Honda, Circuit de Catalunya

Honda’s F1 operation unaffected as cyber-attack hits company

RaceFans Round-up

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In the round-up: A major cyber-attack which affected Honda’s operations in several countries has not affected its Formula 1 operation.

Honda cyber attack

Honda confirmed yesterday its servers had been hit by a cyber-attack which had caused problems for employees using its internal systems and even led to the suspension of some vehicle production in its facilities outside Japan. The company’s F1 power units are developed in Japan at its Sakura factory, and it also has a base at Milton Keynes in the UK. A spokesperson told RaceFans its F1 operations “are proceeding as normal as we prepare for the resumption of the F1 season”.

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Comment of the day

F1 could learn something from holding races at tracks like Mugello, says Phil:

Maybe Ross Brawn and Liberty have finally latched onto the idea that if they want to expand the F1 calendar going forward, it might be a good idea to do this by using circuits with some history or reputation and that fans might want to attend. This instead of creating new circuits in places were there is little or no interest.

Maybe if they do hold any one-off races at circuits that don’t form part of the calendar, they might consider these as future expansion opportunities in years to come? Especially if the feedback they get from drivers and teams is positive.

It all makes good sense but then this is F1…
Phil Norman (@phil-f1-21)

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On this day in F1

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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16 comments on “Honda’s F1 operation unaffected as cyber-attack hits company”

  1. Jack (@jackisthestig)
    10th June 2020, 0:34

    If fans don’t agree, Wallace said they can “get back on the road where you came from.”

    I don’t think that will go down well. He’s got more front than Daytona Beach!

  2. I absolutely loathe the glorification of the military at sporting events. Why not let some grocery store cashiers into the first race with spectators?

    1. I too find it weird how american sports events have become marketing events for the police and military.

  3. Regarding Jennie Gow’s tweets. While I understand people have fears about Corona, the further in we get into this pandemic, the more things become clear about how it seems to function. One of the things that doesn’t really seem to happen much is person to person transmission when outdoors and observing some manner of social distancing. It appears to be mostly when you’re in close proximity, indoors, and in poorly ventilated places at that. In other words, most transmissions appear to happen within families, offices, etc.

    Most mass outbreaks of course happened during mass events, so crowds aren’t really feasible, but the measures F1 has announced should be plenty safe for the people involved. Does that mean it’s guaranteed there will be 0 corona cases? Of course not. Does that mean it’s a disaster if there’s one or two? Also not, because it’s not like the disease is gone. We can’t just keep halting the entire world over it because we’re waiting on a vaccine (which might not even come, or might not come for years).

    Looking at other sports and media events, F1’s plan is extremely solid and much safer than some others. The foremost being the proper testing they’re implementing. Some others only do temperature checks, by testing you can quickly eliminate positive people from the paddock and decrease the risk of transmission even more quickly, which on top of the social distancing, separation of teams and other groups in the paddock in “households”, plus flying with chartered flights in privacy per team, makes this as safe a plan as it’s ever going to be. I don’t find many faults in it.

    Unless, of course, you really want to wait until that vaccine. But by that time, both the sport and the entire world will be on literal life support.

    1. @aiii The required level of social distancing is not possible to maintain within teams, and the plans I’ve seen (admittedly I only have seen what is in the public domain) don’t inspire me with confidence that team-to-team separation can be maintained either. If one person gets it, despite the bubbling, there’s a good chance the whole paddock will be exposed to it – along with people who weren’t even involved, given the main phase of infection is in the pre-symptomatic phase (much of which is before any test picks up the illness).

      The bigger a series, the more difficult it is to maintain social distancing. Other series are managing it in the USA, but I’m not convinced F1’s plan achieves it well enough to help.

  4. F1 under covid is not feasible but as in our daily lives, we’ll just pretend we’re doing it effectively.

  5. Re COTD: All of this “Mugello, Hockenheim, Imola etc that might join as an one off”, this isn’t Liberty suddenly becoming enlightened and trying to please fans by having F1 race at historic European venues. This, along with the double Austrian & British GPs, is the very last solution they’ve come to in order to save the season and reach the 15 race threshold to get paid by TV broadcasters, because aside the 6 European circuits and the 2 Middle East ones, no other venue is guaranteed for this year.

    If the covid-19 crisis was something that just happen in spring and we are all now recovering without needing to worry about this ever again, some races would have probably be postponed and Liberty would try and squeeze most of them, there wouldn’t be a talk about Hockenheim or Mugello joining the calendar this year because they would be busy trying to find a date to stage the ‘postponed Chinese GP’ for example.
    And if the covid-19 never happened (and also when it finally ends), we would be arguing why Liberty signed a contract to race in Miami, in Saudi Arabia, in the parking lot of a casino or some other rich country vying for exposure…

    1. Personally I think that most of these races having been brought up (maybe except for Hockenheim which is was serious alternative when it looked like a UK race might not be possible?) are mostly about negotiations about the price Liberty has to pay to stage the event without paying fans to make it viable for the promotors @black.
      I agree with you that these races won’t be anywhere near a calendar as soon as Liberty thinks they can get a race in which is paying the big money again.

      1. @bascb

        Personally I think that most of these races having been brought up are mostly about negotiations about the price Liberty has to pay to stage the event without paying fans to make it viable for the promotors

        Very good point, maybe that’s the reason… but aside from Hockenheim, the rest of them (Mugello, Imola, Jerez etc) have only be brought up as a realistic alternatives only the last week. The ‘European’ calendar has been finalised, no new “postoned” European venues are joining in (like Zandvoort or Paul Ricard), maybe if the use Mugello to pressure Monza for a double header?..i don’t know. The rest of the circuits worldwide (like Japan, USA etc) are more or less dependent on what restrictions apply in their countries, i don’t think that the countries give the green like and these circuits play hardball to lower the price…

        1. postponed*
          green light*
          if only we had an edit button :P

        2. Imola and Jerez have been brought up about a month ago too, Mugello is more recent, pretty much exactly when they would be starting the negotiations with Monza about that second race. Also shortly after a second race at Sochi was brought up @black

    2. So tired of the argument that tracks should be selected for their attendance or historic value when more than 99% of spectators don’t care as much as the tracks producing good racing, which almost inevitably also rules out old historic ones.

    3. Not because all F1 teams are based in Europe, so logistics are far easier? Also given the various travel restrictions, international makeup of team personnel, etc?

  6. So that’s what Masi’s presence was for during the cancellation-announcement despite not saying a word.

  7. Masi’s being a bit selective there as they’d already postponed the Chinese GP and everyone knew everything was about to get cancelled, they just pressed on in the hope that they could sneak it in before the bans started. Coming out and saying “we were the first” when they were in fact a farce is a piece of spin that Rafa Nadal would be proud of.

  8. A little late but thanks for COTD @keithcollantine

    Wishful thinking maybe?

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