Disbelief as F1 gives Italians green light

Formula One is facing mounting criticism after allowing hundreds of Italian staff and fans to attend this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix, at a time when the country’s population is under quarantine to control the coronavirus epidemic.

In its determination not to cancel the season-opening race, the sport finds it is permitting huge numbers of staff from Ferrari, Alphatauri and tyre-makers Pirelli – all of whom are based in areas of northern Italy riddled by Covid-19 – to arrive in Melbourne, despite prime minister Giuseppe Conte ordering 60million citizens not to travel or even socialise.

The move has drawn condemnation in Australia, itself struggling to contain the spread of the virus. With the race in Albert Park expected to draw more than 300,000 fans over four days, there is incredulity that a vast Italian delegation is at liberty to pass into the venue unchecked.

While screening procedures are in place for Italian passport holders at Melbourne’s airport, F1 is resisting any of the social-distancing protocols implemented elsewhere. An online petition has started to stop the grand prix from going ahead.

Increasingly, F1’s implacable resolve to honour its schedule, after the reluctant postponement of next month’s Chinese Grand Prix, is becoming impossible to sustain.

Organisers of the Bahrain Grand Prix have already been forced to stage the event behind closed doors, while the inaugural race in Vietnam looks ever more precarious, with the country’s government deciding yesterday to suspend visa waivers for eight European countries, including the UK.

But, having spent £60million on the Melbourne race, officials refuse to countenance any extra restrictions for visitors. “Not a chance,” said Andrew Westacott, chief executive of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation, when asked if the event would be cancelled or postponed. “We’ve got to keep moving through life, while taking the necessary precautions.”

F1 insisted that it was honouring public health advice, to the extent of introducing quarantine areas in Melbourne “focused on the diagnosis, management and extraction of suspected cases”.

F1 owner Liberty Media believes that the financial and logistical implications of further cancellations are unthinkable, with technical chief Ross Brawn arguing that, under the sport’s regulations, races cannot go ahead without Ferrari.

But next weekend’s race in Bahrain could still be scrapped. Flights to the kingdom from Dubai, one of the few remaining air access routes, have been cut back to one per day.

It is not the only front on which F1 is fighting accusations of mixed messaging. The sport plans to become carbon-neutral by 2030, but announced a sponsorship deal yesterday with oil giant Saudi Aramco, described by the Climate Accountability Institute as the world’s leading state-owned polluter.