Tag: coronavirus

F1 2020: Abu Dhabi Gp Review – Clinical Verstappen signs off season

The saying goes that good things are worth waiting for. Red Bull have lived this adage more than most in 2020 as it was only at final race weekend that Max Verstappen could secure his first pole position of the season.

It was a stunning lap from the Dutch driver to edge out Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton by less than a tenth of a second. It may have taken seventeen qualifying sessions to secure the first place on the starting grid but it proved to be the perfect launching pad towards Verstappen’s tenth career win.

The Red Bull driver led cleanly off the line and easily gapped Bottas who in turn was able to pull away from Hamilton in third. A brief virtual safety car, which turned in a full safety car, to scoop up the stricken Racing Point of Sergio Perez prompted most of the field into the pits. But still Verstappen was unflappable in the lead of the race. Though the Abu Dhabi grand prix left a lot to be desired in terms of entertainment it was a brilliantly controlled and clinical drive from Verstappen.

For once Mercedes had no answer to the Red Bull’s pace. Second-placed Bottas never got closer than two and a half seconds and eventually finished more than ten seconds adrift by the time the chequered flag fell. Lewis Hamilton made his return after testing positive for Covid-19 but finished an unspectacular third. For most of the weekend Hamilton did appear low on energy and the 7-time champion confirmed afterwards that it was one of the most physical races he’d ever completed. Alex Albon came home in fourth and will now have to wait for news on his future with Red Bull.

It was a standout day for McLaren and Lando Norris led home teammate in Carlos Sainz in fifth and sixth respectively. The haul of eighteen points secures third place in the Constructor’s championship for McLaren. It is an especially extraordinary achievement for a team who just three years ago finished ninth out of ten teams with a paltry thirty points on the board for the entire season. To affect such a stunning turnaround in not very much time is a testament not only to the designers of the car but to the management of Andreas Seidl and Zak Brown and the ability of Norris and Sainz to not only unite the team but to also deliver on track.

Daniel Ricciardo signed off his final race at Renault with a solid seventh place finish ahead of Monza race-winner Pierre Gasly in eighth. Esteban Ocon was ninth in the other Renault while Lance Stroll could register only one point in tenth. In what has been a difficult season for all Ferrari-powered cars Kimi Raikkonen finished twelfth ahead of both works Ferrari drivers with Charles Leclerc leading home Seb Vettel, in his last race for the Scuderia, in thirteenth and fourteenth. As it were Perez was the only retirement from the race. The Mexican driver is seemingly out of the F1 picture for 2021 with only the merest of hope resting with a possible call up to Red Bull.

That Verstappen is ready to fight for a world championship is not in doubt. He showed his class once again with a faultless drive to win in Abu Dhabi. Though the Mercedes juggernaut is likely to roll on in 2021 Red Bull’s performances in the final third of this season presents a glimmer of hope. With Verstappen and the fairly unchanged regulations for next year 2021 may not be as straightforward as it appears. The good news is that there is only 93 days until we find out if Red Bull and perhaps even Ferrari have what it takes to challenge Mercedes.

All images courtesy of Pirelli Motorsport

December 13, 2020
F1 2020: Austria Gp Preview – It’s A GO….Finally

It is finally here. After months of no on-track action to speak off this weekend the 2020 Formula 1 season will finally kick-off.

The season-opener will run around the picture-perfect Red Bull Ring situated at the foothills of the Styrian Mountains. It’s been more than half a year and an awfully long dry spell for all involved but the Austrian grand prix may make the wait more than worth it.

At the outset every new season there are unknowns. Pre-season testing may have provided a rudimentary pecking order but the Red Bull Ring is a far different prospect than the traditional first race of the season around Australia’s Albert Park circuit. Instead of the unique semi-permanent street circuit F1 2020 will start on an Austrian circuit dominated by straights and heavy braking.

Though the teams all observed a compulsory shutdown period work on improving their cars has been progressing. Mercedes and Ferrari are guaranteed to bring a raft of upgrades to their cars. The number of parts may vary in comparison to the bigger teams but all teams are likely to run updated packages this weekend. Ferrari are supposedly bringing only ‘minor’ upgrades to their car. But it is believed that a new smaller and narrower nose configuration will also be introduced. Reports also suggest that Ferrari are readying an engine upgrade that is rumoured to be worth 20 to 30 BHP which could prove valuable on a circuit dominated by straights.

At Mercedes Technical chief James Allison confirmed that the team has made “significant progress” on the 2020 car and will bring a “chunk” of upgrades to Austria. It might mean that Mercedes will maintain the pre-season favourites tag. But Austria hasn’t been overly kind to Mercedes in the last few years. For one, the traditionally sky-high temperatures have severely affected the Merc on several occasions. However, as it stands the weather is forecast to be in the low twenties with 60% chances of showers on Sunday.

The more than three month delay to racing, caused by the coronavirus pandemic, ensures that the 2020 F1 season will long being remembered as one of the most unusual. In addition to the conjecture around Ferrari’s pace and Mercedes’s ability to preserve their dominance Red Bull too enter into the equation. It’s been seven years since they last won a title and the biggest question around the Austrian-owned team is whether or not a sustained challenge can be mounted for the championship. The opening rounds of this season, which include the double-header in Austria and a third round in Hungary, are circuit tailor-made to the characteristics of the Red Bull car. It is as good a chance as they’ve ever had to assert themselves in the championship fight.

In the midfield too there is great sense of anticipation. Can McLaren maintain their position as best-of-the-rest? They have momentum on their side but team’s financial difficulties add an extra layer of pressure to maximise every point-scoring opportunity. Was the pace shown by Racing Point in pre-season testing legitimate and can they keep their eye on the ball despite the team’s imminent re-branding as Aston Martin? Dubbed the ‘pink Mercedes’ due to its overwhelming similarity to the 2019 Merc the Racing Point team made a big statement in testing. It’s now though that they’ll need to prove that their pace is legitimate. Will Renault, undoubtedly under pressure from France, move forward? For a works team Renault has been languishing further down the field than it should be and must begin to show progress up the grid if it is justify its participation in the sport. Has Williams produced a car capable of scoring points? There were signs early on that the 2020 Williams was at least better than its predecessor. However, the 2019 car didn’t exactly set a high bar. The team seemed cautiously optimistic that it is moving in the right direction.

The 2019 Austrian grand prix, which culminated in a last gasp win for Max Verstappen, was easily one of the best races of the season. If the 2020 Austrian grand prix has even the slightest resemblance to it then we’re in for a cracker.

July 2, 2020
F1 2020: Formula 1 Feeling the Squeeze

Formula 1 may be the premier racing series in the world with an enormous yearly turnover but this unprecedented crisis has exposed how financially vulnerable it really is.

The opening nine races of 2020 have either been postponed or cancelled and several teams have implemented cost-cutting measures to ensure their survival. While the world continues to grapple with the crisis there is no guarantee of when, or even if, the F1 season is likely to start.

As a consequence concerns have begun to mount over whether all teams will survive. Though big teams such as Ferrari and Mercedes can weather the storm it is those down the grid that are scrambling to ensure their survival. While there may be no racing the team still have significant overheads to manage.

As one of the only true independent teams left on the grid Williams is such a team. Deputy team principal Claire Williams has said that it is absolutely critical for Williams to race in 2020 in order to ensure their presence in Formula 1. “We don’t have the backing that the majority of our competitors have up and down the grid…going racing is absolutely critical this year,” Williams said. She stressed that F1 should only go racing however if it safe to do so. Williams have already secured a fifty million pound loan through a company owned by Michael Latifi, Nicholas Latifi’s father.

Liberty Media, the sport’s commercial rights holders, has given teams a shot in the arm by providing early payment of under the profit-sharing agreement. In 2019 Formula 1 pulled in 4.2 million fans, which emphasizes the sports dependence on getting some type of calendar together for 2020. Liberty Media is believed to working on several possibilities. While one of those possibilities is the cancellation of the season it will only be considered as a last resort. Other plans include back-to-back race weekends, a truncated calendar of ten races, racing at other venues such as Imola, and having multiple races at the same track.

This crisis has once again exposed the weaknesses in Formula 1’s financial model. While top teams, read Ferrari, receive guaranteed funds those further down the field depend heavily on a portion of the profits. For years, perhaps even decades, the disproportionality of funds in Formula 1 has had to big an impact on the final product. For too long teams with nearly unlimited budgets have held the advantage while others fight tooth and nail to ensure two cars make it to the grid.

Several teams, including McLaren, have called for the incoming budget cap to pushed down to 100 million dollars. Currently, the agreed upon cap sits at 175 million dollars. This suggestion has been met by outright refusal by Ferrari. The Maranello based team has gone as far as threatening to quit the sport should the budget cap be lowered. This isn’t a new tune from Ferrari who has threatened to walk away on several previous occasions. The reality is that the sport simply isn’t financially sustainable in its current guise. While the governing bodies could choose to appease Ferrari in order to keep the famous mark on the grid they could lose two or three teams from the grid. This, Ross Brawn has said, would be catastrophic for the sport.

The sporting world is wrestling with a significant crisis that everyone wishes never materialized. Nonetheless, it is a good opportunity for Formula 1 to overhaul their financial model and to ensure the future of the sport for once and for all.

May 18, 2020
F1 2020: Breaking News – F1 Calls Off Season-Opener

Formula 1 has announced that it is calling off the opening round of the 2020 season.

The first race of the new F1 season was scheduled to take place around Australia’s Albert Park circuit this weekend. Despite fears of the coronavirus pandemic F1 surged ahead with plans to kick of its season of racing while several other major sporting codes have called a halt to activities.

Earlier on Thursday afternoon the McLaren team released a statement detailing their withdrawal from the race weekend due to a positive coronavirus test by a team member.

Towards midnight on Thursday all team principals were huddled in a meeting to discuss the way forward. By three am Australian time no decision had been made despite several rumours running rampant that the season-opener was to be postponed. Fans and journalists alike waited seemingly in vain for an official update from the power that be but nothing was forthcoming. It wasn’t until several hours later than an announcement was made that a majority of the teams had decided against racing this weekend.

“We appreciate this is very disappointing news for the thousands of fans due to attend the race” the official statement read. “All parties took into consideration the huge efforts of the AGPC [Australian Grand Prix Corporation], Motorsport Australia, staff and volunteers to stage the opening round of the 2020 FIA Formula One World Championship in Melbourne, however concluded that the safety of all members of the Formula 1 family and the wider community, as well as the fairness of the competition take priority”.

Though there are several aspects that needed to have been considered the amount of time that was taken before an official announcement was forthcoming has not endeared F1 to the racing community of its fans.

While Bahrain has already announced a race ‘behind closed doors’ it is difficult to imagine that it can go ahead. Similarly, the threat that Vietnam could soon be added to the postponement list, along with Australia and China, remains very real. The best-case scenario for F1 2020 is a season-opening race in Zandvoort. But even this remains up in the air.

March 13, 2020
F1 2020: Australian Gp Preview – Expectations & Anticipation

The wait is nearly over as the 2020 Formula 1 season is poised to commence this weekend at Australia’s Albert Park circuit.

The Formula 1 paddock will travel nearly halfway around the globe to reach the destination of the first round of the new season. They’ll leave behind not only their base of operations but also the expectations that six days of running in pre-season testing may have suggested. The testing at Spain’s circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya plays a crucial part in the teams’ own understanding of what they have produced for the first few races of the 2020 season. And while they may have some inclination as to where everyone stands it wont be absolutely confirmed until Sunday’s race.

The threat of coronavirus has already prompted Formula 1 to announce a postponement of the Chinese grand prix. A few days ago the Bahrain grand prix organizers, in conjunction with F1, revealed that the race would go ahead but without any spectators in the stands. German commercial broadcaster RTL has said that it will not be sending any journalists to the first three races of the season. RTL holds free-to-air broadcast rights for Formula 1 and will be broadcasting remotely. Italy too has announced a quarantine of spanning large parts of the country. Nevertheless, Ferrari and Formula 1 are confident that all will be in place for the season-opening race.

With the show set to go on there is also the added complexity of the make-up of the Albert Park circuit. The temporary, semi-street track is unlike any other on the calendar. The mixture of medium speed corners and three relatively short straight bits puts a bigger emphasis on braking stability. Still, Australia isn’t always the best indication of the pecking order. But there is still a potential twenty-six world championship points up-for-grabs for whoever wins the race and/or set the fastest lap.

Though the sharp-end of the grid seems likely to be dominated by the Big Three the mid-field promises to be an incredibly close battle. The stagnant regulations have meant that the 2020 cars are evolutions of their predecessors. It has, potentially, given teams the opportunity to put right any missteps there may have been in 2019 and the occasion to improve their designs for this season.

The expectation is that Mercedes will arrive in Australia with the quickest car with Red Bull and Ferrari, in that order, trailing the Silver Arrows. But Formula 1 is after all a sport that is infamously unpredictable, especially at the start of a new season. There are still questions however. Has Mercedes sorted the reliability issues suffered in pre-season testing? Did Ferrari run to their full capability? Is Racing Point genuinely nipping at the heels of the Big Three?

March 11, 2020