In the round-up: Dutch Grand Prix promoter Jan Lammers fears a F1 race at Zandvoort will not take place this year after the government extended its ban on public events until the beginning of September.
Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B_NDVMBndXX/
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Links
More motor racing links of interest:
Jan Lammers: 'Formule 1 op Zandvoort dit jaar niet aannemelijk' (De Telegraaf)
Lammers says he thinks it is not likely the race will go ahead this year.
Dutch reopen primary schools and daycare but ban events until September (Dutch News)
"The ban on events is being extended from June 1 to September 1, because ‘we can’t cope with the risks,’ Rutte said. ‘This means no professional football until September 1,’ the prime minister said. ‘We cannot avoid having to make this sacrifice.’"
Agag: Racing return would help keep people indoors (Autosport)
"If you think about it, Extreme E is almost a virus-proof sport. It is the only sport that I know that is designed to be competed without spectators."
'I know what I've achieved in F1' – Grosjean hits out at internet trolls (F1)
"I’ve been through different phases. Sometimes I was watching (social media comments) and it was just painful."
Di Grassi: Formula E is 'racing for a reason' (Formula E)
"One aspect of electro-mobility is often neglected: Vehicle emissions are harmful to our health – and they are produced directly where most women, men and children live: in our cities. This is precisely where electric cars are the best – and incidentally the only – way to protect people."
"I would expect that with each virtual Grand Prix that passes, we will have learnings that we can take on to improve the product as we go and at that time have a better view on how it has evolved when the (real-life) racing gets underway."
Second esition of the FIA Motorsport Games postponed to 2021 (FIA)
"After the first edition was staged last year at the Vallelunga circuit, near to Rome, the second instalment will therefore be held on 22-24 October 2021 in the host city of Marseille and at the Circuit Paul Ricard, as initially planned."
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Comment of the day
Does F1 need both a ‘fun and ‘serious’ official video game?
I think the F1 series by Codemasters is exactly the right product for F1 fans and has done a great job over the years of reaching a wide audience and being accessible and fun.
Personally I don’t play it, as I am more interested in proper simracing and therein lies the problem in that whilst it is great for the masses it is a terrible platform for esports. You simply can’t have a single product that does these two quite different tasks and hopefully Liberty might just realise this and separate the fun from the serious, because there is definitely a market for both.
I would also add that it is wonderful to see iRacing get the coverage and recognition it deserves, after 12 years of steady but modest growth with a relatively small but dedicated fan-base.
It was ahead of its time launching an online-only esports series way back in 2008. Games like GT Sport were so far behind and yet received way more coverage than they deserved, yet iRacing stuck to their guns with regards to the slow production of officially licensed content and the quest for authenticity. It hasn’t been a smooth road as any iRacer will know, but the fruits are well and truly paying off now the spotlight is on them.
The IndyCar and V8 series have been a huge success and the service is exploding with new members and recognition from drivers from every form of motorsport across the glove. As a fan it is great to see.
Aussie Rob
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Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Fixy, Kaylee911, Tracy Brockman, Tracy, Thomas Krol, Tracy and Thomas Krol!
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On this day in F1
- 20 years ago today Mark Webber won the Formula 3000 support race for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone
StefMeister (@stefmeister)
22nd April 2020, 1:19
iRacing has always been something i appreciated but was never that interested in because not only am I not that into racing online but ithat level of seriousness & overall approach they take with the subscription & needing to buy all the cars/tracks separately just isn’t for me.
I got to try it out maybe 10 years ago with a skip barber around Lime Rock park & I could immediately feel that it was a step above even some of the other PC sims. It wasn’t just that the car felt almost exactly as I imagined it should but the feedback through my logitech wheel immediately made sense & felt ‘right’ with just some minor tweaking to dial things in. And with improvements they have made since to the tyre model & things it would likely feel better if I was to try it now.
I think the only PC sims i’ve played since that i’ve had similar feelings about are Assetto Corsa, Raceroom racing experience & Automobilista. Automobilista in particular is something I jumped into & everything I tried just immediately felt like it made sense so that’s one i’d highly recommend if you have a capable PC & a good FFB wheel.
I spent a few hours in Automobilista last week just hot-lapping the 70’s style F1 car around classic Kyalami & Interlagos. So much fun :)
Aussie Rod (@aussierod)
22nd April 2020, 4:04
Thanks for COTD Keith.
ColdFly (@)
22nd April 2020, 7:02
Congratulations, @aussierod.
bosyber (@bosyber)
22nd April 2020, 8:05
Congratulations, and well said @aussierod – with restrictions likely taking a while yet, and thus events having to wait, would be good if FOM and Codemasters sat down together to take in this truth, and act on it.
Balue (@balue)
22nd April 2020, 14:26
Of course there will not be the same interest in F1 simracing after the pandemic is over, but the suggestion that F1 has a game for the masses and one for professionals is good @aussierod.
Whereas I thought iRacing would be enough here, after Norris’ comments how that sim is still not close enough to the real thing, it seems maybe there should be created a dedicated sim or at least a collaboration with iRacing using F1 simulator technology in order to get the most accurate and serious cars out there. This will then ensure F1’s reputation as state of the art and excellence, but judging by F1’s head of digital growth and eSports Julian Tan’s comments, it seems unlikely as he views F1’s simracing position as “just another digital product, whether it’s an app, website or OTT service” which is disappointing to say the least.
Jere (@jerejj)
22nd April 2020, 8:18
So Dutch GP not happening this year is next-to-guaranteed now as once we get to the Northern Hemisphere autumn, there isn’t much flexibility for delaying further for climatic reasons, although the early days of May aren’t exactly warm either, hence, why I questioned the original choice of those from the beginning. Nevertheless, the Dutch GP is essentially in the same situation as the Belgian and Canadian GPs.
SadF1fan
22nd April 2020, 9:10
Lately its been better weather in north western Europe in April and May than it has been in Southern Europe.
For the 3rd year running the Netherlands, Belgium and Western part of Germany, have been given weeks of drought with clear blue skies and over 20 degrees.
RB13
22nd April 2020, 12:12
Grosjean has nearly killed a number of drivers. Hamilton and Alonso at Spa and every person behind him on the first lap at Barcelona when he decided to do a donut into the middle of the track.
For these discrepancies he is absolutely deserving of never ending abuse until he’s banished from professional racing for good.
Pironi the Provocateur (@pironitheprovocateur)
22nd April 2020, 14:38
Someone seems to have a bad day.
hawkii (@hawkii)
22nd April 2020, 20:15
…and it’s usually Grosjean.
Robert
23rd April 2020, 0:23
Personally I see those two incidents as very different from one another. I did not agree with the penalty he got for the Spa one, I think it was unnecessarily harsh. I think Grosjean raced Hamilton hard but fair at the start, and Hamilton was hard back. Grosjean moved across to the inside, yes, but when they made wheel to wheel contact they were both going relatively straight and Hamilton still had about 1/3 of a cars width left on the inside that he chose not to use. That just happened to have big consequences as they tangled in the braking zone and both plowed on straight into the traffic ahead. Many other drivers could have done the same and not been penalized the way Grosjean was. He may have done wrong, but not THAT much wrong, and it looked spectacular because cars happened to get airborne. The Barcelona incident on the other hand he should have had a way harder penalty for, that was deserving of more than a race ban in my opinion. From his onboard you can clearly see how much time he had to react, several seconds I would say, and in the end he chose the absolute worst option. That is the big difference. At Spa, once they rubbed tires that was it. But in Barcelona once he started loosing control of the rear he pumps the throttle several times before seemingly just giving up and hammer it like he was rage-quitting a video game. Spa was an accident and Barcelona was a dangerous and unprofessional behavior.