Formula One 2020

[lmanion]

The latest was there would be some sort of go ahead with no fans allowed into the track. An official announcement hast actually happened yet but I would say that F1 wont run this weekend but some of the other support categories may still go ahead for Australian tv

[Werthead]

20 minutes ago, lmanion said:

The latest was there would be some sort of go ahead with no fans allowed into the track. An official announcement hast actually happened yet but I would say that F1 wont run this weekend but some of the other support categories may still go ahead for Australian tv

The race itself won't run. Vettel and Raikkonen have flown home and the teams have started packing up. McLaren was ahead of the curve and started packing up hours earlier.

[lmanion]

Yeah since I posted it's officially been announced and the supports are packing up as well which is a shame as I was looking forward to seeing the s5000 category run

[Werthead]

Eight McLaren team members now in self-isolation because of close contact with the diagnosed engineer.

This also makes it highly likely that McLaren will skip Bahrain as well, which means the race cannot run. Red Bull have said they don't want to go either. Authorities in Hanoi are also expected to announce cancellation of the Vietnam Grand Prix fairly imminently.

There seems to be little confidence of being able to race in the Netherlands in May either. So the whole season will need to be called off, or China might recover in time to run the Shanghai race in December, maybe as the only race of the season at this rate.

If the season is called off, it will be the first year in the sport's history that a championship has not taken place.

[Loge]

Hmm. This may very well be the end of Formula One as we knew it. If there aren't any races then there's no revenue. I don't hink the sport can survive that. 

[Werthead]

Australia, Bahrain, Vietnam and China are all cancelled. F1 will keep the situation under review with a current eye on remounting the season in the Netherlands at the start of May, otherwise they can look at a later date. Other sources reporting that the August summer break could be cancelled and two or three races slotted in there to make up for lost time.

9 hours ago, Loge said:

Hmm. This may very well be the end of Formula One as we knew it. If there aren't any races then there's no revenue. I don't hink the sport can survive that. 

Most of the teams are okay, their main income comes from elsewhere and they can survive the loss of revenue for a year: Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull (and by extension Alpha Tauri) and Renault at least will be fine. Racing Point will be kept propped up by its billionaire owners. McLaren and Alfa Romeo will take a hit but probably not fatally.

I could see Haas and Williams having problems. Haas is bankrolled by its owner and his autoparts business, so they can ride it out for at least a season but given that Gene Haas has soured on F1 recently this might convince him to jack it in. Williams have a lot of other things that have spun off from their business, but again they've been considering their options in recent years and this might tip them over the edge.

I think the regulation change next year and the fact that they can all start working on the 2021 cars in earnest now, months ahead of schedule, has to be very tempting, with the assumption that 2021 will go ahead or, if the pandemic is still ongoing, they can come up with a more practical fallback position.

[red snow]

I still don't see why the whole season has to be called off if racing (in Northern hemisphere) can commence from summer. I think as long as there are 10-12 races that can count as a season still? 

Financially i guess the sport needs to pull together and support the smaller teams if they want to keep the number of drivers the same.

I fully believe the delay is due to public health but an unintended consequence is that all the other teams now have over a month to develop DAS and not suffer the advantage mercedes might have as the only team with it. Which probably helped sway things and might make the racing closer when it comes back.

I still think the biggest problem will be whether we have any host tracks next year outside the "we pay for the publicity out of our dubious national incomes/practices". Silverstone somehow only breaks even as do a lot of European races. If they lose revenue from a race that doesn't occur it could sink those tracks financially.

I hope f1 is trying to plan for a condensed season (after everyone "has" coronavirus and these measures make no difference) by using all of August and squeezing back to back races.

I wonder if people who pay subscription fees to watch F1 will get a refund? 

[williamjm]

4 hours ago, red snow said:

I still don't see why the whole season has to be called off if racing (in Northern hemisphere) can commence from summer. I think as long as there are 10-12 races that can count as a season still? 

That would still be more races than some of the early years, the first F1 season was only 7 races, for example.

4 hours ago, red snow said:

I fully believe the delay is due to public health but an unintended consequence is that all the other teams now have over a month to develop DAS and not suffer the advantage mercedes might have as the only team with it. Which probably helped sway things and might make the racing closer when it comes back.

It's also possible any team worried about cashflow might decide to cut any major developments for this year since they're going to see reduced benefits from them anyway due to the smaller number of races.

I'd imagine some teams might be shutting their factories down for a while, presumably the Italian teams don't have any choice in the matter at the moment.

4 hours ago, red snow said:

I still think the biggest problem will be whether we have any host tracks next year outside the "we pay for the publicity out of our dubious national incomes/practices". Silverstone somehow only breaks even as do a lot of European races. If they lose revenue from a race that doesn't occur it could sink those tracks financially.

 A lot of track owners are probably frantically scouring their insurance policies to see what losses they might be covered for.

[Loge]

Right now nobody knows how long travel restrictions and other countermeasures will stay in place but we are just at the beginning of the whole thing. This won't be over in a month. Some races can be postponed, others can't because the tracks aren't permanent. The Australian GP blocks Albert Park for other uses, which they can't keep up indefinitely. Monaco definitely requires a huge effort in preparation of the GP, so there isn't much room for delays either. Same in Singapore and probably some others. Then there's the matter of logistics. You can have to races in Europe back to back but not overseas. 

As for the financial side, each race cancelled in revenue lost. TV networks and sponsors don't pay for races that didn't happen. Neither do track owners. I guess F1 saves a bit on the logistics but most of the cost, particularly personnel, remains.

 

[red snow]

There's an interview with ross braun on bbc that covers quite a lot. For instance they could do 2 day race events to allow more time between weekly races.

While teams might save money by not developing through the season i imagine this is nothing compared to loss in sponsoring some of which may need repaid.

I think as soon as it is possible they will be back up and running. There's too much money at stake. Also it's good for morale to get back to normal ASAP and sporting events restarting is a good way of doing this

[Loge]

Ferrari had to close down their factory. So much for using the time to do more development work.

[Werthead]

A Pirelli worker is out with C19, with other team-members self-isolating.

Rumours (via the BBC and a few other F1 sites) that they've privately written off the Netherlands and especially Spain, and the first race they think might have a realistic chance of going ahead is Monaco. A lot of the drivers already live there (so limited travel is needed for them, but the teams will be another matter) and because it's a small location, they can limit people coming in and out according to the situation, race without crowds on the streets etc.

However, there are also multiple contingency plans to hold fire all the way to August. Presumably there must also be a reasonable chance that the entire season will be written off.

[Loge]

Netherlands, Spain, and Monaco have ben officially postponed. Meanwhile, F1 discusses postponing the new rules to 2022 and using this year's cars in 2021.

[red snow]

34 minutes ago, Loge said:

Netherlands, Spain, and Monaco have ben officially postponed. Meanwhile, F1 discusses postponing the new rules to 2022 and using this year's cars in 2021.

Looking messy. They did say they'd treat this month as the holiday break. This is a sensible idea because 3 out of those 4 weeks are supposed to involve complete closure of the team factories. This means no-one is losing on development time while self-isolating. In fact 3 weeks should mean the teams at least will be pretty robust in terms of having/not having the virus.

[williamjm]

5 hours ago, Loge said:

Netherlands, Spain, and Monaco have ben officially postponed. Meanwhile, F1 discusses postponing the new rules to 2022 and using this year's cars in 2021.

Monaco has been cancelled since they say it wouldn't be possible to run it on another weekend.

Delaying the new rules and their huge development costs until 2022 does seem very sensible.

[Werthead]

Prince Albert is down with coronavirus as well, although I'll hazard a guess that his healthcare is excellent.

[Loge]

Baku has also been postponed.

[Toth]

It's weird. I'm out of following the Formula 1 since the days of Häkkinen and Schumacher and yet I am watching now since the F1 went all E-sports:

They do have the full race on their channel as well. I must admit, I found that far more entertaining to watch than actual Formula One. XD

A special highlight was that Lando Norris was placed last because his internet disconnect during the qualifying. Which in turn caused some antics in which he called all kinds of people for advice on how to deal with that:

 

[Loge]

Racing Point is to become Aston Martin, as Lawrence Stroll is now a major shareholder there. Rumor also has it that Toto Wolff is about to invest in Aston Martin and leave the Mercedes F1 team. I wonder what this means for Red Bull. Formula One is definitely in for a major shakeup.

[red snow]

F1 2020 game to be released in july without a hint of irony 

Can't wait for this. New management mode allows you to attend board meetings where you cancel events on a rolling basis. Instead of pit stops you get to run covid-19 tests of team members through a virtual lab. Get to post instagram messages highlighting how redundant and out of touch you are with reality. And for the first time, play as struggling celebrities across the sporting world in the first F1 simulator, simulator! Game may not include disc.