The racing series starts the season with 112 days late – in the tranquil Spielberg in Austria. The restart has to work like clockwork, because Formula 1 needs its TV money.
The meadows, reports an eyewitness who is one of the few chosen on Thursday to be allowed to take part in the largest experiment that Formula 1 has organized in its history – the meadows around the racetrack, they are all carefully mowed. Not trampled. And yes, he also saw cows grazing in one of the green areas just around the corner. After all, there is no tent far and wide. And thus also no Dutchmen dressed in orange with flutes and beer bongs, who in normal times visit thousands of beautiful Styria once a year, punch their pegs into the ground and pull up a “Max Verstappen Village” that also deserves the name “village” .
No fans, no celebrities, hardly any journalists: much is different with the 112-day delayed start of the Formula 1 season, which did not start in Melbourne as planned in mid-March, but has only just started in Spielberg. With two races in a row: one on this Sunday, then another on Sunday a week later. That has never happened before. However, ten races have never been postponed or canceled altogether because the risk of infection from a pandemic forced people out of the offices, restaurants and of course out of the pit lanes into the home.
Formula 1 now rolls where it is allowed to. She can no longer afford to be picky, she is grateful for every trip that is possible. Because she needs at least 15 Grand Prix runs to fulfill the contracts with her TV and sponsoring partners and thus generate the money that her inflated cost apparatus needs to survive. For her – and especially the private teams – it’s about existence. It is not without irony that it is precisely in the small community of Spielberg, in the eastern part of the Aichfeld, between the cities of Zeltweg and Knittelfeld that the first sport event relevant to the world since the outbreak of the corona pandemic is being organized. Nowhere else does Formula 1 circle with less glamor, nowhere else are there more Tempo 30 signs in the area and dairy farming instead of private yachts. But the mountain solitude of Spielberg is not a bad place for an experiment, which really takes place in the green field, as the saying goes. The premier class, like all non-vital events that may take place during the pandemic, is on probation.
Working in bubbles, tests within two hours, masks also outdoors
The racing series called “Return to Motorsport” its 81-page manual, which lists the hygiene rules that are to ensure that the engines do not have to be switched off immediately after they have finally been started. Infections, you have to interpret the concept, are okay. But no more scandal like in Melbourne in March! Where spectators crowded at the gates of Albert Park in the morning, when it had long been known that McLaren would not ride after an employee tested positive for Covid-19. The plan is now: to ensure racing operations and, if necessary, to drive if mechanics, engineers or even pilots fall ill with Corona.
Franz Tost, boss at Alpha Tauri, Red Bull’s talent factory, brought up the idea of exchange troops in an SZ interview weeks ago: “We have a plan on which a replacement can be found for every technician and mechanic that the team can start, “says Tost.
In Austria, the teams have to work in bubbles that are sealed off from the outside and live after work. “And there is no going out in the evening,” promises Tost. The teams will inform the world association Fia and the organizer of their arrival and their hotels. There are also precise regulations for isolation and quarantine. There are also numerous sub-groups in the racing teams. If there is a positive case, this small group is isolated – and all employees are tested. The result is said to be available after two hours. Only people whose negative corona test is five days old are allowed to travel to the race track. Tests are also carried out on site every five days. The number of people per team is limited to 80. The palatial motorhomes don’t exist, instead the teams are housed in simple containers.
Disinfection dispensers hang on every corner.
Of course, there is a mask requirement. Amazingly, even outdoors. The conditions on the race track in Spielberg are stricter than in the rest of Austria. Everywhere else in the country sports have been possible since Wednesday, also in all contact and team sports, even at the amateur level. When the regulations for the race were drawn up, the Covid 19 situation in Austria had given rise to even greater concerns than now. The number of cases has increased again in recent days. However, the fact that the number of journalists in the media center was limited to 23 – mostly working for multiple media – is not widely understood. The Austrian Standard, who has been reporting on the Red Bull Ring for many years but is now not accredited, speculated that the organizers “could live quite well with some restrictions, such as the very small number of media representatives on site”.
That may be so. On the other hand, the strict conditions in Austria guarantee a usable test run for the two races in Silverstone in August. In England, the infection process is far from being under control. If you drive there at all, the conditions are likely to be much tougher.
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