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Britain orders 10,000 ventilators from F1/McLaren/Mercedes/Ford/Rolls-Royce/Airbus

Paramedics and ambulance personnel get instructions from a command unit outside London's ExCel Centre arena, which is being turned into a 4,000 bed temporary hospital called NHS Nightingale to deal with coronavirus patients. The hospital is due to open Monday, March 30. / AP     LONDON — Britain has ordered 10,000 ventilators from a consortium of leading aerospace, engineering and Formula One racing companies which will start production this week in response to an urgent government call for industry to help save lives. The 27-strong team, including Airbus, BAE Systems, Ford and Rolls-Royce, have joined forces to ramp up production of a ventilator made by Smiths Group, which supports those with complications from COVID-19. The consortium, which also includes seven Formula One teams including McLaren and Mercedes, home to World Champion Lewis Hamilton, said they had pulled staff off existing projects to meet the national need. Some 1,228 people have died from coronavirus in the United Kingdom and a senior health official said on Saturday the country would be doing well if it manages to keep the death toll below 20,000. "This consortium brings together some of the most innovative companies in the world," Dick Elsy, the head of the consortium, said in a statement. "I am confident this consortium has the skills and tools to make a difference and save lives." The United Kingdom, which initially only had 5,000 ventilators available in its National Health Service, has been trying to secure additional supplies after realising it needed 30,000 to cope with the peak of the outbreak. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is now in isolation in Downing Street after testing positive for coronavirus, made an emergency appeal earlier this month for manufacturers to retool their production lines and start making specialist health equipment including ventilators. Britain now has about 8,000 ventilators, with another 8,000 on order from international manufacturers that are due in coming weeks. Last week it placed an order for a newly-designed model from the vacuum cleaner company Dyson that will need to be approved by the health regulator. Mercedes part of a separate effort, too Separately on Monday a second consortium including Mercedes Formula One and other F1 teams said it had developed in less than a week a new version of a breathing aid that can help coronavirus patients.

Lewis Hamilton needs to step up in his 200th F1 race

LONDON — Lewis Hamilton will start the 200th grand prix of his Formula One career in Belgium this weekend, but the triple world champion has smaller but more significant numbers on his mind. Refreshed from an August break in the Caribbean, including a trip to Cuba in his role as UNICEF ambassador, the Mercedes driver is 14 points behind championship leader Sebastian Vettel as he revs up for the second half of the season. A fifth victory of 2017 for the Briton would put the pressure back on Ferrari's Vettel, and Hamilton can celebrate another milestone by bagging pole position on Saturday at the long and fast Spa-Francorchamps circuit. That would see Hamilton, who sportingly relinquished third place to team mate Valtteri Bottas in Hungary before the summer shutdown, match the record of 68 poles set by Michael Schumacher with Ferrari in 2006. Mercedes has won the last two Belgian Grands Prix, with now-retired 2016 world champion Nico Rosberg triumphant from pole last year after Hamilton won in 2015. Nobody will be taking anything for granted, however, after Ferrari's one-two win in Budapest at the end of July. "On paper, people will assume that Spa should suit our car because it is a circuit where aerodynamic efficiency is extremely important," Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said. "But assumptions are dangerous — we have seen too many times already this season that the form book can be rewritten from one weekend to the next. So we will be making no assumptions." Hamilton has won twice before at Spa, as has Vettel, but the track — a classic blast from the past — has not been particularly kind to him. In 2008, when he won his first title, the Briton was demoted from first to third after the race for cutting a chicane, with then Ferrari rival Felipe Massa savoring victory instead. Spa can often be a lottery, with its capricious weather, and rain could be a boon for Red Bull's Belgian-born Dutch teenager Max Verstappen, who can count on plenty of local support in what amounts to a home race. "I just love the track and it'll be nice seeing so many orange (Dutch) fans in the grandstands," he said. "Spa is my favorite track of the year. You have to get everything right but when you get a good lap it's very rewarding." Belgium could also be good for Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, who arrives with a new contract for 2018 in his pocket.

Lewis Hamilton has Vettel in crosshairs at Canadian Grand Prix

MONTREAL - The Canadian Grand Prix has been a happy hunting ground for Lewis Hamilton, and he will look to bag a sixth career win on the island circuit on Sunday to refuel his hopes of another Formula One drivers title. With 14 races remaining on the calendar, it is far from do-or-die for Hamilton, but the pressure is mounting on the Briton and Mercedes with arch rival Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari threatening to widen the gap at the top of the championship standings. Only Michael Schumacher has won the Canadian Grand Prix more times (seven), and Hamilton intends to close the gap further in Montreal as the race marks its 50th anniversary. Hamilton needs to do so, at the scene of his first ever Formula One victory a decade ago, to reel in Vettel after the German led a Ferrari one-two in Monaco and powered 25 points clear. "Montreal has been a great hunting ground for me in the past, and I plan for it to continue," the triple world champion told reporters. With five wins and five poles from previous visits to Quebec, Hamilton would normally be the favorite, but champions Mercedes are no longer the dominant team. "The Ferrari seems to work everywhere. The next 14 races are going to be very, very difficult," he said after struggling to seventh place in Monaco. "They have had arguably the strongest car all year. They look like our car which just worked everywhere last year." The race will also mark the return of twice world champion Fernando Alonso to the Formula One grid after the Spaniard skipped the Monaco Grand Prix last month to chase IndyCar glory at Indianapolis 500. Alonso turned in an impressive performance at the famed Brickyard, qualifying fifth fastest and running at the front but late in the race suffered a familiar fate with his Honda engine giving up. Little has changed at struggling McLaren during Alonso's brief sabbatical with the team still hampered by an uncompetitive Honda engine. There is plenty of reason to party around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve this week with the city celebrating its 375th anniversary, Canada its 150th birthday and the Canadian Grand Prix its 50th. Williams driver Lance Stroll will be hoping to contribute to the party atmosphere. For the first time since the days of 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve, the Canadian Grand Prix will have some true home interest with teenager Stroll on the starting grid for Williams.