Government secure working guidelines a 'minimum' for Mercedes F1 team

Mercedes Chief Operating Officer Rob Thomas has explained some of the changes made by the champion team in order to create a Covid-secure work environment.

Having closed the factory gates for the 'summer shutdown' in March, Formula 1 electing to bring forward the period in order to free up later dates for a calendar reshuffle, preparing the factory for personnel to return in a safe manner was no easy task.

“Taking the government guidelines as the bare minimum, we started looking at things like ‘how do we maintain social distancing’, so the whole factory within two weeks was completely changed, to ensure that, wherever we could, we had a two-metre gap," said Thomas.

“So everywhere you go, you see signage, you see stickering, you see one way systems put into place.

“We also wanted to make sure that people were safe to come back, so we asked everybody to complete an induction at home with a series of questions, and we prepared a video which showed how things have changed in the factory.

“Most importantly, if somebody was feeling poorly or not well, please don’t come to work.

“So once people have been through that, when they come to work now, the first thing they do, they get their temperature checked. We brough temperature scanners, so at four different points in the factory, every employee comes in, and they get scanned. As long as their temperature is within a healthy range, they can come to work.”

Going into slightly more detail about the practices now in force within the factory, Thomas added: "Around the factory and at every work station, we have things like antiviral wipes. We expect people to wipe areas down before and after [use].

"If people are moving around the factory, we ask them to wear masks.

"When they're in the work station, we've made sure that the two metre rule applies, so you don't need to wear masks, but as soon as they get mobile, we ask people to wear masks."

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