Going OTT - F1 and Motorsport 2020

[Kevin S]

It's three in a row for the Welshman.

PSA: last season I was using the WRC official website to keep tabs on the day, especially as you could listen to commentary. However they seem to have taken that away, and this site:
https://www.ewrc-results.com/results...te-carlo-2020/
appears to be easier to see everything at a glance. Also, fans are uploading their mobile videos and photos of the rally as it goes - there are a couple of Tanak's crash which show just how bad it was and how high they flipped.

Example picture:

[Sits]

Bloody hell those cars must be incredibly robust.

[Kevin S]

Yeah, and a bloody good thing too!

Today's highlights are on Red Bull TV in an hour:
https://www.redbull.com/int-en/event...020-event-info

[Third rate Leszno]

Been busy today at work so not been able to follow events live, but bloody hell that was a big one for Ott! Quite fortunate that the car cartwheeled across open ground with mainly front and rear impacts and didn't hit anything too solid, although the final drop down onto the link road probably hurt. Rooting through YouTube shows Suninen having a big twitch at the same point, very lucky he didn't go the same way.

Have noticed ITV4 are showing the highlights packages this year, every Tuesday after an event - important to get WRC back on terrestrial TV in the UK I think, especially if Elfyn can maintain this form more consistently.

[Kevin S]

Just starting watching the Red Bull TV highlights but that aren't very good this year, just talk and the odd clip rather than true highlights, so I'll wait for the ITV4 ones on Tuesday.

[Kevin S]

Got round to watching Monte last week in the end and it was first blood to Neuville. With the world champion - now his team mate - crashing out, that is a huge marker. He also scores one over his big rival Seb Ogier, who has been unbeatable in this rally.

For folk interested in the Historique, I can't find an official source of video but there's lots of footage on this YouTube search. Some real classics going round:
https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...istorique+2020

[Sits]

Could lose a lot of time on those Historique YTs.

[Third rate Leszno]

WRC Sweden seems to have got the go ahead despite having to cut large swathes of the route due to the warmer weather conditions. Really good assessment of the situation and background on the It Gets Faster Now blog here...

https://itgetsfasternow.com/2020/02/...route-altered/

[Third rate Leszno]

WRC Sweden ended up with even more of the route being chopped due to the warm weather, and all the signs are that the organisers will be allowed move it further north next year in search of more reliable winter conditions - which has always been ruled out previously because of the lack of hotel rooms in the smaller towns further north. Terrific result this year anyway (trying not to give away any spoilers).

Nice short video on the BBC website this week about Chris Ingram, last years European rally champion - well worth 5 minutes of your time, I hope he gets some sponsorship out of it because he's too good a driver to have to pack it in now.

[Third rate Leszno]

WRC Mexico taking place from today, although the next round in Argentina has been called off. With Chile already gone due to the political situation, I can't see the European rounds in Portugal or Sardinia taking place, Kenya might have a chance in July but maybe they can reconvene in Finland after the summer break and see if they can put a half season together.

My local event, the NW Stages, was due to take place on closed road stages around Garstang on the 21st, but that has now been cancelled too - by calling off at this stage before all the costs have been incurred the organisers will avoid bankrupting the organising motor club, albeit they will still lose a large amount of money. In some ways rallying could be seen as a sport that is essentially self-isolating with marshals and often spectators strung out along the route in small groups, but it's also a sport that brings a lot of its participants and followers from a wide geographical spread into rural locations where the goodwill of the local residents is paramount to the sport continuing - so it wouldn't be very good PR if an event brought a pandemic to an area that might otherwise have escaped it due to it's geographical isolation.

[Kevin S]

Hope that something like a mini season can happen. At least we got Monte in, which adds the required legitimacy to any year.

Just in case anyone was looking forward to the new European Truck Racing Championship season, the Hungary race has been postponed from April until June.

[Third rate Leszno]

So WRC Mexico was curtailed to finish on Saturday night to ensure that everyone could get home, given the number of border closures springing up around the world. Still an exciting event and it paid full points, so they'll be pleased to have that under their belts before everything closed down.

[Snake Plissken]

Vettel leaving Ferrari at the end of the season - presumably into retirement. Ricciardo moves to McLaren to partner Lando Norris.

[Third rate Leszno]

So, F1 back at the weekend then - I'm looking forward to it as it's not a sport where the absence of spectators will be as noticeable as in football. New Merc livery is nice too.

In domestic news, circuit racing begins behind closed doors this weekend but surprisingly some of the bigger circuits have announced plans to allow limited numbers of visitors from 11th July, with advance ticket sales only and social distancing at venues (inc no access to pits and paddock). In the likely ongoing absence of rallying (not allowed two people in the same car under current regs) I've jumped at the chance to watch cars going fast and booked tickets for an otherwise unremarkable race meeting at Oulton Park on 18th July - can't wait, here's hoping we don't have a local lockdown in the next two weeks....

[longeared]

The lack of spectators will be noticeable at Monza, to a lesser extent Silverstone and there'll be no mass banks of orange clad Verstappen fans in the sunshine but generally it shouldn't be too much of a problem. They struggle to get much of a turnout in places like Bahrain and China anyway so there won't be a huge amount of difference there.

The big question is how much of a season we will actually get. There's eight rounds pencilled in for Europe over the next couple of months, the season is expected to close in the Middle East with Bahrain then Abu Dhabi (both of which meetings may be turned into double headers) but beyond that, well, we don't know. There's expected to be further races in Europe at the Ferrari test track in Mugello and a new circuit on the Algarve, they may also add in Imola and / or Hockenheim. Australia, Netherlands, Monaco, France, Azerbaijan, Singapore and Japan are all definitely cancelled, USA (in Texas) and Brazil are probably unlikely given current events, hard to see them going to Mexico City, Canada has a fairly narrow window before the weather turns and that leaves just Vietnam, China and Russia outstanding from the original calendar. Liberty have said they'd like to see 15-18 rounds but that feels optimistic at present.

[Third rate Leszno]

I'd read that Sochi was considered suitable for a double header too? Guess it depends on the local virus situation nearer the time.

[Third rate Leszno]

Enjoyed qualifying earlier, though the only real surprise was how shit Ferrari looked, even against McLaren and Racing Point. RB will be needing Merc to drop the ball to stand any chance of a win I think, but it should be a decent battle for the minor points places.

[longeared]

Watching it now on Channel 4 and almost chucked something at the telly when they decided to use Matthew Syed to present their feature on racism and Black Lives Matter. Matthew Syed!

[jason voorhees]

Well, 8 races to go and a 20+ tie at the top. There will never be another easier path to getting that 2-word title in front of your name. Unless you're a petulant 11th place Ferrari driver.

[Kevin S]

I was going to say before the race that this year seems an excellent opportunity for Bottas to become WDC. And now he's got a little bit of daylight to Hamilton. A harsh penalty I think, although the first replay I saw did look like Lewis allowed himself to drift out, but I think there's a little difference between failing to avoid a collision and causing one.

Good race though. Ferrari got a result despite looking like they wouldn't (no thanks to the increasingly erratic Vettel) and Lando got on the podium. Reliability issues a-go-go in the field mean we should have some good competition for the placings in the constructor's championship too.

Side note: all Grands Prix have a unique name so that in years to come we know which race was the 2020 Austrian GP. (Hence Italy used to have Italian and San Marino GPs) So next weekend's race will be named after the state the RBR is in.

[ursus arctos]

This man goes home again more often than a stockbroker from the commuter belt

[Kevin S]

Superb. Hope they switch the black to blue for the 2021 car too.

[longeared]

Vettel has already checked out of Ferrari judging by his Austria performance so maybe everyone could get their heads together, do the Sainz / Ricciardo moves now and have Alonso in a Renault this season.

[Guy Profumo]

What's the Styrian Grand Prix when it's at home?

[jason voorhees]

What an end with Stroll-Norris-Riccardo-Perez.

What a disaster for Ferrari.

Lewis strikes back.