AlphaTauri F1 team accepts Bahrain COVID-19 vaccine offer
The AlphaTauri Formula 1 has taken up Bahrain’s offer for its personnel to be vaccinated against COVID-19 prior to pre-season testing.
Bahrain’s national government recently announced it would be offering two doses of the Pfizer vaccine to F1 team members attending both testing and the season-opening grand prix this month.
The F1 organisation decided to turn down the offer, but a number of team members from Red Bull and Ferrari have been vaccinated against the virus, including drivers Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz.
AlphaTauri boss Franz Tost confirmed on the second day of pre-season testing that his side had opted to take up Bahrain’s offer, with staff receiving their first vaccine dose earlier this week.
Crash.net understands that Yuki Tsunoda has been vaccinated but Pierre Gasly has not been due to testing positive for the virus in January and not yet passing the required time to receive a vaccine after being declared post-COVID-negative.
“All the team members from Scuderia AlphaTauri have been vaccinated on Tuesday and we will stay one or two days longer after the first race for the second vaccination,” said Tost.
“Health is the most important factor and as the team principal I am responsible for the health of the people and therefore we did this vaccination.
“I have to say many, many thanks to Bahrain that they offered us this possibility, because in Europe I don’t know how long we would have to wait to be vaccinated, especially in Austria and Italy. Therefore we are more than happy.”
Aston Martin team principal Otmar Szafnauer and Alpine executive director Marcin Budkowski confirmed that both their teams have not set a specific policy regarding the vaccine offer, instead allowing individuals to make their own decisions.
“So we decided to leave it up to the individuals but like Franz said, it was a very kind offer by the Bahrainis,” Szafnauer explained.
“We left it as an individual choice and because of it I haven’t asked which individuals opted in or out. But I can happily say I’m so old that I was vaccinated in the UK.”
