F1: McLaren team member 'recovering well' as season restructure will see Netherlands and Spain races moved

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy McLaren have said that the team member who contracted coronavirus and triggered the team’s withdrawal from the subsequently cancelled Australian Grand Prix is “recovering well” after his symptoms went away over the weekend. McLaren chief executive Zak Brown confirmed on Monday that the suffering team member “is recovering well and the symptoms have gone”, and added that the 14 additional staff currently in self-isolation are “in good spirits”. Following McLaren’s announcement on Thursday night that they were withdrawing from the Australian Grand Prix, F1 and governing body the FIA announced the cancellation of the Albert Park event just hours before first practice was due to get underway, and a subsequent announcement on Friday confirmed that both the Bahrain and Vietnam rounds – scheduled for 20-22 March and 3-5 April respectively – were also being postponed. The disruption follows the original decision last month to postpone the Chinese Grand Prix scheduled for mid-April, but with plans to try and reschedule both the Bahrain and Vietnamese rounds later this season – as well as the visit to Shanghai if conditions in China permit events to resume – organisers face the daunting prospect of squeezing 21 rounds into 27 weeks between the planned start date at the end of May and the current cut-off of Sunday 29 November.