F1 hoping for UK quarantine exception – Marko

Jul.3 (GMM) Formula 1 should receive an exemption from Britain’s mandatory quarantine laws ahead of the forthcoming back-to-back races at Silverstone.

As it stands, the world of Formula 1 faces 14 days in quarantine after entering Britain for the August races.

“Now that the pubs have opened in the UK and there is still a lot of time until those races, we will see. It’s not for four weeks,” Red Bull’s Dr Helmut Marko told Speed Week.

“We assume there will be no quarantine or at least there will be some kind of exception. For example, here in Austria you can only go between the circuit and the hotel,” he said.

F1 CEO Chase Carey says he wants to reveal “another chunk” of races for the 2020 corona calendar within the next few weeks.

“When you look at the US, Mexico, Brazil, clearly right now they seem to be having a higher incidence of infections than other places,” he admitted.

Marko says Red Bull deserves a lot of credit for the resumption of racing in Austria this weekend.

“Without us, the season would not have got going,” he said.

Carlos Sainz says the measures put in place at the Red Bull Ring represent a “very aggressive new normal”, but Marko says it was the only way the racing could happen.

“I can’t even speak with our Formula 2 and Formula 3 drivers because they are in a separate bubble,” said the Austrian.

“But these races in Austria are the model for the rest of the season. It has to work. If we hadn’t got it right, the rest of the season would have been in question.”