McLaren team member ‘recovering well’ as F1 season restructure will see Netherlands and Spain races moved

McLaren have said that the team member who contracted coronavirus and triggered the team’s withdrawal from the subsequently cancelled Australian Grand Prix is “recovering well” after his symptoms went away over the weekend.

The British team made the decision on Thursday night to withdraw from the season-opener after a team member who travelled to Melbourne via Asia contracted the virus, which has devastated the world after first arising in China at the end of last year.

Nearly all sport has been postponed or cancelled, with the first four rounds of the 2020 F1 season called off following the Covid-19 pandemic and further disruption a possibility.

McLaren chief executive Zak Brown confirmed on Monday that the suffering team member “is recovering well and the symptoms have gone”, and added that the 14 additional staff currently in self-isolation are “in good spirits”.

However, while McLaren personnel who travelled to Melbourne and who did not come into contact with the infected team member have returned to the United Kingdom, they will not return to the McLaren Technology Centre for a period of 14 days to minimise the risk of further contamination.

For those left stranded in Melbourne, McLaren racing director Andreas Stella has remained in Australia to provide support.

The race cancellations mean they have plenty of time until the newly-planned start of the season, with F1 confirming that they hope to get underway at the end of May in Europe.

Following McLaren’s announcement on Thursday night that they were withdrawing from the Australian Grand Prix, F1 and governing body the FIA announced the cancellation of the Albert Park event just hours before first practice was due to get underway, and a subsequent announcement on Friday confirmed that both the Bahrain and Vietnam rounds – scheduled for 20-22 March and 3-5 April respectively – were also being postponed.

The disruption follows the original decision last month to postpone the Chinese Grand Prix scheduled for mid-April, but with plans to try and reschedule both the Bahrain and Vietnamese rounds later this season – as well as the visit to Shanghai if conditions in China permit events to resume – organisers face the daunting prospect of squeezing 21 rounds into 27 weeks between the planned start date at the end of May and the current cut-off of Sunday 29 November. There is the possibility of also using the first week of December if required.

As a result, the summer break is set to be scrapped this year, meaning teams will not be required to shutdown their factories in August, but the limited availability to reschedule races and the timeframe required to transform the streets of Melbourne into and F1-ready race circuit means the Australian round will not be rescheduled.

With the season set to start at the end of May, both the Dutch Grand Prix (1-3 May) and the Spanish Grand Prix (8-10 May) are also set to be rescheduled, with talks already underway to slot the two events in among a revamped calendar.

F1 officials have also confirmed that the situation remains an unconfirmed one that will be reviewed regularly over the coming weeks as the coronavirus crisis develops.

An F1 statement issued at the weekend read: “Formula 1 and the FIA continue to work closely with the race promoters in Bahrain and Vietnam and the local health authorities to monitor the situation and take the appropriate amount of time to study the viability of potential alternative dates for each Grand Prix later in the year should the situation improve.

“As a result, Formula 1 and the FIA expect to begin the Championship in Europe at the end of May but given the sharp increase in Covid-19 cases in Europe in recent days, this will be regularly reviewed.”