'Glad we had a full season, while other sports could not'

At Scuderia AlphaTauri, team manager Graham Watson was given the important task of ensuring that the team's staff were not infected with the coronavirus. According to him, things will not be very different in early 2021.

"In 2020 we learnt a tremendous amount about how to handle all the risks faced during the pandemic and how best to keep our staff safe while travelling around the world", Watson said in an interview with his team. AlphaTauri has developed a special COVID action plan and it will be carried over into the new season.

Watson reveals that certain situations were by far the most difficult during the pandemic. "In normal times, without Covid, we have lots of people working in small spaces and it can be a challenge to remain socially distanced. This is especially true in the garage, where we have people working on the car, under strict time pressures, so a large part of my job was finding ways to manage this without stopping the team remaining competitive."

The New Zealander reveals that the busy 2020 season has been very challenging for everyone. "But racing is what we get out of bed for each day and I’m just happy we managed to complete a full season whilst other sports couldn’t", Watson concludes.