French GP at risk? 'France makes quarantine compulsory for UK travellers'
F1 News
- GPblog.com
Earlier this week, Austria already announced that they will ban all flights from the United Kingdom as of June 1. France too has now taken extra measures against travellers coming into the country from the United Kingdom. With this the French Grand Prix seems to be in danger as well, since a lot of personnel comes from the United Kingdom.
EuroNews reports that France is imposing a mandatory quarantine requirement for travelers from the UK. They are doing this because the first coronavirus cases with the variant from India have been found in the UK. The French government doesn't want to take the risk that this variant also enters their own country and therefore they decided to impose the quarantine as a precaution.
France not the only one
Although the vaccination program in the UK ran tremendously well for a long time, most European countries still seem to be banning flights from the UK. Austria already did this completely from June 1, while Germany banned all non-essential travel from the UK.
Given that a large part of the F1 paddock has to come from the UK, these measures do seem to have an impact. However, the F1 organisation has shown many times last year that, even with strict measures, they can still create safe bubbles with little contamination. As a result, the French GP is not under immediate threat, but it is something to worry about early on for F1.