Ricciardo reveals COVID-19 scare after Tuscan Grand Prix

Seven-time Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton missed the Bahrain Grand Prix last weekend after testing positive for COVID-19.

Racing Point duo Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll are the other F1 drivers to have contracted coronavirus this season and Ricciardo revealed he had a fright in Italy back in September.

The Renault driver said ahead of the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix this weekend: “I did wake up one morning with a false-positive, so I had a scare at 6am one morning.

“It wasn’t a false positive, [it was] inconclusive. Still scared me though!”

The Australian added: “Then trying to figure out, okay we’ve got to get tested again, and there was a bit of panic and that wasn’t fun.

“Obviously, I was fine in the end but that obviously was something I hadn’t gone through before and then you start playing games in your head like ‘do I feel a little..’ and ‘maybe I do have it and just’, but that was a bit of panic one morning.

“As the season went on I became more and more disciplined with isolating or just taking care of myself, especially after Checo [Perez] got it and I was like ‘Okay so this isn’t a joke’.

“I was being very careful so I was quite surprised [by the test result]. Obviously, in the end I didn’t have it but I was scratching my head.”