Saillant, an orthopaedic surgeon and president of the FIA Institute overseeing everything medical with the FIA and Formula 1, says he is surprised that so few cases of coronavirus have been detected since what Formula 1 is calling its 2020 "corona calendar" began last month.
More than 12,000 tests for the coronovirus have been carried out since the racing began in Austria and then moved on to Hungary and Britain. Everyone, from drivers to media, are tested every five days. But so far, only two employees of a cleaning company in Hungary and Racing Point driver Sergio Perez have tested positive.
“He was surprised that he tested positive," said Racing Point team principal Otmar Szafnauer when asked about Perez's positive test at Silverstone. “He had no symptoms. He traveled privately but he thought he took ample precautions and didn’t get on a commercial flight."
FIA president Jean Todt says the protocols set up to deal with the infections worked well, especially in Perez's case.
"The two people who were with him were immediately quarantined," Todt told AFP France. "The other three were checked and then were allowed to work, albeit at the factory."
Perez was replaced at Silverstone by Nico Hulkenberg, and Todt says he personally signed the former Renault driver's super licence.
The strict measures against the virus have played out like a series in a protective bubble, and the head of the FIA's medical commission says he is positively surprised that it seems to be working.
"What surprised me is that there have not been more cases," said Saillant. "That there were three cases out of 12,000 tests strikes me as remarkable."
