In the round-up: Vietnam has extended its cancellation on visa-free travel to more European countries due to Coronavirus, presenting further obstacles to the promoters of their scheduled race on April 5th.
Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
Victorian Premier @DanielAndrewsMP says extreme measures will be taken to manage the outbreak. @IzaStaskowski #9News pic.twitter.com/sIVzXNmHrB
— 9News Australia (@9NewsAUS) March 10, 2020
More news coming from our #INDYCAR camp today! @FelipeNasr will make his @IndyCar debut at the @GPSTPETE in the No. 31 @TeamChevy alongside teammate @maxchilton! The Carlin alum duo hopes to replicate their success from last week's Sebring test on the streets of St. Pete! pic.twitter.com/kDJL1JBiuR
— Rodin Motorsport (@RodinMotorsport) March 10, 2020
|@danielricciardo was asked for his views on @netflix and #DriveToSurvive…#F1 pic.twitter.com/TJN2Br39mn
— RaceFans (@racefansdotnet) March 10, 2020
But if I was an FIA or FIM approved circuit with free September or October dates, I’d be thinking ££££ right now
— Ben Evans (@bencommentator) March 10, 2020
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- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Links
More motor racing links of interest:
Info for travellers on Covid-19 in Vietnam (Vietnam Travel)
"Vietnam has temporarily suspended visa exemptions for citizens of these countries: South Korea, Spain, Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, United Kingdom, Denmark, Finland and Norway."
Australian Grand Prixview 2020 (AlphaTauri)
"I am really keen to go racing again as I’ve missed it so much over the past three months. It’s meant to be a long season and I hope we can race as many times as possible given the current virus situation."
Protest gegen DAS und den Mercedes-Jahreswagen? (F1 Insider)
Helmut Marko says Red Bull are considering a protest against Mercedes over the legality of its Dual Axis Steering system.
'All schools will close': Victorians warned to brace for 'extreme' coronavirus response (The Age)
"The premier said stopping the spread of the virus 'will mean some very big events are cancelled'. But Mr Andrews said the Grand Prix and coming football matches would not be cancelled and no schools other than Carey Baptist Grammar had yet been closed."
Hamilton should join Ferrari in 2021, says Brundle (Evening Standard)
"If I had my driver's manager cap on, I'd be telling him 'You're not going anywhere, son, you're staying here'. But as a fan, I'm feeling like 'get to Ferrari, give us something to really look forward to'."
We always endeavour to credit original sources. If you have a tip for a link to feature in the next RaceFans round-up please send it in via the contact form.
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Comment of the day
What should the developers of F1’s forthcoming new line of management games prioritise?
It’ll be interesting to see what they can come up with. Football Manager is so successful because it accurately represents football management – you can have a weaker team but if you pick tactics that suit the strenghts of your players and exploit the weaknesses of your opponent, you’ll win. I’m not sure how you could do this with F1 where so much of the battle is won in the factory….
In most F1/motorsport games, development is over-simplified to a point where you are simply clicking on what you want to upgrade and then waiting. “Upgrade Front Wing – in a few races, your wing goes from 92% to 95%”. You just do this until you have the best car and then win most of the races. How can this be made interesting whilst remaining accurate to real life and simple enough for casual fans?
On the race strategy side, I think Motorsport Manager has nailed it so it’d be interesting to see if they can do anything different or if they just copy and paste ideas from that.
@PeteBaldwin
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Renegade.Ego and Browny!
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On this day in F1
- 30 years ago today Ayrton Senna won the United States Grand Prix at Phoenix after a superb duel with Jean Alesi, the latter in his ninth grand prix start for Tyrrell
hunocsi (@hunocsi)
11th March 2020, 0:21
In case a lot of early races have to be moved to later in the year, could F1 move the summer shutdown earlier in the year? Just continuing on Ben Evans’s thought. Some races could move to August and then have a break in, let’s say, May or June (plus there will already be a 4 week gap in April). Obviously that would make the latter part even more straining, but if there’s a quota to be hit by F1 (minimum No. of races), then they must be already thinking about it…
ColdFly (@)
11th March 2020, 7:31
@hunocsi, check this comment by @alianora-la-canta stating that the “minimum number of rounds to count for the World Championship is 8.”
I recall the comment even made CotD.
hunocsi (@hunocsi)
11th March 2020, 11:26
@coldfly Thank you! I didn’t think it would be that low for F1 (although I guess that’s a general FIA criteria?).
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
11th March 2020, 12:36
@hunocsi It’s that low because the limit was formalised in 1981, back when team managers remembered working in the 1960s. Some seasons were at, or close to, the 8-round limit. It was only once the Bernie era (which was in its infancy at that time) began that the figure started to look low.
It’s also consistent with the requirement the FIA sets for a championship to have international status, so it’s unlikely to be raised just for one series that happens to be highly successful.
hoshino (@hoshino)
11th March 2020, 1:45
Red Bull already questioned legality of Mercedes’ rear brake ducts, and FIA issued a clarification directive. Mercedes now have to make some changes to it, situation is similar to last year’s with their front wing endplates.
BasCB (@bascb)
11th March 2020, 7:02
pushing the lines, pushing the lines. This is one of the parts of F1 the teams never get enough of – protesting, copying, etc. Yes, F1 is back @hoshino :-)
Chaitanya
11th March 2020, 2:57
Many countries are putting similar visa restrictions on countries worst affected by Covid-19. India has also cancelled visa for travellers from those countries along with screening and quarantine for travellers from other countries.
Just saw MotoGP postponed US gp to end of year due to situation in Texas.
@HoHum (@hohum)
11th March 2020, 3:58
Umm, er, Keith, just because you are “down under” doesn’t mean putting today’s round up under yesterdays round up will have it on top for readers, actually Australia is on top as long as you look at the solar system from the correct angle.
@HoHum (@hohum)
11th March 2020, 7:07
It’s been fixed, but it was.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
11th March 2020, 4:24
season 2 has good moments but for those who watch the races, watching highlights is a waste of time and boring. last episode is all about interlagos the race, and to make matters worse they introduce the race in spanish… they don’t introduce paul ricard in Italian do they?
Cristian (@crystakke)
11th March 2020, 5:05
Why would they introduce paul ricard in italian? The track is in France.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
11th March 2020, 5:44
@crystakke same question for Interlagos and Spanish, don’t you think?
bosyber (@bosyber)
11th March 2020, 7:31
Yep, indeed @fer-no65, that’s rather odd @peartree, what’s up with that; a race in the biggest Portuguese language country and they use Spanish?
Would it be worse, or consistency if next year they introduce the Dutch GP in Danish, Spa in Dutch (in Walloon part of Belgium), and the Spanish GP in Portuguese?!
BasCB (@bascb)
11th March 2020, 7:07
I really don’t get what Brundle wants to see from a Hamilton facing unfair critisizm, getting culled in his ability to express himself and facing the desolution of yet again a race thrown away by awkwardly overthinking, fear to take risks and overestimating ones own importance, oh and a car that “will be a winner next season” for most of his time there.
Unless Lewis takes a team of people with him who redo the whole operation at Ferrari, they won’t really change. And why not have Hamilton do the winning at Mercedes, have Bottas (or Russel, or Ocon etc) up against him, trying to get ever closer (seemingly a target moving ever forward). Having Red Bull put a season together from the start to make it a battle with Max, and have a super talented Leclerc and a super fast Vettel (with a car that suits him) bring up the hopes of italy and all people “red hearted”.
Klon (@)
11th March 2020, 9:13
I fully agree. If Alonso and Vettel have failed to win titles there, Hamilton will most likely meet the same fate. MSC, hyperbolically speaking, took half of Benetton’s operation with him to Ferrari in order to build a winner and something tells me Mercedes has tighter contracts. If I were Hamilton, I wouldn’t bother with it either.
RB13
11th March 2020, 10:34
While I agree with the sentiment, Lewis would have won the title in the 2018 Ferrari despite the team’s blunders.
But the read team and their toxic blinded fanbase honestly don’t deserve him.
Robbie (@robbie)
11th March 2020, 11:15
RB13 ok I’ll play…no he wouldn’t have if Max or maybe even SV was in the 2018 Mercedes.
Otherwise…I’ve thought all along LH should not and will not go to Ferrari.
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
11th March 2020, 21:58
@robbie I think the only case Hamilton could go to Ferrari is if Toto goes too ( Toto played down that but it probably arose when there was some uncertainty about Mercedes team’s future a few months ago).
Jere (@jerejj)
11th March 2020, 13:44
“To go and do a Michael Schumacher and win a championship with three different teams, that would be impressive.”
– Michael won with two different teams, though, not three.
Gary
12th March 2020, 22:18
I’m a Swedish pass port holder, but resident in Thailand, can I travel to Hanoi?
Asked many places, but don’t got clear answer anywhere.