THE F1 COVID THREAD: Will GP be cancelled?

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

Arabia's a continent isn't it?

It's a peninsula, all be it a very large one.

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

It's a peninsula, all be it a very large one.

Close enough.

[el_cat]

Originally Posted by midgetman

I've been told there are a number of Middle East circuits looking for a date. I can't name them because I can't think of any, but I'm sure there's enough in the kitty to organise a track inspection and upgrade where needed.

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Losail, Dubai and Kuwait Motor Town are all (or have had) Grade 1 rating in recent years, so I assume those are the contenders.

I always thought Losail would crop up at some point - I’m sure the Qatari government are keen to showcase their country before the World Cup, and a last minute GP could be a great example of a “can do” attitude they might think will find favour.

Would be rubbish for racing on though

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

Close enough.

Italy is also a peninsular.

[midgetman]

Yes.my friend did say Qatar I'm sure.

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[Greem]

If Australia (a country) is regarded as a continent, and Australasia is too, and Oceania is also... Does that make Australia an in-continent continent or an in-continent country?

Sorry, it's late, and you lot have been frothing about geopolitical and geographical gubbins waaaaay too much

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Greem

If Australia (a country) is regarded as a continent, and Australasia is too, and Oceania is also... Does that make Australia an in-continent continent or an in-continent country?

Sorry, it's late, and you lot have been frothing about geopolitical and geographical gubbins waaaaay too much

If Australia is an in-continent country, I hope they haven't been caught short by the shortage of toilet rolls because the panic buying.

[Armco Bender]

After all that Australia is locked up tight as a drum....wont be no GP's there for a while.

[S griffin]

Could always switch to New Zealand then, they've probably handled the crisis better than most if not all

[crmalcolm]

20 November 2010 - Sheikh Zayed Stadium
3 September 2006 - Emirates Stadium

Why are these dates and venues significant? On these occasions, international sporting fixtures were held where the 'home' nation was not from the country hosting the fixture.

In terms of F1, and particularly when the prospect of multiple races at the same track or country, could we see certain countries 'host' their GPs outside of their borders?
The Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix 2020 being held at Silverstone?
The Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix being held at Imola?

It still gives the race sponsors the opportunity to have their event held, and adds a sense of variation to the calendar?

[peebee2]

That’s a brilliant point.

And, of course, the Swiss GP was held in France too.

[rbs]

Originally Posted by peebee2

That’s a brilliant point.

And, of course, the Swiss GP was held in France too.

The Luxembourg GP'swere held in Germany( Nurburgring).

[ascarracinguk]

Great idea!.....I vote for the Texas GP to be held in Mexico.....or Chiiiinnnnnnaaaaa

see the orange baby go red ;-p

[Greem]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

If Australia is an in-continent country, I hope they haven't been caught short by the shortage of toilet rolls because the panic buying.

That explains *everything*.

[ascarracinguk]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

If Australia is an in-continent country, I hope they haven't been caught short by the shortage of toilet rolls because the panic buying.

You really need to stop taking the pi$$ out of such situations...….

[Richard C]

To be fair to everyone, no single "home" GP should be hosted in its home country. British GP at Monza and Italian GP at Silverstone, US and Mexico could swap, etc.! If only we had a French GP on the schedule!

Richard

[Moneyseeker]

In other news/..

Apparently ticket sales for the Japanese GP have been 'postponed'

Stuart Pringle from Silverstone saying it is not a given that they will be able to meet government guidance on social distancing, etc even without spectators.

"Our obligations to protect the health and safety of everyone involved in preparing and delivering the event, our volunteer marshals and race makers, and of course, you, the amazing fans, means that this is the best, safest and only decision we could make."

However, in a subsequent interview, he admits that even without spectators and with team personnel numbers stripped down to the bare minimum, the event may still not meet the guidelines recommended by the government in terms of public gatherings.

"Even with no public this will be a reasonable size gathering," he admits to Motorsport.com, "and there will be the compliances with all the new procedures and protocols that we'll have to adhere to. We don't know what those are yet, and we don't know how to implement them."

[Richard C]

It's not F1, but here in NC it looks like things are progressing toward a NASCAR race at Charlotte.

https://www.autoweek.com/racing/nasc...otor-speedway/

It don't follow NASCAR at all, but when reading that article it talked about an interesting issues and that is pitstops. It's hard to practice social distancing during pitstops! It sounds like NASCAR is considering changes in how pitstops are done.

I occasionally crew for some friends in a grassroots endurance series (Chumpcar) here in the US. For that series there is a minimum time for pitstops (I think five minutes). I believe a large part of this is to increase safety by not having amateur crews rush activities like refueling, getting a new driver safely buckled in, etc. They also have a pretty small limit of number of people "over the wall" as well.

I was thinking about something like this for F1. To reduce the amount of crew working on a car at a given time. Right now there is an army of crew who descend upon a car during an F1 pit-stop. But there are issues. Such as the car sitting too long while hot. How you would police this. And lastly, would the sport and fans even support such as restriction (probably not).

I do think that long term it might be good to consider reducing the number of crew who do the pitstops. Super quick stops are visual interesting, but frankly if everyone is doing it, then it doesn't add much to the race. You could argue it actually hurts the race. Teams now know the short deltas for stops and allows them to minimize the places lost and it makes it much easier to know where they will slot back into the race. Long stops will shuffle the order more and make it harder to predict the optimal times to pit.

Richard

[wolfhound]

I don't think there is much problem with F1 pitstops with all the fire proof gear people wear and it only takes a couple of seconds to complete.

In this part of the world we are being told you need to be within 2 meters for 10 minutes or more to pick up covid-19.

[el_cat]

Hungarian government extend restrictions on events over 500 people to mid-August, which of course puts the GP at risk

[thetool]

Originally Posted by el_cat

Hungarian government extend restrictions on events over 500 people to mid-August, which of course puts the GP at risk

Essentially cancels the Hungarian GP, in the same way as France/Belgium.

[bjohnsonsmith]

According to this Racer article, "If the race in Hungary is to take place, it will now have to be after August 15 due to a government announcement that events with more than 500 participants cannot be held before that date. F1 will need more than 1000 people in order to host a grand prix."

https://racer.com/2020/04/30/hungari...by-government/

[Moneyseeker]

Originally Posted by thetool

Essentially cancels the Hungarian GP, in the same way as France/Belgium.

All of which shows the hopelessness of FOM trying to chase their tail around the globe. The inevitable outcome is that they may be able to run some non-spectator races with no promoter fees, effectively paying the circuit to hold the race at huge cost, but you cannot hope to put on a global series in competition with a global pandemic.

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[Moneyseeker]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

According to this Racer article, "If the race in Hungary is to take place, it will now have to be after August 15 due to a government announcement that events with more than 500 participants cannot be held before that date. F1 will need more than 1000 people in order to host a grand prix."

https://racer.com/2020/04/30/hungari...by-government/

Pringle from Silverstone said in his last interview that they were looking at centralised catering for the teams, officals, etc which would involve catering for 2,000 people per day - interesting info.

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[S griffin]

Wonder which country will be safe enough to take Hungary’s spot?