Motorsport Off Topic Thread

Flibster · 22 Jul 2020 at 18:37

At least for them the 2021 car is going to be a continuation of the 2020 car so they're not going to have a rush to get a new car and spares packages ready.

Still going to be busy for the teams though.

chrismscotland · 23 Jul 2020 at 14:08

Supposedly Imola, Portimao and Nurburgring will follow Sochi, and there's a backup plan for a 3rd Silverstone Race if the Spanish GP can't happen as restrictions have been re-imposed in some areas of Catalunya.

MissChief · 23 Jul 2020 at 14:27

chrismscotland said:
Supposedly Imola, Portimao and Nurburgring will follow Sochi, and there's a backup plan for a 3rd Silverstone Race if the Spanish GP can't happen as restrictions have been re-imposed in some areas of Catalunya.

It won’t be very warm in Bavaria in October. 8-10’C is the norm.

Mr Jack · 23 Jul 2020 at 14:33

MissChief said:
It won’t be very warm in Bavaria in October. 8-10’C is the norm.

The Nürburgring is not in Bavaria, it's in Rhineland-Palatinate. Not that it's that much better, with an average daily high of 12.5 in October, and about 4 hours of sunshine a day in Nurburg.

this_is_gav · 24 Jul 2020 at 10:58

The 1995 race was run in October with a temperate of 9c. It was a cracker. Bring it on.

chrismscotland · 24 Jul 2020 at 11:37

USA, Mexico, Canada and Brazil cancelled for 2020 - Imola, Portimao and Nurburgring to be added:

11/10/20 - Nurburgring
25/10/20 - Portimao
01/11/20 - Imola

Hanoi and Sepang possibilities for November - Two Races in Bahrain and one in Abu Dhabi to finish the season.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/53527355

this_is_gav · 24 Jul 2020 at 11:59

I know a world championship should have races around the world, but returning to a calendar of largely European classic tracks and fewer Tilkedrones leaves me feeling warm and cosy.

Still hope they go nuts for any second Bahrain race and use the outer circuit.

Still a shame to lose Interlagos and to a lesser degree COTA and Mexico City though.

englishpremier · 24 Jul 2020 at 14:29

Never understood why in the other threads people were saying "oh but it's such a short season blah blah blah" F1 had been continuously saying they would have up to 18 races. That is not a 'such a short season' in fact it was a regular season not so long ago.

MikeTheNative · 24 Jul 2020 at 14:44

At the WEC Spa race last year it was snowing!! But it was May mind.

CaptainRAVE · 24 Jul 2020 at 16:08

chrismscotland said:
USA, Mexico, Canada and Brazil cancelled for 2020 - Imola, Portimao and Nurburgring to be added:

11/10/20 - Nurburgring
25/10/20 - Portimao
01/11/20 - Imola

Hanoi and Sepang possibilities for November - Two Races in Bahrain and one in Abu Dhabi to finish the season.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/53527355

this_is_gav said:
I know a world championship should have races around the world, but returning to a calendar of largely European classic tracks and fewer Tilkedrones leaves me feeling warm and cosy.

Still hope they go nuts for any second Bahrain race and use the outer circuit.

Still a shame to lose Interlagos and to a lesser degree COTA and Mexico City though.

Agreed. I’ve seen a fair few Ferrari fans crying out that it isn’t a ‘world’ championship though

GravyMonster · 24 Jul 2020 at 16:13

With this exception of that grotty car park in Russia I think this year is just about the best calendar that F1 has ever had.

The only tracks I am missing this year are Montreal, Suzuka and Interlagos.

CaptainRAVE · 24 Jul 2020 at 16:21

Spunkey said:
With this exception of that grotty car park in Russia I think this year is just about the best calendar that F1 has ever had.

The only tracks I am missing this year are Montreal, Suzuka and Interlagos.

Agreed, Zandvoort looks like it could be quality too. We’ve certainly filtered out some crap this year.

Deleted member 651465 · 24 Jul 2020 at 21:20

Gutted about COTA and Brazil, less so about Mexico.

mjt · 25 Jul 2020 at 00:36

Great to see F1 on some classic European tracks again. Can’t believe it’s been been almost 10 years since the circus last rolled through the ‘Ring!

FWIW it’s only about 60 miles away from Spa so similar weather. Can’t imagine there’ll be snow but should make for a good race in any case

-edit Kimi’s front suspension failure was 15 years ago now. Blimey!

JRS · 29 Jul 2020 at 16:28

Alonso looking to the '22 season rule changes.

Did think this bit was particularly interesting - an additional reason beyond past success that Renault jumped to sign Alonso when they did:

Abiteboul has reiterated his promise to junior drivers Guanyu Zhou and Christian Lundgaard that they will one day be given their chance in F1 after they were overlooked for a race seat as extenuating circumstances forced his hand to sign Alonso.

"As for young drivers like Guanyu Zhou, the main difficulty we had with them for this year - and specifically for this year - was that with the delay to the season starting, we didn't know if they would be eligible for a superlicence at the end of the year," added Abiteboul.

"That would be mid-December. The question is: can we afford to wait until the middle of December to find out if he, or Christian Lundgaard, could be one option for next year? The simple answer is no.

"It doesn't mean we have a lack of interest, or commitment or loyalty for bringing them into Formula 1. We will do that. That's part of the programme, part of the commitment to them, and I will make sure that it happens.

"But there was a bit of a difference in timing this year, and we are obviously very happy to go for this option with Fernando, who is arguably one of the best drivers in Formula One history, so why would you refuse?"

I didn't even think about the knock-on effect of the delays getting the race season going on superlicences.

chrismscotland · 30 Jul 2020 at 10:37

Istanbul in talks to be one of the races for 2020 - that would be awesome!!!

https://www.planetf1.com/news/istanbul-f1-return-2020/

Although the article does say

Motorsportweek.com report though that any comeback for Istanbul in the short-term is unlikely with the circuit lacking an FIA licence “of any kind”.

They add that a top-level motorsport event hasn’t taken place there since the FIA World Rallycross series competed at Istanbul Park in 2015.

Surely should be straightforward to re-grant the relevant FIA license if the circuit and facilities are still up to scratch surely?

413x · 30 Jul 2020 at 16:04

Wonder how many races we will get this year. Is there a certain number required to be a championship ?

Mr Jack · 30 Jul 2020 at 17:02

413x said:
Wonder how many races we will get this year. Is there a certain number required to be a championship ?

8. And 15 to meet TV contracts.

413x · 30 Jul 2020 at 17:27

Mr Jack said:
8. And 15 to meet TV contracts.

15..that's going to be tough ask

englishpremier · 30 Jul 2020 at 18:42

Not really. We'll have had 5 already after Silverstone

Motorsport Off Topic Thread

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