Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc explained that the recent positive COVID-19 tests for two Formula 1 drivers show the need to remain cautious despite the fact that Formula 1 decided to relax many of the COVID-19 protocols which were followed last season.
McLaren driver Daniel Ricciardo could not take part in the official pre-season testing session at the Bahrain International Circuit last week due to a positive test, while former Scuderia Ferrari driver and current Aston Martin driver will not be able to race in the first Formula 1 Grand Prix of the championship after contracting COVID-19.
For 2022, the FIA’s COVID-19 protocols have been relaxed in many ways: personnel do no longer have to take a PCR test with 24 hours until entering the paddock, but it remains strongly encouraged, and local guidelines still need to be followed.
As a result, some teams decided to return to doing in-person media sessions for the 2022 Formula One championship, having chiefly used online platforms such as Zoom during the last two campaigns, while driver autograph sessions are also returning in Bahrain.
Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc said it was “good things are coming back slowly to normality”, but stressed the need to stay vigilant. We need to be cautious, also in-between drivers and all of these things, because COVID has not disappeared from one day to another. Still now, if you have COVID, you cannot race, it’s very costly. We still need to be very careful.” – the Ferrari driver added.
Charles Leclerc’s teammate Carlos Sainz added he was “trying to stay as disciplined as I was two years ago” despite some restrictions being relaxed. I’m not going to lie, it’s tiring and it’s tough after two years, to still do the same things. Some things I got used to, some things I still struggle like all of you guys, to wear the mask at all times and all that. I just hope we can keep going back to normality as soon as possible.” – the Spanish driver added.
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Carlos Sainz admitted that if he had an opportunity to “fight for bigger things” this year, there would be pressure to take extra cautions for fear of missing a race. In recent years, Lewis Hamilton, Sergio Perez, Lance Stroll, Nikita Mazepin and Kimi Raikkonen have all been sidelined from grand prix race weekends due to positive test results.
Teams remain responsible for their own testing procedures away from the Formula 1 paddock, as Charles Leclerc confirmed the Maranello team is continuing testing on a regular basis, particularly at the factory, and that common sense always kicked in if anyone felt ill.
Charles Leclerc has contracted COVID-19 twice, most recently in last December and explained his experiences were “very different”.
“The first one wasn’t too bad, the second one I felt quite a bit worse, just headache and not feeling really, really well. But it didn’t last too long for me, like one week, one week and a half, for both cases. It really depends. I have some friends that are in perfect health and had it in a much worse way. So yeah, very difficult to predict.” – the Ferrari driver concluded.
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