In the round-up: Monza may also hold two Formula 1 races this year as the championship seeks to schedule as many races as possible following its disrupted start to 2020.
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Links
More motor racing links of interest:
L'editoriale del direttore: Montezemolo, un nome, un'emozione (Autosprint - Italian)
Monza could hold a second F1 race on September 13th, one week after its originally scheduled event, though both are expected to take place behind closed doors. Automobile Club Italy president Angelo Sticchi Damiani also rejected claims his country's race had been cancelled.
Williams: Staff safety 'paramount' before F1's return - Sky F1 Vodcast (Sky)
"It is scary that you could not just lose one or two teams, but an awful lot of teams if you don't get back racing because the financial model we have in our sport is that we are all so reliant upon the money we receive from the results in the constructors championship."
Cyril Abiteboul on Renault’s ‘aggressive’ 2020 plan, cost caps and Ferrari engine clarity (F1)
"We will be thinking and talking about Racing Point legality later. By saying that, I’m not putting any threat, I’m just saying that we need to think about a bit more strategically in the current circumstance."
F1 should aim for IndyCar levels of competitiveness, says Brown (Autosport)
"I think the on-track product of IndyCar is where we want to see Formula 1 from a competition standpoint. Not from a technical specification - don't get me wrong Formula 1's Formula 1, IndyCar is IndyCar."
ECR ready to race at short notice – Carpenter (Motorsport Week)
"When we can get back to work, which we’re hoping is sooner than later, from when we’re projecting to be able to get back to work, I don’t see the Texas date being an issue for us to be ready for."
McLaren considering LMDh program (Racer)
"I think in an ideal world, that would be our motorsport portfolio – Formula 1, IndyCar and sports cars – because they all serve different purposes and they’re all complimentary of each other."
Welcome to the new Zandvoort! (rFactor 2)
"We therefore decided to release on this day the brand new 2020 layout of Zandvoort, for everybody to enjoy in rFactor 2."
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Comment of the day
@Balue wants to see Fernando Alonso commit full-time to another series:
It’s time Alonso went to Indycar. He will knock the field, be in the news, become popular and his star will rise more than seen to be waning. It would be like Mansell before.
For the remote chance that Ferrari or someone would want him back, he can just do single-year contracts.
@Balue
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On this day in F1
- 15 years ago today Kimi Raikkonen put his McLaren on pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix
GT Racer (@gt-racer)
7th May 2020, 1:15
Monza without the Tifosi is something I just don’t want to think about as that crowd bring so much to that race.
The only place that has a crowd create that similar sort of atmosphere is Indy although that is primarily down to the size of the crowd. At Monza you can feel the passion of those fans & that passion helps create such an amazing feeling thats honestly like nothing else.
Señor Sjon
7th May 2020, 16:12
Yeah… I have tickets for the first chicane there. All these rumours every day get on my nerves. If not for the race without public, but the ticket salesman could go bankrupt as well as almost zero sports have audiences these days.
F1gpmoto
7th May 2020, 3:57
Two rounds of Monza or a round at Mugello and Imola too?
Jere (@jerejj)
7th May 2020, 6:56
@F1gpmoto Most likely only Monza to minimize travelling.
Cristian Ingles (@doctorlovesexy)
7th May 2020, 7:36
Imola and Mugello are not that far from Monza (about 300 km). Maybe the teams can be located in the middle of the road (Parma?) and have back to back to back races in Italy.
If I’m not mistaken Mugello is owned by Ferrari so Liberty doesn’t hace to pay a fee to an extra race.
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
7th May 2020, 4:35
Why stop at two races per circuit? Surely they can fit in 3 or 4 in the same week, particularly without those pesky fans making a mess everywhere.
Its not like we need to worry about other sports or racing series, lets just have wall to wall F1 racing – Its the only show that matters.
Jere (@jerejj)
7th May 2020, 6:54
I sort of knew about this before or had thought about Monza as a possible venue for racing on two consecutive weekends, but so have I thought about the same for Circuit de Catalunya, Hungaroring, Spa, and Zandvoort. The key point, though, is would it be suitable to hold an event the size of F1 GP on Italian soil at all this year even without spectators in attendance given which country is in question?
BasCB (@bascb)
7th May 2020, 8:21
That is the real question isn’t it @jerejj. Personally I doubt it will happen
Jere (@jerejj)
7th May 2020, 8:56
@bascb Indeed. The reference is, of course, to the fact Italy is the country that has been hit the hardest by the epidemic in Europe, hence, I’ve had doubts about the viability of holding any big or big-ish events there within this year even in September be it Monza, Imola, or any other circuit.
BasCB (@bascb)
7th May 2020, 9:02
i have the same doubts. The same goes for Spain, and even for places like Spa or Zandvoort etc.
George (@feral)
7th May 2020, 12:53
@bascb You say that most teams are in the UK but they could all be returning from Austria and it seems there is a strong possibility that the UK government will impose 14 day quarantine for all entering the UK.
Most countries are now easing on lockdown and it looks like there will be some national sports events behind closed doors but international sporting events is another matter. Countries have paid heavily to try and contain the virus and are now keen to get vital services and industry back to boost the economy. I wonder how they will consider an international sporting event which is after all only entertainment?
George (@feral)
7th May 2020, 9:19
You do realize that the UK now has the highest death toll in Europe so in line with your thinking Silverstone must be in severe doubt as it is the second proposed venue on the Calendar.
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
7th May 2020, 11:09
@jerejj
Not anymore, UK has surpassed Italy in terms of deaths and Spain in terms of total cases. If you look down the numbers, Italy has already reached its peak with regard to the pandemic. The number of people that have recovered from the virus is increasing day after day contrary to the infection/death rates which are decreasing.
Jere (@jerejj)
7th May 2020, 11:32
@tifoso1989 @feral @bascb
Good catch. I didn’t bring up the UK nor Spain before even though I’m aware that they’ve also been hit pretty badly because I didn’t really think they’d become worse than Italy. China getting rescheduled for later in the year could also prove a near-impossibility given that’s where this all started, and the numbers are also very high in the US, although both are one of the largest countries in the world by area, hence, mightn’t necessarily be as bad in the Shanghai and Austin-areas respectively.
Jere (@jerejj)
7th May 2020, 11:34
@tifoso1989 @feral @bascb
I forgot to add: I also wouldn’t be surprised if Singapore were to become a casualty.
BasCB (@bascb)
7th May 2020, 12:19
I would actually be highly surprised if Singapore actualy took place @jerejj.
As for the UK – I think the fact that most of the teams are close will mean a lot of pressure. A bit of how it is possible that Austria can happen because of Mateschitz wanting it and pulling strings.
I don’t think Ferrari has that much influence in Italy currently, nor even the Agnellis (if they would be inclined to push for it currently)
anon
7th May 2020, 12:52
@tifoso1989 it is a bit complex, because whilst the UK may have overtaken Italy and Spain in terms of the total number of fatalities, the UK does also have a larger overall population than both of those nations (about 66 million for the UK, versus about 60 million for Italy and 47 million for Spain).
Although the overall number may be higher, as a percentage of the overall population of that country, the situation potentially reverses and Spain and Italy would still be higher, albeit with all those nations in a different point in the outbreak.
It could also be noted that there are other factors at play, as factors such as population density and the overall demographics of those nations will also have different impacts too, as well as where those cases are concentrated.
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
7th May 2020, 22:07
anon,
Thanks as usual for the explanation. I recognize that a pertinent conclusion cannot be made by just reading the numbers as they are. As you have mentioned, many factors do have important impact and I believe testing strategy is one them.
The point I was trying to explain since I am closely monitoring the situation in the surrounding countries (Italy is one of them) and according to the numbers provided by the Italian civil protection that Italy has already reached the peak with the current waves of the coronavirus and the situation is slowly getting better contrarily to the UK which is far from that at the moment.
The thing is and even though the situation is getting better in some parts of the world many experts believe that a second wave could actually trigger due to the start of the lock-down ease.
armando
7th May 2020, 9:54
i wanzt thic calendar only europan races
1 austria
2 slverstone
3 hungaroring
4 hockhenheim
5 spa
6 monza
7 imola
8 paul ricard
9 barcelona
10 estoril
11 valencia street circiut
12 turkey
13 zandvort
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
7th May 2020, 12:52
Let us get this straight. We will see double Monza, double Austria, double Silverstone, can we have double Spa? This season is getting better and better. And 0 Pay-Race tracks?
BlueChris (@bluechris)
7th May 2020, 22:23
Question… isnt Monza the most difficult track as matter the engines? i mean its not the same to do 2 races in A1 ring and in Monza… do they considering that in their calculations? because teams count that in their engine planning.