LONDON
\nFormula One will make it mandatory for all personnel working in its paddock to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19, without exemption, starting this season, a spokesperson for the sport\u2019s commercial arm said on Monday.
\nThe mandate, which was first reported by the Times newspaper and the BBC, will apply to anyone entering the paddock \u2013 an exclusive area in which teams and drivers set up shop for a race weekend.
\n\u201cF1 will require all travelling personnel to be fully vaxxed and will not request exemptions,\u201d the spokesperson said. This will include all competitors, hospitality staff, members of the media, the governing FIA, Liberty Media-owned commercial rights holders FOM and even celebrity guests.
\nThe mandate was approved at a December meeting of the FIA\u2019s World Motor Sport Council.
\nNews of Formula One\u2019s vaccine mandate comes after Novak Djokovic\u2019s Australian Open vaccine controversy. The world number one was detained by immigration authorities on Jan 6, ordered released by a court on Jan 10, then detained again before being forced to leave Australia after a final court ruling that upheld the government\u2019s decision to cancel his visa.
\nThe new rules call into question the future of long-time medical car driver Alan van der Merwe.
\nThe South African, who played a pivotal role rescuing Romain Grosjean from a fiery crash in the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix, has chosen not to get vaccinated for personal reasons.
\nThe FIA did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the vaccine mandate or Van der Merwe\u2019s future.
\nFormula One is set for a record 23-race calendar this year, with races such as Singapore, Japan, Canada and Australia, which had been cancelled for the last two years, set to return. The sport successfully staged two seasons amid the pandemic by adopting a bubble system and regular testing.
\nThe 2022 season, which will feature all new cars designed to a radical rules overhaul, gets underway in Bahrain on March 20. Teams will run their cars at a pre-season session in Spain from Feb 23-25 and an official test session in Bahrain from March 10-12.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON Formula One will make it mandatory for all personnel working in its paddock to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19, without exemption, starting this season, a spokesperson for the sport\u2019s commercial arm said on Monday. The mandate, which was first reported by the Times newspaper and the BBC, will apply to anyone entering the paddock […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-242138","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n