Why The UK’s Quarantine Law Doesn’t Put The Brakes On F1’s British Grand Prix

Formula One's British Grand Prix has been hanging in the balance since the UK government announced last week that all inbound visitors will have to self-isolate for 14 days from June 8 to prevent the spread of coronavirus. In fact, the new legislation doesn't give the red light to the race at all.

No sports were on the list of exemptions which is restricted to the essential services provided by truck drivers, medics and fruit pickers. It appeared to send F1 into a spin with a spokesman telling Reuters that the quarantine "would make it impossible to have a British Grand Prix this year." He added that in turn, this would have "a major impact on literally tens of thousands of jobs."

Although seven of F1's ten teams are based in the UK, the three which are located outside include its most famous squad, Ferrari. It is based in Italy along with F1's tire supplier Pirelli whilst the regulator of the auto racing series, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), has offices in France and Switzerland.

Likewise, F1's drivers are currently scattered all over the world from Canada and the United States to Monaco and Finland. However, they don't plan on flying direct to the UK.

F1, which is owned by Liberty Media and listed on the Nasdaq with the ticker $FWONK, has been waiting at the lights since its season-opener was canceled in March when a member of the McLaren team tested positive for Covid-19. F1 hopes to get its season underway on July 5 with a race in Austria which has had far fewer coronavirus cases than many other European countries.

F1 is planning to hold back-to-back races in Austria followed by two at the Silverstone track in the UK and this is what has has thrown a spanner in the works. This is because F1's troupe of 1,000-plus personnel would have to quarantine for two weeks beforehand and also whenever any of the UK-based staff return to the country between races later in the year.

It presents a roadblock for F1 because of the number of races that it still wants to hold this year. Remarkably, despite only planning to begin the season in July, F1's chief executive Chase Carey has said that he hopes there will be "between 15 - 18 races" all over the world. There is good reason for this.

As shown by the following document, F1's filings state that its "broadcast contracts include a provision to reduce the fee payable to Formula 1 if there are fewer than 15 Events in a season."

The fees from broadcasters represent the biggest single source of F1's $2 billion revenue and came to a total of $762.8 million last year. In order to get a similar amount this year, F1 has to cram in at least 15 races over a small space of time. To put it in perspective, last year, when conditions were normal, F1 only held 12 races between the start of July and the end of its season.

To fit in three more races over a similar period F1 will have to hold them in quick succession which is why 14 days of quarantine would put the brakes on its plans. In summary, it is F1's drive to boost its revenue which would make the British Grand Prix impossible, not the new quarantine law.

F1 holds races every year with gaps of three weeks or more between them so there is no reason why it shouldn't do so now, especially given that safety is the driving force. Likewise, there is no reason why sports should be exempt from the law in order to boost their fortunes, especially if it could put people's lives in danger.

There will be no spectators at F1's races this year but its 1,000-plus personnel is already clearly a mass gathering. That risk is magnified due to their international origin.

F1 has said that all staff will be tested repeatedly during the race weekend but as we recently reported in The Independent, the world's leading virologists agree that at least five days of self-isolation is essential before any event to ensure that personnel are actually free of the virus.

This is because it can take up to five days after someone catches it for a test to detect it. Accordingly, if someone is negative, they need to wait five days and repeat the test in case they caught the virus shortly before their first one. They need to be in self-isolation during this time to prevent them from catching it from someone else which would then take a further five days to be detectable.

The risks of people slipping through the net are well known. The last major sports event in the UK was horse racing's Cheltenham Festival which finished on March 15, just nine days before the country went into lockdown. It attracted a total of 250,000 spectators and fueled a surge in Covid-19 cases with the two zip codes surrounding the race course reportedly accounting for a quarter of all local hospital admissions relating to the virus.

The organizers were castigated for going ahead when there were 208 new coronavirus cases in the UK on the day it began. Today that number stands at 1,625 which would make it even harder to justify giving the green light to an event with more than 1,000 personnel.

Not only would it open the floodgates to other companies asking for the same treatment, it could also stir up tensions. It may be hard for the UK public to understand and accept why they aren't able to meet more than one member of their family at the same time when highly-paid sportsmen are allowed to travel freely in and out of the country. Time will tell whether they do.