Severe curbs at 'weird' Austrian Grand Prix

There’s no other word to describe working at the Red Bull Ring this weekend than weird. Really, really weird. But weird is very much necessary.

In Melbourne, I was pretty scathing in my criticism of the way F1 and the FIA went about business as usual and had no contingency plans in place should the worst happen. So it would be remiss of me not to start off by acknowledging that the approach of better safe than sorry is the right one to take.

And that has resulted in some pretty severe rules, including mandatory wearing of face coverings whenever on site, regardless of whether you are inside or outside and able to adhere to social distancing guidelines.

The eeriest part of the situation is the lack of fans, even on a Thursday

From the moment you arrive at the track and pass through a temperature checkpoint covered in warnings, instructions and hand-sanitiser dispensers, from a media perspective everything is different.

On what is traditionally known as ‘media day’, there is no access to the press conference room for journalists who are confined to the media room, with just a single host asking questions of each team’s two drivers as they rotated through in reverse championship order. Those questions had to be pre-submitted by both those on site and those who usually would be present, and the drivers were, of course, sitting a long way apart and wearing masks.

The drivers themselves responded well, joking about their expressions under their face coverings and regularly checking what they are or aren’t allowed to do, emphasised by Esteban Ocon remaining seated after the end of his session until finally asking: “Yeah, we can stand up? Good!”

Only one photographer was allowed in the press conferences, with images to be pooled together and distributed to all outlets, while the rest had to make do with shooting the pit lane through the glass of the media centre windows.

But things become a little bit more normal once drivers return to the paddock, where written media are not permitted. A TV pen for the few crews on site allows a relatively familiar set-up – albeit with a greater distance between interviewer and interviewee than usual – and masks are still mandatory.

And it’s even more normal if they are to walk into their garages. Aside from regular mask wearing, little looks different from a distance, and teams have been able to retain the usual number of staff working on the cars by making cuts from catering, hospitality and marketing departments.

That meant a much quieter paddock – devoid of big motorhomes that have been replaced by glorified portable buildings for the drivers – which saw fewer interactions between team members and no guests or VIPs, but media day was a very similar one to usual in the pit lane for the race teams.