Wolff: Hamilton and Bottas 'living like hermits' to avoid COVID-19 in F1 2020

Mercedes Formula 1 boss Toto Wolff says drivers Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas are having to ‘live like a hermit’ to lower the risk of contracting coronavirus after a couple of team member’s were tested positive in the lead up to the Eifel Grand Prix.

Mercedes has been forced to take more extreme measures after two of its team members tested positive for coronavirus, while another’s test came back inconclusive and requires a retest - the result of the inconclusive test is currently unknown.

With drivers Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas embroiled in a tight fight for this year’s championship, Wolff says both drivers are having to take extreme precautions.

“Obviously, the drivers are the most restricted of the whole team,” Wolff said. “It’s certainly not a great situation for them because you almost need to live like a hermit and that’s what they doing.”

“They are [staying] at home. They are not going out for dinners. They are not meeting any other people within the team that we do. The debriefs are via Zoom or Microsoft Teams, they’re not sitting with the engineers in the room – they’re sitting in their own rooms.”

“We are avoiding as much as possible any personal contact with them individually, we tried to do it as – literally – stepping into the car and driving the car, keeping the safe distance whilst we belt them in and then drive.”

As a result of the positive tests within the team, Mercedes was forced to draft in six replacement staff from the UK.

“We flew six people in yesterday from the UK and they were all tested,” Wolff added. “It’s certainly not a good situation because every person is very important. But I guess this is something that’s going to follow us for quite a while.”