Hamilton and Bottas not fazed by covid case: 'We expect no disruptions'

On Thursday it was reported that a team member of Mercedes had tested positive for the coronavirus, which of course comes with measures. These measures mainly affect the employee in question, because the team itself will of course continue this weekend. Despite the positive infection, Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas are not very worried.

No disturbances

"Naturally, it’s sad to hear that," said Hamilton to Crash.net. "We obviously had this week in between, and those guys work so hard to stay safe and be here on the weekend so it’s definitely a concern. It’s obviously important for everyone around the world to know, to be continuously reminded that this thing has not disappeared."

"I can’t say what it’s going to do to our weekend. We have a lot of great people within our team, it’s not just about one person. So we’ll try and make him proud this weekend and it’s just going to take a different type of work, or it’s going to take a lot of work still, to make sure that we continue on without any disturbances," in other words, everything is expected to continue in the usual way. That's why Hamilton isn't really worried.

Plenty of confidence in the team

Valtteri Bottas also had his say, the Finn said: "For sure, as a driver, the last thing you want is to get it. It would definitely mean at least missing one race, maybe even more – and we had one example of that already," he said, referring to Sergio Perez skipping two Grands Prix because of his infection.

"So, of course, [we’re] being as cautious as you can and, you know, following the protocols and being sensible, staying in the bubble. Sometimes it can be a matter of luck, because it’s pretty contagious. But we’re all trying to do the best we can not to get it. Of course it’s unfortunate that one team member got it but I fully trust the team is handling everything, following all the protocols and doing everything we can to be able to make sure it stops there in that one case. I have all the trust in that."