F1 Ventilator Flops as Engineers Get it Wrong and UK Government Cancels Order

IT is being widely reported in the UK that the British Government has cancelled an order for several thousand ventilators being produced by a consortium including the Red Bull and Renault Formula 1 teams.

Known as the BlueSky ventilator it was being developed alongside specialist manufacturers Life Technologies but the order was cancelled as experts fear that the ventilators would not be suitable for treating coronavirus due to worries that the device would be unable able to cope with numerous changes of setting which would be required to remove fluid from the lungs, which often affects sufferers.

A spokesman for the Cabinet Office (which is responsible for ordering the ventilators) explained that the decision was made “following a reassessment of the product’s viability in light of the ever-developing picture around what is needed to most effectively treat Covid-19.”

All of the Formula 1 UK based manufacturers are attempting to produce viable ventilators for the NHS which needs to increase the number it possesses from 10,000 to 18,000 although in the last week, just 200 machines have been added to the stockpile.

Whilst around 2,000 are on order from existing manufacturers, there are numerous provisional orders such as that placed for the BlueSky machine but a government spokesperson revealed that there are currently sufficient beds and ventilators still available so that anyone “who needs intensive care treatment or a ventilator has access to it.”