Welcome to The Official Formula 1 2020 Season Thread!

This is the last year before the significant rule changes in 2021 2022, so we can expect some continuity in the car design. But can we expect continuity in the finishing order of the championship? (Yes.) The 2019 season saw the top 3 teams finish in the same order as the previous year, so in many ways 2019 was, frankly, kind of boring. There wasn't much to get excited about when Mercedes was on pole by 0.8sec in the first race of the season, and despite a mid-season flourish from Ferrari, they never mounted a serious challenge to the Mercedes Wehrmacht.

On the race calendar we get a Dutch GP at Zandvoort which has some serious updates to get up to modern FIA standards. The last race was held there at 1985. Allegedly we'll also get a Vietnamese GP on the streets of Hanoi.

Schedule Changes:
As of 2/12 the Chinese GP is postponed due to coronavirus. Rescheduling is looking very unlikely with no team consensus so the race is effectively cancelled.
As of 3/8 the Bahrain GP will be a televised only event with no fans allowed at the track
As of 3/11 Mclaren pulls out of the Australian GP after team member tests positive for Coronavirus
As of 3/12 The Australian GP is cancelled with fans standing at the gates waiting for FP1 to start.
As of 3/13 Bahrain and Vietnam GP's are "postponed"
As of 3/19 Dutch, Spanish GP's postponed, Monaco GP is canceled. 2021 new technical regulations pushed out to 2022.
As of 3/20 F1 launches the Esports Virtual Grand Prix series to replace canceled races.
As of 3/23 Baku "postponed" aka cancelled
As of 4/7 The Formula 1 organization, Mclaren, Williams, and Racing Point have put staff on furlough and reduced salaries for drivers and executives.
As of 4/7 Canadian GP is "postponed"
As of 4/9 Renault furloughs a majority of staff.
As of 4/13 French president Emmanuel Marcon confirmed the ban on public gatherings is set to continue into July, throwing the June 28th French GP into doubt.
As of 4/15 Belgian Prime Minister Sophie Wilmes has confirmed the government has extended its ban on large public events until September which includes the Belgian Grand Prix which is set to take place on August 30.
As of 4/21 the French GP is cancelled.
As of 5/28 the Dutch GP at Zandvoort is cancelled.
As of 6/12 the Japan, Singapore and Azerbaijan GPs are cancelled.
As of 7/10 Sochi will be the first flyaway race and Ferrari's 1000th F1 race will be held at Mugello.
As of 7/24 F1 announced that it is abandoning plans to race in the Americas, so the USGP, Canadian, Mexican, and Brazilian GP's are canceled. Algarve, Nurburgring, and Imola added.
As of 8/25 F1 added Istanbul, Bahrain, Bahrain, and Abu Dhabi as the last 4 races bringing the total to 17 pending Istanbul's homologation.

Published 7/24, updated 8/25 with last 4 races.
5 July - Austrian GP, Red Bull Ring
12 July - Styrian GP, Red Bull Ring
19 July - Hungarian GP, Hungaroring
2 August - British GP, Silverstone
9 August - 70th Anniversary GP, Silverstone
16 August - Spanish GP, Barcelona
30 August - Belgian GP, Spa-Francorchamps
6 September - Italian GP, Monza
13 September - Tuscan GP, Mugello
27 September - Russian GP, Sochi
11 October - Eifel GP, Nurburgring
25 October - Portuguese GP, Algarve
1 November - Emilia-Romagna GP, Imola
15 November - Turkish GP, Istanbul Park
29 November - Bahrain GP, Bahrain International Circuit
6 December - Sakhir GP, Bahrain International Circuit
13 December - Abu Dhabi GP, Yas Marina Circuit


Teams:

- Ferrari showed signs of having a superior engine that delivered wins in Spa, Monza, and surprisingly Singapore. There are questions about the legality of whatever they were doing as they didn't appear to hold that engine advantage through the finish of the season. VET showed he's an ******* still and gets the red mist when his teammate isn't a lapdog. Sort it out guys.

- Mercedes showed the power of having a large and well organized engineering organization that could throw resources at various technical issues and optimize solutions. We also saw some strokes of genius and curious mistakes from the strategy team. BOT drove better than 2018 but didn't get close to HAM often enough to be a threat. That's probably the perfect driver combo. Either way they still look to be on top for another year, but...

- A Honda-powered car won 3 races at the hands of Max Verstappen. This bodes well for 2020 but one does wonder if the Red Bull organization has the depth and sophistication that it once had when it was winning championships. If the car is still an aero masterpiece as it was when Adrian Newey was fully committed to the program then it must be that the Honda engine still has a deficit to the Merc and Ferrari powerplants. Based on the unremarkable strategy calls and uncertain performance of the car from race to race, I'd argue that the team could benefit from growth in all significant areas: engine, aero, car setup, and race strategy departments.

As for the Formula 1.5 teams, Renault got beat by their customer team showing that they still don't have a cohesive aero / car design strategy. Mclaren's resurgence is a surprise, but a welcome one to be sure.

- Mclaren has the most loveable driver lineup. Hopefully Norris can keep maturing after putting in an almost exceptional first year.

- Renault picks up Esteban Ocon to drive alongside Daniel Ricciardo. Hulkenberg had yet another unremarkable season sadly. Always the brisdemaid, never the bride when it came to getting on the podium. With Carlos Ghosn slipping out of Japan in a musical instrument box and hiding out in Lebanon there is fresh worry about the Renault alliance's interest in funding both a mediocre F1 team and an engine nobody wants.

- Toro Rosso went from 9th to 6th in the constructors championship and will be renamed Alpha Tauri or some such nonsense. They scored a 2nd place finish at a wild Brazil race, which was a nice consolation prize for Gasly who got dumped by Red Bull mid-season.

- Force India / Racing Point / The Pink Car would have finished 5th in 2018 and so it slid to 7th in 2019. Not a good start, Boris. I guess it was inevitable they'd have a rough year considering they ran out of cash last year and Perez effectively forced them into bankruptcy in mid-2018 by demanding he get paid.

- Sauber / Alpha Romeo basically stood still in the standings despite picking up 2007 WDC winner Kimi Raikkonen. After having an ambitious aero developement in the preseason it looks like they basically had the same car all year. They had a nice points haul at the Brazil GP where 5 of the usual 6 top cars slid off the track.

- Haas still looks like a bunch of fvcking vankers. Please stop being a national embarrassment guys. I got $10 that says GRO cries at some point in 2020.

- That leaves Williams. I'm too distraught to discuss 2019 though. The team picks up Nicholas Latifi who finished 2nd in Formula 2 (formerly GP2) to drive alongside 2 year veteran George Russel.

 

Fool content?

 

p much

wait, no, i added something

 

Charles Leclerc has extended his contract with the Ferrari Formula 1 team through the end of 2024.

 

page 1

 

 

 

I stil am not sure if i should buy tickets for the Vietnam GP.
It's only like a 2hrs plus flight from where i live.

But.....another Tilke track though....and it's a street circuit.

Don't know if i wanna splurge on the grandstand or turn 1-2 tix.

 

Now that is what you should race in lemons. Make it out of an old aircraft fuel tank.

 

Takashi that is a tough call. I think the first year of an event is usually difficult as the infrastructure is usually not fully in place. If you are comfortable visiting Vietnam and finding a place to stay then maybe it's worth it.

For the first year of the USGP I paid for parking at the track which turned out to be a good idea since the buses were overwhelmed and people waited ours to get to the track and missed some of the sessions.

 

Hmmm being in the middle of Hanoi i hope it wont be too hard to walk back to the hotel. But it's a gamble right now.

I was hoping since it's the first race for the country, so they will make a big fuss about it and have lots of events/concerts on the side.

And......part of me just wants to see Kimi race for the last time. Oh wait....maybe he will sign for another 2yrs LOL

 

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Thanks falcon.

 

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Kubica returns to Sauber as a sim driver - the team he won his only race with at the 2008 Canadian GP.

Sauber also picked up a new co-title sponsor, and it's Kubica's sponsor so now he gets to drive the simulator and the team is called Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN

PKN Orlen is a big polish oil refinery / distributor and it has the usual corruption / political bribery history with one episode getting its own wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlengate

 

you know its legit when it has it's own "-gate" suffix.

 

CL WDC 2020

 

nah, they will **** it up.

They need Toto and HAM on a package deal.

 

will HAM get old and play 2nd fiddle to a LEC WDC?

 

The blessed one will be blessed with a a 7th tittle this year.
Then one more in 2021 to be the new GOAT.

Off to being an influencer or whatever "artist" he wants to be after that.

As for Kubica, i think his sponsors should just buy him a Formula-E seat.

 

Or is this Ferrari talk a ploy to get ginourmous contracts from mercedes for Toto and HAM

 

its definitely good to find the highest bidder for your services

 

How much money does HAM really need? He's won 4 titles in 5 years with no real threat other than ROS in 2016, I imagine he has to be bored in some capacity.

 

ALL OF IT!

 

HAM is going after MSC 91W 7WDC even though he is too #blessed to say it

then imagine getting WDC 8 with big red in 2021

how do you say "tifosi are the best fans" in italian