Lewis Hamilton’s a hermit as Mercedes reports another COVID positive

Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas will have to stay ‘like hermits’ to minimize the threat of COVID-19 infecting their Method A single title struggle, Mercedes manager Toto Wolff said on Friday following the staff noted a next optimistic check outcome.

A Mercedes spokesman said the entire staff had been examined again following the initially optimistic showed up on Thursday ahead of the weekend’s Eifel Grand Prix at Germany’s Nürburgring circuit.

A single of those people also showed up optimistic and an additional was inconclusive, he extra.

4 more staff users, who all examined adverse, were being then isolated in line with the sport’s protocols while six replacements were being flown in from England.

“Just about every decline of an significant member in the garage affects the race, but I assume we have received it less than manage,” Wolff explained to reporters.

The Austrian said each and every precaution was getting taken to defend six-situations globe champion Hamilton and Bottas, who is forty four details at the rear of the Briton following ten races, at the racetrack and somewhere else.

“The drivers are the most restricted of the entire group, of the entire staff,” said Wolff.

“It truly is definitely not a good situation for them due to the fact you nearly need to have to stay like a hermit, and that is what they are performing.

“They are at dwelling, they are not going out for dinners, they are not assembly any other folks. Within just the staff when we do the debriefs by Zoom or Microsoft Teams, they are not sitting down with the engineers in the place.

“They are sitting down in their have rooms and we are steering clear of as significantly as doable any own speak to with them. It truly is actually stepping into the car and driving the car and preserving their length.”

Racing Point’s Sergio Perez skipped two races in August following contracting the virus, the Mexican however the only driver to have examined optimistic, and the repercussions for the leading two are most likely significant.

Hamilton is on the brink of a record-equalling 91st occupation gain this weekend and very well on the way to matching Michael Schumacher’s 7 titles.

The season finishes with a triple header in Bahrain and Abu Dhabi and Wolff acknowledged lacking any race, or two, would be a significant blow.

“Unfortunately for them they need to have to stay a life that is a bit secluded but we assume the decisions we have taken are very good to guard them,” he said of the drivers.