F1 2020 Season

First topic message reminder :

Thought I'd start this thread since no-one else has yet.

First glimpse of this season's cars as Haas unveil their entry for this year. Not really much difference visually from last season, but then there haven't been any major rule changes:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/51405017




Have to say I quite like this livery.

Feel free to add more pics as they are released...

Red Bull have lodged an appeal over Mercedes’ DAS system.

Might end up being a 2010 era RB front wing saga but they do seem to have a point

Unsurprisingly, rejected. RB lodged an appeal for clarification, so that they can now probably add their own version to their car. Mercedes were in dialogue with the FIA from the get-go, over this.

It'll be interesting to see if its still legal under the new regs, or if it will turn out to be a 1-2 season thing like Renault's mass damper system (when Alonso won his 2 titles).

dyrewolfe wrote:It'll be interesting to see if its still legal under the new regs, or if it will turn out to be a 1-2 season thing like Renault's mass damper system (when Alonso won his 2 titles).

It’s already been banned for 2021

Seems to be legal by technically being part of the steering system, which fairly obviously doesn't really hold up to scrutiny. Hence why it's been banned from next season.

Vettel out in Q1. That new Ferrari can’t come soon enough

Ferrari powered cars towards the back of the field with Leclerc just getting through into Q3.  Alfa Romeo's finished 18th and 19th (Q3).   Haas finished 15th and 16th, whilst Ferrari's finished in 11th & 7th

If Binotto’s a wise man, as he likes to think he is, he’ll be avoiding the Italian newspapers over the course of the Austrian double.

LeClerc 1.6secs off the pace. Pack up and home time

Bottas Pole
Hamilton P2
Verstappen P3 (starts on medium)
Norris P4
Albon P5

Top ten qualifying.  All of these start on softs except Verstappen who starts on the mediums.
1) Bottas Mercedes ..... 1:02.939
2) Hamilton Mercedes .. 1:02.951
3) Verstappen Red Bull . 1:03.477
4) Norris McLaren ........ 1:03.626
5) Albon Red Bull ......... 1:03.868
6) Perez Racing Point ... 1:03.868
7) Leclerc Ferrari ......... 1:03.923
8) Sainz McLaren ......... 1:03.971
9) Stroll Racing Point .... 1:04.029
10) Ricciardo Renault .... 1:04.239

Bottas really seems to like the Red Bull Ring. 3rd pole in a row.

Only 1/10th between him and Hamilton, so expecting a bit of duelling over the first few laps, then at some point Lewis will probably find a way past him.

Verstappen about 0.5 sec off the Mercedes' pace, but still likely to at least get a podium tomorrow.

Fantastic result by Norris to get 4th...still feels weird to be seeing both McLarens in Q3.

Racing Point showing you can buy last season's Mercedes, but without the engineers and drivers, it still won't get you higher than mid grid. They may have both got in the top 10 this weekend, but I'd expect to see them drop away a bit as the season progresses.

I know Ferrari were expected to be off the pace, but that was a pretty awful showing. Hungary can't come soon enough for them.

Half a second clear over a 63 second lap - all seems a bit pointless this

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Half a second clear over a 63 second lap - all seems a bit pointless this

Well this "season" isn't so much about the championship, as getting everything back to normal after coronavirus. With very few reg changes, there wasn't going to be much change in the pecking order.

I think any surprises will come about more from mistakes by the top teams...but as we all know they do happen from time to time.

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Half a second clear over a 63 second lap - all seems a bit pointless this

It's even more pronounced dominance by Mercedes than Ferrari managed in the early 2000s.

Verstappen should have good race pace, at least.

No surprise with the Q performance from Mercedes. Not sure what people were expecting, it’s still the same regs, and everyone knew the Ferrari was a turd back in February.

Not sure anyone expected anything different, but hoped for better...

Elsewhere, you start to see the scale of the problem both Ferrari and F1 has in general when Force India can catapult past them by using last year's Mercedes chassis.

Good marker for Lando, with his teammate off to Ferrari and Danny Ric coming in.

See if Albon can pick up his form, 4 tenths off his teammate

GSC wrote:See if Albon can pick up his form, 4 tenths off his teammate

This is likely Vettel’s only route back into F1 in, 2021. Bottas should look impressive in a dominant car, while Albon gets trounced by Verstappen all year. 4 tenths off Max on the shortest track of the year, is already a worrying sign for Albon.

Hamilton starts P5 after RB protest

Verstappen DNF. RB plagued by these issues for years
Ricciardo DNF. Looks like a Renault engine
Stroll has engine issues

Three retirements already, and Hamilton starting to close in on Bottas.

Vettel another shocker

This could be Albons moment

...or not

If Lewis doesn't get a penalty for that he'll be lucky to survive RBs 2nd appeal

Hamilton ruining Albon’s career single handedly it seems

Bit of a racing incident but it's on Lewis more than Albon

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Hamilton ruining Albon’s career single handedly it seems

Harsh, IMO. 5 sec penalty

Mercedes shot themselves in the foot by not pitting under SC. Leclerc showcasing the effect of being on the right tyre.

Albon DNF

Bottas wins
Leclerc 2nd
Norris 3rd
Hamilton 4th

A race not short of incidents.

Mercedes getting the same failure on both cars is a potential worry. Even with that though they could still gap the rest of the field handily so its not much of a consolation.

Perez has an opportunity this season to make 1 more claim for a top seat, losing the podium here won't help his cause

LeClerc and strategy salvage a weekend that would've confirmed every worst fear Ferrari had during the break.

And yes, Lewis won't be on Albons Xmas list. That in all likelihood would've been a win for Albon given Bottas had the same issues. Might not be a bad penalty for Mercedes in the end

What an opening race. Bundles of fun. Red Bull have had a nightmare race, Norris drove a stupendous last lap to nick a podium place, Le Clerc restored some credibility for Ferrari, and Bottas cruised home. Nearly half the field were eliminated along the way.

Merc were too arrogant thinking about themselves, and not pitting under SC, just allowed their rivals the upper hand, especially, Albon. RP not pitting was again another brain fade, as Pérez was a sitting duck.

GSC wrote:And yes, Lewis won't be on Albons Xmas list. That in all likelihood would've been a win for Albon given Bottas had the same issues. Might not be a bad penalty for Mercedes in the end

F1 penalties rarely make sense to me. If you judge Hamilton to be guilty for that incident, then he has effectively ruined Albon's race and cost him any chance of a podium place. Yet his punishment for that is a paltry five seconds.

Damn - what a crazy race!

Nearly half the field DNF-ed...and all due to mechanical / electrical issues (or wheels falling off / tyres blowing up).

No surprise that Mercedes ended up with a 1-2 (on track at least). Daft penalty by Hamilton - no need to take that corner as wide as he did. Great race by Bottas - led from start to finish and handled the restarts superbly.

Absolute disaster for RB. Probably would have had a podium for Albon but for his brush with Lewis.

But have to say a HUGE CONGRATS to Lando Norris and McLaren!!! His maiden podium and the team's first in a few seasons. Solid drive by Sainz. I would say McLaren will miss him, but I think Ricciardo will be a very capable replacement.

Have to ask...what is it with RP putting Perez on ridiculously long stints? Why not pit him for fresh tyres when everyone else was. He could have been the one on the podium. I could understand when they had a pretty ordinary midfield car, but they now have one that should be pretty competitive. They need to change their thinking.

Vettel showing once again that he is ready to be put out to pasture, with another daft overtake attempt. Meanwhile Leclerc drove a great race in a below-par Ferrari...and ended up 2nd (after penalties were applied).

Hope the second race is at least half as entertaining.

It wasn't much more than a racing incident, Lewis just seemed a bit lazy turning in and clipped Albon.

I've given up trying to find consistency from the stewarding though. Verstappen pushed LeClerc off the track at Austria last year and they had a 2 hour inquest to decide nothing

Duty281 wrote:

GSC wrote:And yes, Lewis won't be on Albons Xmas list. That in all likelihood would've been a win for Albon given Bottas had the same issues. Might not be a bad penalty for Mercedes in the end

F1 penalties rarely make sense to me. If you judge Hamilton to be guilty for that incident, then he has effectively ruined Albon's race and cost him any chance of a podium place. Yet his punishment for that is a paltry five seconds.

I thought Lewis got off lightly TBH. It didn't look that bad an incident, but you can see on the replays he deliberately allows his car to drift wide, forcing Albon off the track. Rules state you have to leave a car's width...Lewis didn't. Think a 10 sec penalty might have been more appropriate.

It's also a bit of a weird corner, the way the track flows into the next corner pushes Albon back towards Lewis

Surprise result for Charles LeClerc and Matteo Binotto will breath a little easier for the next few days - granted it was more fluke than anything else.

Sebastian Vettel would, according to a few rumours, leave Ferrari right now if they paid up his contract - Ferrari not really in a position to dish out $30m at this stage of the campaign. Vettel doesn’t want to be there, Ferrari doesn’t want him. Stalemate for the time being.

So over the past three races Hamilton has taken out Albon twice, denying Albon first time F1 podium finishes.  He took Albon out in Brazil 2019 when Albon was in second: Albon would have either got second or third in that race.  Then he takes Albon out in Austria 2020 when Albon had overtaken him for second.  Albon would then have either got second or first (assuming his later engine failure was collision related).

Don’t see why anyone would take out another driver on purpose tbh. Today’s clash could have easily broken the front corner of Hamilton’s car. It’s just unfortunate.

On a side note after Red Bull’s eventual horror show maybe Dr Marko will tone it down a bit...

Jeff Navarro wrote:Don’t see why anyone would take out another driver on purpose tbh...

I said

So over the past three races Hamilton has taken out Albon twice, denying Albon first time F1 podium finishes...

I said that Hamilton had taken out Albon twice, I didn't say Hamilton had taken out Albon twice on purpose.  Both times he was found to be responsible - the first time he put his hand up and said he was at fault.  I haven't yet heard what Hamilton has to say about todays collision.


Albon was quoted by the BBC as saying:

There's always the risk of overtaking on the outside but I gave it as much space as I could, I was on the edge and it's up to him if he wants to crash or not.

Christian Horner was quoted as saying:

[Albon] got the job done, the pass was made, it wasn't like it was on the entry, what overtake is safe at the end of the day? Lewis isn't going to wave him past.  We have to use the grip advantage and he used that. It was just a misjudgement from Lewis at the end of the day and he should apologise for it.

I expect Lewis will apologise if he hasn't already. Suspect he's more frustrated he's now 13 points behind his teammate in what looks like a shortened 2 driver championship

Has there been any further news about them adding races at tracks like Imola/Mugello?

Mugello was supposed to be happening, not sure on Imola

Ferrari are bringing some of their upgrades to the car early this weekend because they really couldn't be any worse

Mercedes close to announcing new 1 year deal for Valtteri Bottas, they supposedly used Vettel and Russell as a bargaining ploy to get the Finn to agree to a pay cut.

Vettel only option left is Stroll F1. Renault to make a announcement on Wednesday regarding 2021 lineup...cough cough Fernando....

Bit embarrassing for Alonso really, if true. It just looks like a move out of boredom, a desperation to just return to a Formula, instead of being the nomad he’s been recently. Don’t see the point, in all honesty.