General
F1 drivers disproportionately positive for Covid, vaccination the solution?
- GPblog.com
While there are disagreements about many things in Formula 1, most followers agree on one thing: the sport did an exceptional job in 2020 in containing covid-19 infections. Not only governments but also other sports can learn from this.
Motorsport journalist Joe Saward also agrees and in his blog he compares the statistics of Formula 1 with those of the NFL to back up his opinion. Although the conditions for both sports are not exactly the same, you could call the difference significant. In the NFL three percent of all athletes and team members tested positive, in F1 it was only 0.1 percent.
Olympic Committee has an idea
What did stand out was that drivers were over-represented in these statistics. In fact, 25 percent of the starting field in 2020 has already tested positive. Why they are so much more 'susceptible' to the virus is not yet clear. To reduce the risk of infection among athletes, the International Olympic Committee is considering having all athletes vaccinated before the Olympic Games. Saward wonders if this goal also makes sense for F1.
"Given that the season is supposed to kick off in March and there is not much time, it is unlikely that this would be a requirement as it would require government agreement in a string of different countries of those involved in F1 unless F1 could secure sufficient vaccine for those working in the business. Even then, it is not clear that all the countries with F1 races would accept people without testing, even if they had been vaccinated", Saward says.