Formula 1 gets green light for GP Silverstone; quarantine still uncertain

The organization of Formula 1 is planning to start the new season in July. However, in order to be able to actually organize Grands Prix it will need the cooperation of the authorities in the different countries. A new announcement in Great Britain now paves the way for this.

On Monday, the British Government announced that it would "permit cultural and sporting events to take place behind closed doors for broadcast, while avoiding the risk of large-scale social contact". With this, another hurdle has been taken for the continuation of the Grand Prix at Silverstone on 19 July.

However, this is not entirely certain yet. In the same announcement it is also announced that everyone who enters Great Britain from May 13th onwards has to be quarantined for fourteen days. For Formula 1 this would be a logistical nightmare as they will probably still be in Austria the weekend before.

However, the announcement also makes room for some exceptions to this quarantine measure. It is not specified whether these are staff of the Formula 1 teams, but the sport will have to hope for that.

On international travel, there will be a "short list of exemptions" to the requirement on people to self-isolate for 14 days on arriving in the UK. No clarity yet on whether that will include F1 personnel returning from planned races in Austria (and elsewhere) pic.twitter.com/ToJXrWJkYI

— Andrew Benson (@andrewbensonf1) May 11, 2020