Ricciardo: there’s no show without Ferrari
Ferrari staff arriving from Italy will be subjected to stringent health screening for signs of coronavirus before being cleared for the Australian Grand Prix – as local star Daniel Ricciardo declared the race could not go ahead without the famous Italian team.
Confusion continued to surround Ferrari’s participation in the season-opening race in Melbourne next week as the Australian government stopped short of imposing an outright ban on travellers from Italy, where there have been more than 3000 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 107 deaths.
All travellers from Italy will be temperature-screened, and if they have elevated temperatures they will be tested for coronavirus.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia did not rule out further restrictions on travellers from Italy, stating the government ‘‘would be watching developments very closely’’.
Ferrari, the team synonymous with Formula One, and AlphaTauri, another grand prix team, are based in Italy, as is the Pirelli company, supplier of tyres to Formula One teams.
There were mounting fears that, had the travel ban been extended to
Italy, mechanics, pit crews and staff from all teams and companies based in the European heartland of F1 would not be allowed in, putting the entire event in jeopardy.
‘‘The race can’t go ahead without a full grid. I don’t think it would be right to race without all 10 teams and all 20 drivers,’’ Ricciardo said.
‘‘If, say, Ferrari and AlphaTauri couldn’t compete and we went ahead, it wouldn’t be fair on them. It’s not like they’d been disqualified from racing for, say, a technical infringement. It just wouldn’t be right.
‘‘Winning a race like that . . . it’s not the way any of us would want to win. Say there was a reason why Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull weren’t coming and then I won in Melbourne . . . it would be a shallow victory and it wouldn’t mean anything.’’
Ricciardo said a nonchampionship event ‘‘would be even worse. It’s either all-in or nothing. At this level, it has to be all of us, or none of us’’.
Australian Grand Prix Corporation boss Andrew Westacott insisted it was ‘‘all systems go’’, and that Ferrari would take their place on the grid.
‘‘They go through a screening process, health checks and biosecurity tests on embarkation. They have further checks on the plane,’’ Westacott said.
The Victorian government said it expected the grand prix to go ahead as planned.
■ Italy’s Six Nations rugby match against England next week has been postponed because of the virus outbreak in Italy.
Italy’s visit to Ireland in Dublin scheduled for tomorrow was already postponed, but tournament organisers insisted all of the remaining matches in the last two rounds were going ahead as scheduled.
■ English football’s Premier League is scrapping pre-game handshakes between players and officials as a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.
The league said yesterday the traditional handshakes would not take place ‘‘until further notice based on medical advice’’.
The French league adopted a similar measure earlier this week.