Formula One 2020

[BigFatCoward]

If ever there was a sport that wouldn't suffer from being behind closed doors its surely formula one. 

 

[red snow]

40 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

If ever there was a sport that wouldn't suffer from being behind closed doors its surely formula one. 

 

I think if FIA owned all the tracks it would be relatively simple. The problem is the track owners pay the FIA to host so they need ticket revenue and ancillary sales to justify it. I guess the FIA could pay the track owners to host the event this year if things get desperate. This would probably be the tracks doing it for commercial reasons rather than the ones doing it for publicity/propaganda.

[Loge]

1 hour ago, red snow said:

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.

Well, it's a driving game. Has been quite a while since I last played an F1 game as I never found them particularly interesting.  Having actually driven around the track gives you a different perspective as a spectator, though, and the 2020 edition has two new tracks.

Don't see why Codemasters shouldn't publish it. They paid for the license, after all, and also put some development work into it. Probably won't sell particularly well, though. 

[Werthead]

They've spent tens of millions of dollars on making the game, so not releasing it would be pretty crazy. The same for this year's FIFA and other sports games. Also, for all its claims, the Codemaster F1 games are not exacting simulations of the actual racing capabilities of each car, they are simplified a fair bit.

The current F1 plan seems to be to run a closed doors race at Austria in July and then two events at Silverstone as a test-run for the rest of the season. I'm dubious about moving the entire F1 circus overseas so early. Silverstone can work as 7 of the 10 teams are nearby and you could deploy there relatively easily (although Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and Toro Rosso are likely to be grumpy about it).

[williamjm]

12 hours ago, Loge said:

Well, it's a driving game. Has been quite a while since I last played an F1 game as I never found them particularly interesting.  Having actually driven around the track gives you a different perspective as a spectator, though, and the 2020 edition has two new tracks.

Don't see why Codemasters shouldn't publish it. They paid for the license, after all, and also put some development work into it. Probably won't sell particularly well, though. 

They have been getting some great free advertising for the 2019 game with the virtual Grand Prix (presumably they'll move to the 2020 game when it's ready). I did watch the previous virtual Grand Prix mostly out of a lack of anything else on and it did do a half-decent impression of a F1 race even to the extent of Charles Leclerc calmly zooming off into the distance to win.

[red snow]

I know why they are releasing it but it's pretty unfortunate given the circumstances. I'm sure most will wait for 2021 at this stage.

BBC had an article saying they are considering starting European races in July without crowds so they must be working something out with host tracks financially. Interesting they are considering 2 races at Silverstone. Wonder if there's scope to alter the track significantly

[williamjm]

10 hours ago, red snow said:

BBC had an article saying they are considering starting European races in July without crowds so they must be working something out with host tracks financially. Interesting they are considering 2 races at Silverstone. Wonder if there's scope to alter the track significantly

Looking on the Internet it seems there used to be two alternative tracks but one was decommissioned to make way for a new stand. The alternative layouts now seem to be only shorter variations of the current track.

[red snow]

8 hours ago, williamjm said:

Looking on the Internet it seems there used to be two alternative tracks but one was decommissioned to make way for a new stand. The alternative layouts now seem to be only shorter variations of the current track.

It's maybe not as simple as it sounds but can they race in the opposite direction? 

[Loge]

1 hour ago, red snow said:

It's maybe not as simple as it sounds but can they race in the opposite direction? 

If you race in the opposite direction, the run-off areas are all in the wrong places. The start procedure with those lights probably wouldn't work either. Then the pit lane exit may be right on the racing line. So, probably not feasible.  

[williamjm]

6 hours ago, red snow said:

It's maybe not as simple as it sounds but can they race in the opposite direction? 

I did wonder that as well (I don't think I ever played a racing game where I didn't try driving the wrong way round the track as some point), but I think the circuit would need to have been designed to allow that as a possibility.

[red snow]

10 hours ago, Loge said:

If you race in the opposite direction, the run-off areas are all in the wrong places. The start procedure with those lights probably wouldn't work either. Then the pit lane exit may be right on the racing line. So, probably not feasible.  

This is probably what my gut feeling was telling me. I looked it up and they have five track configurations but i suspect only 2 (maybe 3 if a track length of 1.8 miles is ling enough) are feasible. 

[Vaughn]

12 hours ago, red snow said:

It's maybe not as simple as it sounds but can they race in the opposite direction? 

Yes, but they have to drive in reverse gear. 

[Loge]

So, apparently F1 is in talks with both Spielberg and Silverstone to host two races each, on consecutive weekends. Meaning, they stay in Spielberg for two race weekends, then move on to Silverstone for another two race weekends. No audience but still a lot of people at the track. 1500 minimum is a figure I read. 

As for changing the track layout, Silverstone has two shorter track variants, but they are for other types of racing, not F1. Same as with most permanent tracks. The Red Bull Ring is a shortened version of the old Österreichring. Would be nice to see that restored, but it looks as if not even Mateschitz can push that through.

[BigFatCoward]

If they are doing the 2 weeks in a row on the same course the 2nd week would be great if the grid positions were reversed from the finishing order the week before. 

[Werthead]

23 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

If they are doing the 2 weeks in a row on the same course the 2nd week would be great if the grid positions were reversed from the finishing order the week before. 

Reversing the grid I don't think is a great idea in F1. The back markers would get overtaken by everyone immediately and the mid-fielders will just let the front-runners by because of company politics (Toro Rosso is owned by Red Bull, Racing Point is effectively the Mercedes B-team, Alfa is pretty much the Ferrari B-team, Haas buy all of their components from Ferrari) and not wanting to wreck their tyres fighting with faster cars.

That does feed into the main problem with running multiple races on the same track. Red Bull's design philosophy does not really favour either Silverstone or Spielberg, so they're going to get the short end of the stick if the championship becomes heavily dependent on the two-headers.

[Loge]

Formula 1 is an official world championship. You can't mess with the starting grid for entertainment if you want to maintain credibility as a championship. What they could do is hold non-championship races with a different format. But I guess the teams wouldn't be interested. Also, Formula 1 being what it is, drivers would probably fall back deliberately if it gave them a better grid position in the next race.

[Werthead]

Bye bye Seb.

Sort of surprising but not. We knew Seb and Ferrari had had a rocky patch, but the very positive noises this year had made the chances of him leaving look less likely. I guess ultimately they couldn't bridge the fact that Seb was now the #2 driver or, at best, on equal footing with Leclerc and he couldn't handle that reality.

The question is where he goes. He has firm offers on the table from both Renault and McLaren, both teams with potential but also some weaknesses. At McLaren I can't see him not being shown up by Norris and at Renault I doubt he'll be significantly better than Ocon. Renault can probably afford him more, but Renault's long-term commitment to F1 is questionable. McLaren would pay him less and whilst the chances of them mixing it for 3rd place in another year or two are solid, the chances of them competing for the championship in the next five years seems unlikely. Renault may be in the same boat. Of course, if Mercedes do choose to leave F1 in that time and make McLaren their works team instead, that changes the equation and make McLaren a more attractive prospect.

The problem for Vettel is that neither choice is overwhelmingly convincing at this time and he risks besmirching his reputation further. Simply quitting the sport altogether may hold more appeal.

For Ferrari they have a very solid choice of options, but seem to have narrowed in on Sainz Jr. or Ricciardo. Both are popular and will fit in well with Ferrari, the tifosi and Leclerc. Sainz Jr. is younger, hungrier and maybe a tad faster, but Ricciardo is more popular, more charismatic and more experienced. There's not much to choose between them, except that Renault are likely happy to let Ricciardo go whilst McLaren really want to hold onto Sainz.

A very left-field choice would be Alonso. It sounds insane that Ferrari would even consider it, but Alonso remains popular with a strong fanbase, and Ferrari will have to be calculating that Alonso in their 2017 and 2018 cars would have been far more likely to have won the championship, and would have made a much stronger fight of it in 2019. Alonso has the benefit that, at his age,  he's clearly not going to be coming back for 5+ years, he might only be interested in a 2-3 year deal which would allow them to continue developing Leclerc during that time. Of course, Alonso comes with very significant negatives which a lot of people at Ferrari will be well aware of.

[Raja]

Yes, please

 

[Werthead]

12 minutes ago, Raja said:

Yes, please

That would be inexplicable.

[williamjm]

6 hours ago, Werthead said:

For Ferrari they have a very solid choice of options, but seem to have narrowed in on Sainz Jr. or Ricciardo. Both are popular and will fit in well with Ferrari, the tifosi and Leclerc. Sainz Jr. is younger, hungrier and maybe a tad faster, but Ricciardo is more popular, more charismatic and more experienced. There's not much to choose between them, except that Renault are likely happy to let Ricciardo go whilst McLaren really want to hold onto Sainz.

Ricciardo seems to tick all the boxes for Ferrari, although Sainz wouldn't be a bad choice either.

Alonso would be fun to see, but I agree it seems unlikely.