F1 paddock members to be tested every 48 hours for COVID-19

Members of the Formula 1 paddock will be tested for coronavirus every two days during race weekends once the championship is able to resume.

With the opening 10 races of 2020 called off due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, F1 is working on plans to start the delayed season behind closed doors with back-to-back races in Austria and Silverstone, beginning with the Austrian Grand Prix on July 5.

The proposal would see F1 create a “biosphere” environment where a trimmed-down number of paddock personnel would undergo frequent testing for coronavirus to prevent any spread of infection.

F1 managing director of motorsports Ross Brawn said the series is working closely with the FIA to ensure races can go ahead without fans in a safe and controlled manner.

"We're working together with the FIA, and the FIA are putting together a great structure for what we need,” Brawn told Sky’s F1 Show.

"Everyone [who is entering] will be tested, and will have clearance before they can go in. And then every two days they'll be tested whilst they're in the paddock.

"That will be an authorised authority and will be consistent, certainly for all the European races we'll be using the same facility to conduct that testing.

“We can ensure that everybody has been tested who is in that environment [is] tested regularly.”

Brawn revealed that strict restrictions on how people move around the paddock would avoid mixing staff as much as possible, while the teams will not have their usual motorhome facilities present.

“We'll have restrictions on how people move around within the paddock,” he explained.

“We can't have staff that socially distance so we have to create an environment within itself that is effectively a small bubble of isolation.

"The teams will stay within their own groups. They won't mingle with other teams and they'll stay in their own hotels. There will be no motorhomes there.

"There's a tremendous amount of work going on between ourselves and the FIA and I'm very encouraged by what I'm seeing and what I'm hearing that we'll be able to provide a safe environment and we can.”

F1 remains hopeful of staging up to 18 races before the end of the year and CEO Chase Carey said last week the championship is “increasingly confident” about its plans for getting the campaign off the ground in Austria on July 3-5.

An initial blueprint outlined by F1 revealed plans for European rounds to take place across July, August and early September, before events in Asia and the Americas.

The season would then conclude with Bahrain and Abu Dhabi acting as the final rounds on the revamped calendar in December.