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Formula 1 teams race to build ventilators

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Engineers from aerospace, consumer tech and motorsport have answered the government’s plea

In mid-March 2020, just a few days after COVID-19 had been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization, the UK government put out a plea to businesses to help make ventilators and components. To aid any companies wanting to help, the government produced a list of guidelines for designing Rapidly Manufactured Ventilator Systems (RMVS). There was a huge response, with some of the biggest names in aerospace, technology and engineering stepping up to the plate.

At the time, the UK only had some 8,000 ventilators, and the government thought that an additional 30,000 machines, made as quickly as possible, should allow the NHS to deal with the enormous increase in respiratory patients arriving at hospital with COVID-19.