F1 | AlphaTauri track team accepts Bahrain’s vaccine offer
AlphaTauri boss Franz Tost confirms the entire track team was vaccinated in Bahrain due to excessively long waiting time in Europe.
During a press conference with selected media, MotorLat included, McLaren’s Team Principal Andreas Seidl was asked to comment about the decision of Bahrain to offer COVID vaccines to all F1 workers.
While the Woking-based team allowed every member of their team to individually make their decision, AlphaTauri has opted for a unanimous response.
After Ferrari, AlphaTauri is the second team in the paddock announcing they have accepted Bahrain’s offer to vaccinate all F1 personnel attending pre-season testing and the first official Grand Prix of the 2021 season.
Both teams claimed they are determined to do whatever in their power to protect their staff from unnecessary health risks, especially considering the uncertainty running across Europe and the huge amount of travelling the sport requires.
Franz Tost has confirmed that all the team members from Scuderia AlphaTauri were vaccinated on Tuesday, then he added:
"We will stay one or two days longer after the race for the second vaccination because health is the most important factor.
"As the team principal, I am responsible for the health of the people, so we did this vaccination, and I say 'Many, many thanks to Bahrain that they offered us this possibility.
"Because in Europe, I don't know how long we wait to be vaccinated, especially in Austria and Italy, and so on, therefore, we are more than happy."
Just like McLaren, Mercedes, Aston Martin and Alpine confirmed that they have left it up to their individual members to decide what to do, instead of taking a team-wide decision.
In particular, Aston Martin TP Szafnauer said:
"We've decided to leave it up to the individuals. As Franz said, it was a very kind offer by the Bahrainis, so we left it as an individual choice.
"I haven't asked which individuals were in or not - but I can happily say I'm so old that I was vaccinated in the UK!"
Alpine’s executive director Marcin Budkowski added: "Similar to Aston Martin. We haven't set any policies. As a team, we have left it to the individuals to decide what to do."
