(Reuters) – Six engineers from Yamaha will miss the French Grand Prix MotoGP race this weekend after one of them tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this week, the team said on Thursday.
“Yamaha Motor Co Ltd and Yamaha Motor Racing Srl regret to announce that six Yamaha MotoGP group engineers, including YZR-M1 project leader Takahiro Sumi, will be unable to attend this weekend’s Grand Prix de France,” the team said in a statement.
Yamaha said that due to restrictions on travel, several of their staff frequently stayed in Andorra in between races and that one of their engineers tested positive on Tuesday before their planned departure to France.
“The other five members of the engineers group received negative test results… 24 hours later a further test was done to double-check the first test results,” Yamaha added.
“The test results were identical, confirming the initial positive COVID-19 test result for one member and negative results for the other five members.
“As a consequence, all six YMC engineers in this travel group are now self-isolating in Andorra and will not be attending the upcoming race weekend in Le Mans.”
Yamaha said they were making arrangements for alternative staff to come to Le Mans and that Sumi and the five engineers will stay in touch with the team remotely via their new communications system.
They added that the situation will be reviewed next week with a view to the group’s participation at the Aragon Grand Prix on Oct. 18.
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Toby Davis)
