Some Formula 1 car manufacturers will use their knowledge and facilities to assist the British government during the coronavirus crisis.

Teams such as Red Bull, Mercedes, McLaren along with Ferrari will be able to produce more ventilators dedicated to patients with the virus who have respiratory problems. According to UK news, there is a shortage of nearly 20,000 ventilators.

“We hope that this work, which is progressing rapidly, will provide tangible results in the coming days,” say FOM on the Formula 1 website on Friday.

The Agnelli family

The announcement comes just days after the Agnelli family, which owns Ferrari and Fiat, donated 10 million euros to the Italian government to help in the crisis.

Just hours before the start of the season, which was due to begin last weekend in Melbourne, Formula One representatives decided to cancel the first Grand Prix of the year.

In a response of the UK government’ call for assistance, F1’s UK-based teams have offered their help of manufacturing or supporting the production of necessary medical devices.

“The teams are working in collaboration with Formula 1, the UK Government and other organisations to establish the feasibility of the teams producing, or supporting the production of, medical devices to help in the treatment of COVID-19 patients,” the F1 statement read.

“All the teams have expert design, technology and production capabilities, and specialise in rapid prototyping and high value manufacturing, which is hoped can be applied to the critical needs set out by Government.”

Scuderia Ferrari, FIAT-Chrysler and car parts maker Marelli have started conversation with Italy’s biggest ventilator manufacturer Siare Engineering about the possibility of helping with the assembly of ventilators or even produce parts of the devices. The production could begin at Ferrari’s Maranello headquarter.

Speaking to Reuters, the company’s CEO Gianluca Preziosa disclosed that “we’re talking to Fiat Chrysler, Ferrari and Marelli to try to understand if they can lend us a hand in this process for the electronics part.”