Marko thinks he had coronavirus in February

One day after Flavio Briatore revealed he may have had coronavirus in December, Dr Helmut Marko is telling a similar story.

"In the middle of February I had a bad cold with a strong cough," Red Bull’s top Austrian official told f1-insider.com.

"The condition lasted for ten days, which was unusually long for me," said the 76-year-old. "Today I am almost certain that it was the virus."

Marko thinks the fact that he may have then become immune to the virus could be why he didn’t get sick after travelling through Dubai airport after Australia.

"For me, that was the ultimate corona hotspot, so it shows that even older people can survive this disease," he said.

"I think it’s important to have less panic and deal with this pandemic much more rationally."

Marko says he currently works between 7am and 12pm, and then heads into the forest with his chainsaw to blow off steam.

"I am fitter than ever right now," he reports.

"I also clear my head in the forest, which is what you need with all the madness around us right now."

Marko said Graz - where he lives - is a ghost town, and combined with all the panic-buying his familiar surroundings are now "surreal".

"There are extreme restrictions," he said. "All public life in Graz is idle.

"I had to close four hotels and the associated cafes, and am now having them prepared so they can be used as alternative clinics. But that doesn’t help with the sheer existential fear that almost everyone has now.

"It feels like a war."