In the round-up: FIA president Jean Todt is concerned about the effect falling budgets might have on championships after the pandemic.
A message from Keith to our readers and Supporters
Over the past years RaceFans has earned a reputation for being the first to reveal the big stories in motorsport, from Daniel Ricciardo joining Renault in 2018, to Racing Point becoming Aston Martin – confirmed this week, first revealed by us last year. But while our first goal has been to break the news, our challenge today is to make sure the biggest news story of our generation does not break us.
The motor sport season has rightly been put on hold while the world bears the brunt of the Coronavirus onslaught. At least in my life time, this is an unprecedented situation. And so I wanted to break briefly from our regular coverage to give some insight into what it means for RaceFans and how we hope to weather this storm.
Journalists and photographers, web servers and international travel (when possible) cost money. The majority of our income comes from advertising. This is being hit in two ways. First, at least three months of motorsport will be wiped out, possibly much more. This means people – particularly more casual motorsport fans – have less reason to visit RaceFans, reducing the amount of advertising we can sell.
The effect Coronavirus is having on the economy is making matters worse. Advertising rates have plummeted, so the ads we can display earn less money.
Faced with this, we are cutting our costs wherever we can. But we are a lean operation to begin with, and we do not want to compromise the quality of our coverage. Like many other businesses, we are faced with difficult decisions.
So I want to take this opportunity to send my deep and sincere thanks to all of you for visiting our site and sharing links to our coverage. And in particular, to thank our RaceFans Supporters. Some of you have been with us for years. Some of you have signed up in the last 24 hours. Your monthly contributions of £1 will help RaceFans continue at this time when we need your help the most.
We’re locked down for the Coronavirus, but that won’t stop us bringing you breaking news, insider analysis and original features during the hiatus. Just as when we revealed the first details of how Formula 1 teams are developing technologies to fight the pandemic.
Like us, motor racing faces huge challenges in the coming months. The decisions being made now could shape the future of our sport for generations. They could even decide whether it has a future.
An independent voice has never been more urgently needed. We will be that voice, and we will do it with your help. If you would like to become a RaceFans Supporter, visit racefans.net/support.
Thank you for continuing to visit RaceFans. I wish all of you, your families and friends the very best of luck in staying healthy and safe. Now, back to the round-up…
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
Last weekend @LandoNorris promised to shave his head if he got $10,000 in donations to fight the #Coronavirus.
He's a man of his word… and his 40,000-strong @Twitch viewers went crazy.#F1 pic.twitter.com/dsLqZsVXB5
— RaceFans (@racefansdotnet) April 2, 2020
Due to the impact of COVID19, the McLaren Group has adopted difficult temporary measures regarding its staff to hopefully protect jobs in the long term. I fully understand these tough decisions and I have obviously decided to take a pay cut. We are all in this together. pic.twitter.com/O2woN7kYKt
— Carlos Sainz (@Carlossainz55) April 2, 2020
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Links
More motor racing links of interest:
"So that this challenge is not futile, we must learn from it as well: we must let ourselves think outside the box, act differently. We must find new ways of achieving goals, in regards to road safety for example, or to our championships’ sustainability when budgets might be reduced post Covid-19."
Next Gen car debut delayed until 2022 due to coronavirus pandemic (NASCAR)
"We will continue to develop the Next Gen car, and a revised testing timeline will be shared when more information is available."
Is F1 right to ban Mercedes' DAS for 2021? (RaceFans via YouTube)
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Bernie Ecclestone (89) wird im Sommer Vater! (Blick - Swiss)
Ecclestone's wife Fabiana Flosi is expecting their first child together, which will be Ecclestone's fourth.
Racing driver volunteers to ferry patients in sports car as part of NHS scheme (Evening Express)
"The 36-year-old, who also won in the LMP2 category of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2015, said: 'If the need to deliver medicine or move supplies is the greatest then there’ll be plenty to do, but it will, of course, be my pleasure to take people for a special drive back to their homes!'"
Moto GP 20 - Managerial Career (Milestone Team via YouTube)
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
Let the drivers talk to each other to add interest to the Virtual Grand Prix, says Baasbas:
I can’t be bothered. Unless they make a microphone and headset mandatory for all drivers and make them join a team-speak channel and broadcast that. Live taunting, swearing, shouting, banter… that would bump up entertainment value a lot. Maybe enough to actually watch.
Baasbas
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Jt19, Shreyas Mohanty, William and William Olive!
If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is via the contact form or adding to the list here.
MrBoerns (@mrboerns)
3rd April 2020, 0:10
Das Boot puns? does it get any lower? *Chuckles in german*
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
3rd April 2020, 0:50
@mrboerns I promise just eight more months of DAS puns, then I’ll call it quits.
Jimmi Cynic (@jimmi-cynic)
3rd April 2020, 19:42
DAS gut, @keithcollantine
Aussie Rod (@aussierod)
3rd April 2020, 0:27
Keep pushing guys, you are the stand-out site for daily F1 news and insight by far.
From my point of view, I would prefer less articles on daily news that isn’t really news (ie exactly what most other motor sports site do…) and more of a focus on features. I appreciate these take more time however there is so much historical content that would be great to revisit during these times.
And with the sudden exposure of eSports and sim-racing, some in-depth features in this space would be welcome also.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
3rd April 2020, 0:51
@aussierod Thanks very much – hope you liked the Perry McCarthy feature yesterday. Got an interview for the next one scheduled today.
Jimmi Cynic (@jimmi-cynic)
3rd April 2020, 5:23
+1 @keithcollantine. Stig-approved.
BasCB (@bascb)
3rd April 2020, 14:04
That was a great read, keep it up @keithcollantine!
Neil (@neilosjames)
3rd April 2020, 1:38
Been a supporter for a long time (I forget exactly when I became one), a tiny price to pay for my ‘home’ F1 site. I had wondered about the impact on visits/advertising revenue, with no big events to bring in traffic… hope you guys get through it, the F1 world wouldn’t be the same without you.
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
3rd April 2020, 1:46
Hi Keith,
Thanks for continuing to bring us such great content.
Can I raise a point about the banning of DAS.
If we use the argument that it will be too expensive for the rest to copy in 2021 then shouldn’t the same be applied to ANY unique innovation that any other team has brought in for their 2020 cars that may not yet have been seen/identified because it wasn’t visible?
It seems that Mercedes is being penalised for something because it was easily seen. Others may have spent just as much on innovations worth the same or more in terms of performance and they get to keep theirs because they’ve not been seen. Isn’t that a bit unfair?
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
3rd April 2020, 11:36
@dbradock I don’t disagree with that, but it’s the nature of the beast. After all there may be (and surely are) other unseen gizmos on the W11 as well as on Mercedes’ rivals’ cars.
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
3rd April 2020, 11:56
It would certainly be amusing if DAS turned out to be just a distraction so teams didn’t look to hard at everything else on their car, particularly if there is a new gizmo that gives a significant performance boost.
Maybe Ferrari should have had it on their car last year to explain all that extra speed down the straights :)
anon
3rd April 2020, 18:25
@dbradock it seems Ferrari did have a device on the SF90 in the latter part of the season that, whilst not quite the same, did take advantage of the same loophole that Mercedes have (in their case, they used it to vary the ackermann geometry on turn in to the corner).
Jere (@jerejj)
3rd April 2020, 7:41
He should go for full bald.
Patrick (@paeschli)
3rd April 2020, 8:43
That’s some strong sperm! Ecclestone won’t die of COVID-19, he clearly is fine form right now!
Thanks Bernie for showing us that love has no age!
Jon Bee
3rd April 2020, 9:43
I’m reminded of Kenneth Williams’ famous line from “Carry On Cleo”.
“Infamy, someone’s had it infamy”.
ColdFly (@)
3rd April 2020, 12:56
Maybe just a good freezer or new pool boy, @paeschli.
BasCB (@bascb)
3rd April 2020, 14:05
:-o
stefano (@alfa145)
3rd April 2020, 16:33
totally agree with COTD to the extent that this would be the main reason to watch, and not the useless (to me, my opinion) virtual racing
Balue (@balue)
4th April 2020, 18:10
Quit being a supporter when the bias became too much, but there’s no doubt this is a top site with top people (haven’t seen a better discussion anywhere), so I’ll sign up again to help out now.