McLaren announces withdrawal from Australian GP
McLaren has pulled out of this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix after a team member tested positive for Coronavirus.
The Woking-based outfit confirmed the employee, who had been in self-isolation after showing symptoms, had contracted the virus.
As a result, McLaren released a statement on Thursday saying it would be withdrawing from the first race of the season.
The statement read: “The team has prepared for this eventuality and has ongoing support in place for its employee who will now enter a period of quarantine.
“The team is cooperating with the relevant local authorities to assist their investigations and analysis.
“Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren Racing and Andreas Seidl, team principal of McLaren F1, informed F1 and the FIA of the decision this evening.
“The decision has been taken based on the duty of care not only to McLaren F1, employees and partners, but also to the teams’ competitors, F1 fans and wider F1 stakeholders.”
This is the first F1 team member to have tested positive for Coranavirus, with four more cases occurring during the build up to the race in Melbourne.
The remaining four were all members from Haas, who confirmed results had shown that all had tested negative.