Formula 1 teams will be required to use a contact tracing app to limit the effects of a confirmed COVID-19 case in the paddock, it was revealed on Thursday.
Set to return next month in Austria from July 3-5, F1 teams will use the app alongside regular testing of personnel in the hope of avoiding the need for a withdrawal from a grand prix in the result of a positive test for the coronavirus.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Haas team principal Guenther Steiner further elaborated on how the app will help teams control the outbreak.
“There will be an app, which we haven’t seen yet, so we can monitor the situation of who the infected person was in contact with.
“There’s protocols in place so you can really see who was in contact with. If the app is not used they need to tell us who they contact.
“They are fitted up in bubbles, so maybe six people have to go out of the paddock and be replaced by new people. If there is too many, I think the protocol is that team doesn’t participate in the race.”
With only 80 team personnel allowed on site anyway, Steiner said he would have backup staff ready to go at the team’s base in Banbury.
“We have got some people on standby in the factory, who are tested, who could go at any time.
“They are prepared and tested and ready to go if needed. But we are not taking them there [to the grand prix], otherwise they would end up sitting in their bed.”