01/11/2020
NEWS STORY
Last night, UK prime minister, Boris Johnson confirmed that the country will go into lockdown from Thursday until 2 December, with cabinet minister, Michael Gove admitting this morning that this could be extended.
Despite the impending restrictions of work and travel, as before F1 is largely exempt due to its classification as an "elite sport".
Nonetheless, in the same way it doesn't recognise borders, age, ethnicity or religion, the pandemic doesn't recognise sport, be it elite or otherwise.
F1 has done well to put together a schedule of 17 races, and though the 'bubble' has seen a few slip through the net, 55 positive cases from almost 65,000 tests is a clear sign that the paddock - for the most part - is sticking to the strict protocols.
With just four races remaining, and despite increasing fears over the virus, Toto Wolff is confident that the season can be completed.
"The lockdowns that we see in Europe now are very different to the lockdowns in spring," said the Austrian. "Back in spring, it was a complete shutdown of any activity, going to work, being on the street.
"This time, at least from what we can see from France and Germany, access to pubs, restaurants and leisure places has been stopped or has been curfewed, but going to work is still permitted for the ones that need to go to work.
"It will impact our lives, that's for sure," he admitted. "It will heavily impact some industries. But I think we can find a way of working around it.
"It's in the hands of the health authorities in the countries that we are visiting to accept motor racing and host us," he continued. "If these guys decide if it's too much of a risk, then obviously we can't race there.
"I believe that Formula 1 has done really a great job, the FIA, FOM and the teams, in running a championship, contrary to many other championships that are either run in a much reduced way or totally confined in some area. We've been travelling from country to country, we've kept in our bubbles, we've had very few positive COVID cases. That's why I don't think we're really providing a risk to any country that we are visiting, because we are probably the safest group of people out there."
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