British-based F1 teams supply ‘over 20,000 orders’ for medical equipment

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In the round-up: The seven British-based Formula 1 teams have helped supply over 20,000 orders for medical equipment for the National Health Service, but one designer of ventilator being made by Renault and Red Bull is no longer needed.

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Is it fair to say Lewis Hamilton should put some of his money into helping young drivers up the motorsport ladder?

‘Sponsoring’ a few kids only helps those kids, and does nothing for ones that don’t get noticed – just increasing the cost of competition for the majority (counter-productive in the end).

Hamilton has a lot of leverage in his words, as an ambassador for racing in general, so when he does criticise something, the people that can make fundamental changes are more likely to listen.

I don’t know how karting works at that level, but from stories told by drivers that have rising through to F1, things like tyres seem to be a big expense that some families can’t keep up with, yet has a direct impact on performance – why not lobby a tyre manufacture to make a spec karting rubber that the whole paddock (and the organisers) pay a subscription for, so the cost is shared equally, and everyone gets the same amount of the same rubber per season?
Luke S (@Joeypropane)

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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6 comments on “British-based F1 teams supply ‘over 20,000 orders’ for medical equipment”

  1. Profile Photo

    Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
    14th April 2020, 1:00

    A plan to buy thousands of medical ventilators from a group including the Renault and Red Bull Formula One teams has been cancelled amid signs that symptoms specific to Covid-19 could make building new devices more difficult than hoped.

    It must be disappointing for those involved with this project to find that after all their hard work the equipment specification has been changed. I guess the question is how much long has the new specification been in existence and how difficult would it be to adapt their current effort to the new specification. Also, how many of the old spec were made and can they be used elsewhere?

    1. Profile Photo

      ColdFly (@)
      14th April 2020, 8:38

      I guess the companies and workers will still feel proud of the time spent in developing/producing these ventilators.
      And it’s not that F1 is not used to building high tech stuff that never gets used. @drycrust

      I’m sure that these kits can be used somewhere; hopefully they can be donated to under-equipped hospitals in developing nations for use after the current crisis. It might very well be a perfect design to produce simple ventilators in the future which don’t cost $10k each.

  2. Profile Photo

    Jere (@jerejj)
    14th April 2020, 8:40

    So even not having anyone on the grandstands mightn’t be enough, I suppose because there’d still be more than a handful of people working in the pit lane and paddock, thus, even an attendee-less event can count as a mass gathering depending on the number of people?

    On a similar note, the Canadian GP is now even more likely to become a lost-case for this year altogether than before as the province of Quebec has recently banned all sports-events until the end of August, and coincidently, August is the only month where there’d be room for the Canadian GP, so unless these restrictions get lifted earlier than planned, there isn’t going to be a Canadian GP this year as once we get into the Northern Hemisphere autumn, the place starts to get cooler and cooler ultimately becoming unfavorable for F1.

  3. Profile Photo

    Balue (@balue)
    14th April 2020, 13:53

    iRacing banning on first offense is quite something when they will let top racers get away with consistently calling others the worst names you can imagine.

  4. Profile Photo

    ColdFly (@)
    14th April 2020, 15:54

    I’m hoping the Mercedes/ University College London devices will prove successful and do the job.

    That’s NOT a full ventilator but a simpler ‘Continuous Positive Airway Pressure’ device. It can help to keep patients off ventilators though.

    Not sure what the Bluesky product was; I thought it was a simplified version of a proper ventilator.

  5. erikje
    14th April 2020, 19:23

    The virus proved too complex for the Renault/RB joint effort.

    every team deserves respect, so this reaction is a bit dubious to say the least.

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