The 2021 Season

[Chrill]

https://www.racefans.net/2020/11/09/interlagos-and-catalunya-expected-to-return-on-2021-f1-calendar-vietnam/
No Vietnam in 2021, political bla bla reasons. But Interlagos gets a one-year extension since they need to figure out the environment bla bla in the new Rio location.

Oh, and mediocre Catalunya is still there instead of any of our lovely "new" European rounds from 2020.

[Chrill]

And here we go:
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/2021-formula-1-calendar-released/4906883/

    Australian GP - March 21
    Bahrain GP - March 28
    Chinese GP - April 11
    TBC - April 25
    Spanish GP - May 9
    Monaco GP - May 23
    Azerbaijan GP - June 6
    Canadian GP - June 13
    French GP - June 27
    Austrian GP - July 4
    British GP - July 18
    Hungarian GP - August 1
    Belgian GP - August 29
    Dutch GP - September 5
    Italian GP - September 12
    Russian GP - September 26
    Singapore GP - October 3
    Japanese GP - October 10
    United States GP - October 24
    Mexican GP - October 31
    Brazilian GP - November 14
    Saudi Arabia GP - November 28
    Abu Dhabi GP - December 5

I guess the "TBC" will be held at Portimao, Nurburgring, Hockenheim, Mugello, or Imola.

[Penfold]

Yes, they need to chop down a lot of trees for the new Rio track.  Strangely enough, some people aren't best pleased about it....

Please let the TBC one be at Mugello.  Pretty please.

[Chrill]

The TBC coincides with my 30th birthday. That's quite something!

[Penfold]

Cool.  I hope you get a good race for it.  They should let you choose the circuit.

As it happens, my birthday falls on race day in Bahrain, but it's not a landmark year and it's not a track I care for.

[Chrill]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anderstorp_Raceway

Cheers, Penfold.

[Chrill]

I Tilkefied it a bit:


Obviously, the "Start corner" needs to be more... sharp. So a quick right hander close to the start, then a hard braking point before a left-right combination leading into the equally sharp Opel corner. Following this is the ICONIC section of Hansen, the Carousel, Gislaved, and Södra (South) corner. This leads out onto the greatly extended flight straight (so named for the, well, air strip it uses). Perfect place for DRS, do you not think?

The flight straight is not straight, it turns slightly at the Norra (North) corner before heading down into the VERY interesting Ronnie Esses, quickly followed by the sweeping Volvo corner and the two kinks on the start/Finish straight. DRS here too, of course, through the second Läktar kink.

[Penfold]

Remove DRS from Flight Straight and you can have this one.  I'll drop the FIA a line and get things rolling.

[Penfold]

Doubts over Oz GP: https://www.racefans.net/2021/01/02/start-of-2021-f1-season-likely-to-be-delayed-amid-doubt-over-australian-gp/

I mean, who saw that coming...

Going to be a tricky one to squeeze back into F1's mammoth '21 calendar.

I hope you guys had a good Christmas (albeit possibly a weird one due to Covid). Also, Happy New Year to you.

[Chrill]

Happy new year!

I've been sick over Christmas and New Years, although probably not covid related since symptoms don't match. Feeling better now!

The calendar is so hectic, but maybe Australia can take the slot otherwise unoccupied. However, Australia is a country that's managed covid better than US or Europe, so assuming all teams remain in Bahrain before going to Australia F1 should be able to set up an Abu Dhabi-esque isolation zone around the circuit and host a safe Australian GP.

2021 will likely see calendar reshuffles due to the virus, albeit not as badly as the 2020 season.

Even with a vaccine in our bodies, we don't really know how contagious we are. Does the vaccine stop the spread? Not necessarily.

[Penfold]

Sorry to hear about your lack of Christmas & New Year cheer.  Glad you're back to full health now... and in time to return to work!

Don't know about Australia, takes them a good six weeks to build the temporary circuit so need a quick decision for the race to happen in March or early April.


This almost passed me by: Friday's practice sessions have been shortened to 60 minutes each - https://www.racefans.net/2020/12/30/f1-practice-cut-by-one-hour-for-2021-season/

[Chrill]

Teams usually don't drive for 90 of the 90 minutes anyway, so two 60-minute sessions frees up time in the calendar. Not necessarily a bad thing, although I would have preferred removing FP2 altogether and go 60 minutes on Friday plus 60 minutes on Saturday only.

[Penfold]

Question mark over the Chinese race as well, Imola and Algarve being touted as potential fillers for these fast-appearing calendar holes

[Penfold]

Oh yeah, also a suggestion that the Oz GP could be shunted to late November

[Chrill]

I have a suggestion. DON'T RUN 23 RACES. Let's have 23 slots and keep the potential gaps as just that. Gaps.