The 2020 Season

[Penfold]

Race not yet cancelled, FIA keeping us all guessing.  Bahrain & Vietnam certainly doubtful as you say, and they can forget about the early European rounds.  How about everyone reconvenes in Baku in early June?

As we're on the subject, here's a piece about why the virus might be flourishing in certain locales: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/03/12/coronavirus-belt-britain-right-centre-virus-danger-zone/

Fingers crossed for a warm Spring.

[Chrill]

Seems the few teams present are currently packing it up, plus the premier of the region confirmed no fans will be let in due to new health and safety recommendations. This race is not happening.

Also, those rumours of Kimi and Seb flying out earlier this morning implies (if true) that they very well knew. Why has the FIA or F1 not made a statement? That is beyond unacceptable, it is absolutely shameful and despicable. Guests are queueing outside Melbourne Park because no statement is out.

[Penfold]

They officially pulled the plug just a few hours before P1.  The decision to cancel was clearly taken in that Thursday afternoon meeting (as reported by the BBC within an hour of said meeting finishing), and yet they waited until Friday morning to make a public statement.

As you say, this is a despicable way to treat the racegoers, and yet it's also a sad indictment of the FIA that I'm not in the least bit surprised at their shambolic handling of the situation....

[Penfold]

Bahrain & Vietnam GP cancelled; situation in Europe being monitored to see whether races at Zandvoort, Barcelona, or Monaco will proceed in May (of course they won't): https://www.racefans.net/2020/03/13/official-f1-calls-off-bahrain-grand-prix-and-vietnams-first-race/

I still think Baku is the earliest we can expect the season to get under way.

[Chrill]

Baku at earliest indeed. I wouldn't be surprised if the season starts after the summer break, assuming the coronavirus dies down. It has died down in Wuhan, but the benefit of being a dictatorship is you can lock your citizens in their houses. It looks to be slowing in Sweden too, but countries like Italy and USA are still developing. We could realistically expect it to peak within 60-90 days though, and F1 should be able to start some 1-2 months after the peak.

[Chrill]

A lot of work ongoing to build a new schedule for F1:

* Remove the summer break
* Reschedule races to double headers
* Potentially move the season back so that it runs into early 2021 (this could also lead to the 2021 season running with the current regulations, to give teams proper time for the new cars for 2022 instead)
* Two-day race weekends (Sat+Sun) to enable more triple headers

Monaco GP is unlikely to happen, but they are preparing for it to happen. Also, some reports claim that F1 is trying to reschedule it for August whereas others say it will be cancelled.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/brawn-summer-break-coronavirus/4752437/
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/dutch-gp-lammers-date-zandvoort/4751012/

Ferrari has shut down their factory due to the coronavirus:
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/ferrari-suspends-operations-coronavirus-pandemic/4752234/

[Penfold]

I'd rather have a shortened season than run it into '21, but the other ideas are all perfectly reasonable.  Mind you, until there's either a vaccine ready for mass deployment (next year?) or enough of us have had the virus to produce herd immunity (assuming immunity endures), I'm not sure how countries are going to loosen travel restrictions without Mr. Corona making a grand return - particularly once we're getting towards next winter and those cool, damp conditions so beloved of viruses.

[Chrill]

Two-day weekends especially makes a lot of sense.

I believe I read Ross Brawn aims at "17 or 18" races for the 2020 season. If we assume that the races will run only as double and triple headers, with one week in between, then 18 races should take us something like 24 weeks. So if we start in Baku, we should be able to host the 18th race by 29 November. Which just happens to be the date of the Abu Dhabi GP.

Even if they can't run them that tight and can't start that early, they should be able to wrap up the season before Christmas.

We can assume that races like Monaco and Australia are more difficult to reschedule due to their location in cities. I'm bored, this is my final day before I go back to work, so I'll invent a new schedule starting in mid-June.

Cancelled - Australia, Spain, Monaco, Canada

Dutch GP - 21 June (rescheduled from 3 May)
French GP - 28 June

Austrian GP - 5 July
British GP - 19 July

Hungarian GP - 2 August
Azerbaijan GP - 9 August (rescheduled from 7 June)
Russian GP - 16 August (rescheduled from 27 September)

Belgian GP - 30 August
Italian GP - 6 September (surely the Italian corona wave is over by September!)

Singapore GP - 20 September
Vietnamese GP - 27 September (rescheduled from 5 April)
Chinese GP - 4 October (rescheduled from 19 April)

Japanese GP - 18 October (rescheduled from 11 October)
United States GP - 25 October
Mexico City GP - 1 November

Brazilian GP - 15 November
Bahrain GP - 22 November (rescheduled from 22 March)
Abu Dhabi GP - 29 November


Surely this would be feasible, assuming 1.5 months of a delay is enough for Central Europe. It also means moving Russia to an earlier date, pairing it with Azerbaijan, and two tough one-week jumps across big watery areas (Japan-Mexico and Brazil-Bahrain) but other than that we are fine.

The later we start, naturally the fewer races can be slotted back in. I assume Abu Dhabi wishes to maintain their "last race" status, and I don't know if they are willing to move their date.

[Penfold]

The only bit I don't like is having Canada as one of the four cancelled races, find a way to squeeze them in and then the 2020 Chrill Calendar will be ready for the FIA's eyes.

[Chrill]

Well, the rumoured revised calendar seems to include Canada, and it also indicated we may even get a quadruple-header.

https://www.racefans.net/2020/03/18/analysis-why-f1s-best-case-scenario-now-is-a-19-race-2020-season/

[Chrill]

Dutch, Spain, Monaco. "Postponed".

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.dutch-spanish-and-monaco-grands-prix-postponed.5CggooJeHoDchKkFehkrkY.html

[Chrill]

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/azerbaijan-gp-postpones-officially-coronavirus/4772278/

Azerbaijan officially postponed.

[Penfold]

Expecting to see "Montreal officially postponed" in due course, and of course the Olympics.

Presumably restrictions on international travel will remain in place until after a vaccine has been widely deployed; add in the widespread advice to engage in social distancing, and you've got to question the likelihood of any races this year - at least in front of an audience.

[Chrill]

Only China reports that they have passed the peak. Sadly, countries like Italy USA and Spain are still climbing. That implies that the virus has yet to peak, and the effects we already feel will only take longer to manage.

The Olympics are postponed, most likely to 2021. The 2020 Euros (soccer) is now the 2021 Euros. And, of course, the Eurovision Song Contest is cancelled. Oh no! I was rooting for Iceland:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFZNvj-HfBU

[Penfold]

There is some cause to hope that Italy, and perhaps even Spain, may finally be on a downward trend for new cases & deaths, and I assume the UK will follow along in due course - so three cheers for placing most everyone under virtual house arrest!  What comes next is a mystery, as no-one in Govt. has explained quite how those of us shunning the herd immunity route can return to a fully-functioning economy before a vaccine is deployed.

Continuing on the Corona theme: You've probably read that various F1 teams have been lending a hand on plans to ramp-up production of ventilators, but Mercedes F1 has gone another route and is aiming to build Continuous Positive Airway Pressure devices by the thousand: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52087002