Lockdown makes finishing F1 season "very challenging" warn Williams

Williams head of vehicle performance Dave Robson has warned it could be "very challenging" to complete the Formula 1 season as European nations lockdown for a second time.

France and Belgium have re-entered such a period, Germany has imposed 'light' restrictions while England faces a four-week lockdown from midnight on Wednesday as a reaction to the rising number of Covid-19 cases across the continent.

Although seven of the 10 teams are based in England, elite sport has at least been granted an exemption to continue.

Robson, however, was cautious when asked if F1 could complete its final four races safely. “It’s hard to know," he said.

“At the moment it’s worked out probably way better than we thought it would back in the spring, but it’s definitely going to be very challenging for the final few races.

“It’s definitely going to be hard. I think with everything we’ve got in place and we are working to, we’ve got a good chance of seeing it out.

"But, admittedly, when we get back home, and even just doing the travel to and from the venues, we’re increasingly at risk, as the general population are, and the cases are rising."

In order for racing to return in the summer, F1 introduced a number of measures to ensure a Covid-secure working environment that included restricting the number of personnel who could enter the paddock, a rigorous testing regime and other social-distancing measures.

Robson believes, however, there always remains the possibility of one case not being caught in time that could then tear rapidly through the sport.

"We’ve done, and are doing everything we can, but it could get difficult quite quickly," added Robson.

“That’s the problem. It can all seem okay and then if it starts to infiltrate the paddock, I imagine it will run through very, very quickly despite the controls in place."

An added concern for Williams, especially after George Russell's crash at Imola, is the number of spare parts available as some are produced externally by companies that have now been forced to close for a month.

“We’re fortunate that we do an awful lot of it in-house but for certain we do rely on some external companies for some particularly specialised processes, particularly on metallic components," said Robson.

“That may become an added restriction and I think, probably, touch wood, we’ve got most of the parts we need to get us through the season as long as we don’t have a string of incidents.

“[But] It is possible we could get caught short on some of those external processes.”

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