Sebastian Vettel to miss season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix after testing positive for Covid-19

Sebastian Vettel has tested positive for Covid-19 and will miss the opening race of the Formula 1 season in Bahrain on Sunday, his Aston Martin team have announced.

The four-time world champion will be replaced by fellow German Nico Hulkenberg, the team’s reserve driver, for the duration of the grand prix weekend starting with practice on Friday.

Vettel is the second driver on the grid to test positive in the build-up to the season after McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo was forced out of the previous testing session in Bahrain last week after falling ill.

The Australian has since been released from isolation and returned to the paddock in Bahrain on Thursday ahead of getting back behind the wheel of the car in FP1 on Friday.

For Hulkenberg, meanwhile, it is the fourth time he has been drafted in as a Covid replacement at Aston Martin having twice deputised for a sick Sergio Perez in 2020 and then for Lance Stroll at last year’s Eifel Grand Prix.

Despite an insistence on all staff working in Formula 1 to be vaccinated, rules around Covid have been lifted for this season with PCR tests now only a recommendation rather than a stipulation of the F1 bubble.