Horner: "Closing factories was a sensible choice"

The factories of the Formula 1 teams were closed earlier this year. In some countries by order of the government, in others after consultation with the FIA and the other teams. This in order to contain the spread of the coronavirus as much as possible. According to Red Bull Racing team boss Christian Horner that has been a wise choice.

Protecting staff

The factories have been closed for quite some time now, but according to Horner that is a basic requirement. For example, on the Red Bull Racing website he says: "It is the right decision given the circumstances and we all have a duty to protect our workforce, which is our biggest asset and that is what we will continue to do."

"For the meantime, all F1 factories are closed, which I think is the sensible route for the FIA to take. It means that all teams are suspended from working on their cars until the end of May, so no team will gain an advantage." The reopening will not take place until a few weeks from now - provided that this is justified. In the meantime, however, a small group of employees are already starting work.

Horner: "From this week, there will be 10 people allowed to work on long lead-time items, such as gearbox designs, but at the moment it is against the rules to have anyone working on designing or producing parts for F1 cars."

200 volunteers

Of course, the teams did not sit still at all, because Project Pitlane was soon launched to contribute to the fight against the coronavirus. Horner also talks about this briefly in his article on the Red Bull website. "As soon as Project Pitlane was mentioned, we had over 200 staff volunteering to come into the factory to help design and produce ventilators."

"I am incredibly proud of F1 and how all the teams responded to the coronavirus crisis and the call to manufacture and supply ventilators to the NHS," says Horner, "It is difficult to explain just how impressive it was that people were prepared to risk coming into the workplace during lockdown to support the NHS through this crisis."

Several teams also worked together and in the case of Red Bull Racing they had Renault employees on the floor to work together on the fan project. Horner "who would have thought that a few months ago", by which he refers to the very cool relationship between the two companies.