Italian brands and teams are organizing in the face of the coronavirus

For several days, Italy has been facing the spread of Covid-19 coronavirus on its territory with several dozen cases recorded mainly in Lombardy and Veneto and unfortunately with several deaths to be counted.

In addition to certain areas automatically quarantined, sporting events such as certain Serie A football matches have been postponed. Motorsport is also impacted since the Automobile Club of Italy had decided to cancel all events under its aegis until this weekend included.

As for teams and brands, we are also organizing ourselves in the face of this virus. « Ferrari defined precautionary measures to manage the coronavirus alert, indicates the Maranello firm in a press release.

At the request of local authorities, the Ferrari museums in Maranello and Modena were closed and the company restricted access to employees residing in or having visited the municipalities affected by the virus.

The firm has also suspended all external visits – including factory visits – as well as all non-critical business travel until further notice. The situation is being closely monitored. New measures will be quickly implemented and communicated if they prove necessary. »

Same story on the side ofAlpha Tauri, even if the geographical location of Franz Tost's training differs slightly from Ferrari. “The situation in Italy is not ideal, but it is limited at the moment and the red zone is far from home, the team’s press officer told us.

However, we are doing what we think is generally a good step to take: we have implemented even more cleaning procedures inside the plant, increasing the frequency during the day and with detergent/disinfectant agents .

We have also identified all employees, contractors and service providers, from their residence and we have no one from the red zone.

We even asked people coming to areas near the red zone if they had returned home in the last few weeks (even if they were not in the critical zone), and checked the few people who had contacts with people close to critical areas, so we have a clear picture of the situation.

If it seems ok in our region and in our factory, it is not hard to think that it will not be so easy to go to the next races, but at the moment we are planning normally, waiting to see what it happens. »

If the F1 had already, and logically, postponed the Chinese Grand Prix, other series are starting to be impacted by the epidemic. SRO Motorsports stands ready to cancel opening round of GT World Challenge Europe of Monza if necessary, while GT Sport, which organizes the GT Open in particular, has postponed without setting new dates, the first winter tests of its championships, scheduled for Barcelona next week.