Williams boss Claire Williams has said that Formula One must be “incredibly responsible and enormously responsive” about the coronavirus outbreak as it attempts to start the 2020 season on schedule.
F1’s first three races are ‘flyaways’ to Australia, Bahrain and Vietnam. The fourth race, the Chineae Grand Prix, has been postponed from it’s original date (April 19) due to the flu-like virus.
The Australian Grand Prix insists it will go ahead as planned on March 15. F1 teams will begin traveling from Europe to Melbourne this week — some are going through traditional routes in the Middle East and Asia, although Red Bull plans to travel via Los Angeles.
Williams, the boss of her family’s team, said she trusts F1 will ensure the safety of everyone traveling to the opening races.
“It’s an incredibly serious situation,” Williams said at an event with team sponsor Rokit this week.
“Being a global sport travelling around the world with thousands and thousands of people, and that doesn’t take into account the number of fans travelling as well, there’s so much movement that we’ve got to be incredibly responsible and enormously responsive as well.
“But at the moment it is a moving target. We’re clearly keeping in touch with the relevant authorities, with F1 as well, and taking the guidance as it’s coming. It is changing literally by the hour at the moment.
“It’s quite a difficult management piece, when you’re thinking about F1 and the number of personnel that you’re taking to a race. Plus the amount of kit that you’re putting on air freight and sea freight, and the cost involved in all of that.
“We want to go racing at the end of the day, but we’ve got to make sure that we keep our people safe in doing that. We will just continue to take the guidance as and when it comes through.”
The first three races continue to be clouded by uncertainty. Vietnam and Bahrain are currently imposing restrictions on people traveling from Italy, which is one of the worst-affected countries.
Vietnam has advised that arrivals from Italy will be put in quarantine for 14 days, which will cause a headache for any Ferrari, Alpha Tauri or Pirelli staff who go back to their Italian bases between Bahrain and Vietnam.