In the round-up: Tony Kanaan, the 2004 IndyCar champion and 2013 Indianapolis 500 winner, will retire from the sport this year.
Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
Statement on the passing of John Andretti #CheckItForAndretti pic.twitter.com/ku3gX2neOq
— Andretti Autosport (@FollowAndretti) January 30, 2020
Looking comfortable there Romain 👌
It’s seat fit time in Dallara! #HaasF1 pic.twitter.com/4QMpXIFh9W
— Haas F1 Team (@HaasF1Team) January 30, 2020
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Links
More motor racing links of interest:
Kanaan announces 2020 will be his final IndyCar season (Foyt)
"Kanaan is set to compete in the five oval races of the IndyCar season driving the number 14 Chevrolet for AJ Foyt Racing."
2020 FIA Super Licence points allocation revealed (W Series)
"FIA Super Licence points will be awarded to the first eight in the 2020 W Series championship."
"The Committee agreed that the outbreak now meets the criteria for a Public Health Emergency of International Concern and proposed the following advice to be issued as Temporary Recommendations."
Guanyu Zhou - 2020 season preview (Renault)
"My engineers know my style of driving and also which set-ups I like on the car so that will be beneficial this year. I also understand the Formula 2 car a lot better and the Pirelli tyres so I think that will help massively in my second year. I’m looking forward to the championship and trying my best for a top three finish."
Top rookie Nyck de Vries - a successful start long in the making (Formula E)
"I’m not in top shape just yet. I’m a rookie in the championship and still learning. There are still a lot of things that I need to improve. Race management is certainly one of the areas where I can do better. (Formula E is) exciting, but it can also be frustrating."
Hamilton is embroiled in planning row with artist neighbours (Daily Mail)
"The six times Formula 1 world champion is facing an objection to a planning application he has submitted to renovate his £18 million Kensington mansion from owners of a neighbouring enclave of painters’ studios, one of which is owned by Britain’s greatest living artist David Hockney."
2020 Daytona 24 Hours (IMSA via YouTube)
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Comment of the day
What should Formula 1 do if the coronavirus makes it impossible to run the Chinese Grand Prix in April?
An unexpected break would be more logical than trying to reschedule any events at short notice. Cancelling one race while a last resort, should never be force majeure to move other events, especially with individual promoters, etc.
Ironically the size of the modern calendar gives no opportunity to reschedule a race cancelled for legitimate reasons. You’ll never again see the like of 1985 where Belgium was abandoned after track break-up and rescheduled for later in the year, there just isn’t the time.
@Eurobrun
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Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
31st January 2020, 0:48
Spending time with carlitos is more fun. Lando he is not good enough for you.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
31st January 2020, 1:48
I thought this would be interesting: how serious is the FIA in wanting to get women drivers into F1? I guess the first question is what’s the W series supposed to be equal to? On the basis of engine power Formula W is rated at 270 hp. F2 is rated at 620 hp, while F3 is rated at 380 hp. Obviously we can’t expect as many points as those series winners get. F3 Asian and F3 America are rated at 270 hp, so the same horse power output engine as Formula W. Okay, so let us now look at the points table and see how the points pan out: F3 Asian & F3 American =18 points for First Place and points spread is across top 9 places. Okay … so how does this compare to Formula W? First Place =15 points and points spread is across top 8 places … ummm… I guess there’ll be women out there saying “Seriously?” No, sorry, this looks like a fail. Has Formula W been hard done by with their points allocation is it fair? I suspect the points should be the same as F3 Asian and F3 American.
Minardi (@gitanes)
31st January 2020, 4:26
But the W series isn’t open to everyone, so I don’t see how this argument would hold. If anything, those point allocations are hugely generous and anymore would be seen to be superficial.
Sad F1 Fan
31st January 2020, 10:33
The W series isn’t about getting women into F1 now. It’s a propaganda tool to get more young women into karting now, and eventually F1. When/if they find a woman that is talented enough to take on the men.
When/if that is ever going to happen.
Instead of having the attention go to women like Carmen Jorda, that get attention because they are blonde and take their clothes of for photo shoots. They have a group of women that can draw attention because they are actual racing in a “regular” series.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
31st January 2020, 11:38
I never thought of it this way, but you make an excellent point.
HappyF1fan
31st January 2020, 15:38
lol no it’s not.
Klon (@)
31st January 2020, 6:20
That’s one of the reasons I hate the superlicense point system (besides the obvious one in that it not only fails to prevent paydrivers making it to F1 but instead enables it): there’s no rational assignment of points based on whether a series actually ensures suitability for F1, instead the points are determined by a committee with political agendas. Whether these agendas are worth supporting is another discussion, just mentioning that so nobody gets the idea that I am complaining because I think women have no place in motorsport.
GtisBetter (@)
31st January 2020, 10:09
it’s not that bad. it’s on par with indy lights and formula renault euro cup. I think it makes sense. You still have to get a seat in f3 or f2 next as you can’t keep up racking second places and then a first place in your third year. That makes 39 points. And in F3 and F2 you have real competition. The point of the superlicence system is to prevent bad drivers to get into F1 and even with a second place and a win in the W-series you still need a 5th place in F2. Not an easy thing.
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
31st January 2020, 17:38
@passingisoverrated well spotted for the 39 points, it’s probably intentional indeed. I also think it is not that bad. I guess we’ll have to wait a decade or so to really see the benefits, I wonder though if W series will stay like it is (selection of drivers, no money involved, rotating engineers) or if it will end up like other feeders and allow money to distort the chance to win.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
31st January 2020, 19:02
@passingisoverrated You raise a good point with Indy Lights, their racing series appears to be given even worse credibility than Formula W. The engine is rated as 450 HP + 50 HP push-to-pass (I guess that’s from an electric motor), so the top points places should be getting at least the same points as F3 (380 hp engine) does (30 points for First Place & spanning the top ten places), and definitely more than Formula E (250 kW engine ≈ 335 hp, 30 points for First Place & covers top 10 places).
In regards to the Formula Renault Euro Cup competition, the specified engine is rated at 210 hp, so it’s slightly weaker than what Formula W gets (and about half that used in Indy Lights).
black (@black)
31st January 2020, 7:47
Re COTD: The last time a race got canceled was the 2011 Bahrain GP which was to stage the opening race of the season, but before it was completely canceled, FIA initialy placed the Bahrain GP in late October in the place of the then inaugural Indian GP and pushed the Indian GP in early December as the season finale.
Assuming a similar scenario was being considered for 2020, instead of completely dropping the race for this year or placing it as the new season finale (meaning ending in mid-December), the only way to swap a race from late in the season (and it’s very unlikely) would be if a race agreed to do it, probably with low attendace so that it doesn’t incovenience many fans and demanding compesation, both to the fans that already made plans to attend the race late in the season and has moved in April and to the promoters themselves for making it possible. The only races that meet these criteria, if they agreed, would be Azerbaijan and Russia, both of them have hosted races in April.
Jere (@jerejj)
31st January 2020, 8:03
But only in the name. Other than that, it was a Sauber-car, not a BMW-car same as with the 2011 Lotus.
Although I showed my agreement towards the COTD in the last article specifically about the matter in question, here it is again.
bosyber (@bosyber)
31st January 2020, 15:17
I just saw/read an (German language, from n-tv.de) interview with Correa about how he is doing now. An interesting view, but I wanted to quote one notable thing (translation by me):
So, the FIA has a hospital designated to take care of people hurt during the event, but they do not have people to advise them how to treat their injuries? Seems like a gross oversight. Correa was subsequently transferred to a London hospital (which presumably did know how to treat his injuries), but what if someone is too weak to be moved, or in this case, if he hadn’t made it that far? Sure, at some point it is not the FIA’s responsibility to treat him, but why wasn’t there better consulting?
Though maybe Correa should be just gratified that he – eh was in the sport, according to Todt?
MrBoerns (@mrboerns)
31st January 2020, 17:22
@bosyber Well it does seem like the FIA’s dedication to the safety of the sport has taken a somewhat lacklustre turn in the aftermath of Sid Watkins’ passing. If you look into the writing of Gary Hartstein, who was basically trained by Sid to take over from him, you get the impression that, while he DOES give his adversarys plenty of room to attack him by not exactly being the nicest person, (which may or may not have been the reason he was outsed immediately after Sid’s death), he certainly knows his stuff. And he did highlight quiote a few negative developements some time ago. If he stepped on some toes and was replaced by someone incidentally less capable, or his demands were deemed too expensive and the quality was deliberately reduced, who knows. But things like the 2014 Japanese GP being held in weather too bad for helicopters to fly, just as an example, would have been an immediate red flag in the Watkins/Hartstein era. Irrespective of wether Bianchi really was transferred by Road for Medical Reasons as was later claimed.
bosyber (@bosyber)
31st January 2020, 21:00
@mrboerns, @spoutnik Yeah, it doesn’t speak about solid procedures to increase and share knowledge about how to treat victims of motorsport accidents, does it?!
Since my post was already quite long, I didn’t want to add the 2014 JP GP or things related to that, but indeed, I do have to admit I thought about it; the points about Hartstein are well made – I would add, French culture seems quite, hm, political/ambassadorial in behaviour, which is what got Todt to where he is, but you can see it in the EU too; being Dutch, I know NL has had its share of not understanding why they got the short end in a dispute, where they failed to understand French interests – and Hartstein is not like that (I also think that the Ghosn thing is a clash between French influence/way of working and Japanese, for example), so he wasn’t, for Todt, maintainable.
But regardless, it does seem that the current people in charge, might not have a fully functioning system to guard and maintain, and develop in a cooperative, open way, safety matters. Some might say that the way the FIA went about for the Halo also showed some sign of that, with it being more imposed, though with seemingly convincing evidence, than being organically accepted.
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
31st January 2020, 18:00
@bosyber it’s worrying indeed, thanks for sharing. I’m baffled that there seems to be no special insurance where specialists could advise medical teams As @mrboerns said. It also means they probably don’t gather valuable medical experience that could help save lives, even in the open world.