Official 2020 Australian Grand Prix Thread ***SPOILERS***

Official 2020 Australian Grand Prix Thread ***SPOILERS***

Author
Discussion

poo at Paul's

14,187 posts

176 months

Saturday 7th March 2020
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Pirelli guys?

TheDeuce

22,241 posts

67 months

Sunday 8th March 2020
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poo at Paul's said:
Pirelli guys?
Pirelli, and brembo... Have people all over the place - should be ok.

With the caveat that we're talking about key players getting to a single GP. As the season goes forwards further travel bans are going to zig-zag the globe and I fear it might well become unmanageable.

In the end, if a single team is hamstrung by travel bans, then the entire championship becomes worthless really. That's the scary reality.

Piginapoke

4,816 posts

186 months

Sunday 8th March 2020
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TheDeuce said:
Pirelli, and brembo... Have people all over the place - should be ok.

With the caveat that we're talking about key players getting to a single GP. As the season goes forwards further travel bans are going to zig-zag the globe and I fear it might well become unmanageable.

In the end, if a single team is hamstrung by travel bans, then the entire championship becomes worthless really. That's the scary reality.
The amount of old/vulnerable people who will likely die is the scary reality Deuce, not a motor race.

ukaskew

10,642 posts

222 months

Sunday 8th March 2020
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TheDeuce said:
In the end, if a single team is hamstrung by travel bans, then the entire championship becomes worthless really. That's the scary reality.
Brawn has already said if a single team cannot raceone a given country they will not run a world championship event there. He implied that they would leave the door open for an exhibition race, and indeed it could be an incredible opportunity for F1 to experiment with a couple of tweaks to the format, should they desire.

seymourski

289 posts

237 months

Sunday 8th March 2020
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But it’s not that simple either. If you have one team not attending an event and others running a “demonstration race” you will end up with a disparity of engine mileage. This would give the teams that don’t race a slight performance advantage over those that do. We have seen the advantage that a “fresh” engine or higher mode brings and I can’t see a team attending a non championship race if it compromises their performance at the “main event”.
Overall a very complicated and difficult situation and, in light of larger concerns, not the most important.

TheDeuce

22,241 posts

67 months

Sunday 8th March 2020
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ukaskew said:
TheDeuce said:
In the end, if a single team is hamstrung by travel bans, then the entire championship becomes worthless really. That's the scary reality.
Brawn has already said if a single team cannot raceone a given country they will not run a world championship event there. He implied that they would leave the door open for an exhibition race, and indeed it could be an incredible opportunity for F1 to experiment with a couple of tweaks to the format, should they desire.
I read his comments last week, was just reiterating the same logic - that the championship is an all or nothing deal.

Liberty are being tight lipped so far, but they must have been discussing contingency plans for weeks now - maybe the exhibition race idea that Brawn implied is the contingency. It would be interesting if they played with the format, I'd watch.

Teddy Lop

8,301 posts

68 months

Sunday 8th March 2020
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seymourski said:
But it’s not that simple either. If you have one team not attending an event and others running a “demonstration race” you will end up with a disparity of engine mileage. This would give the teams that don’t race a slight performance advantage over those that do. We have seen the advantage that a “fresh” engine or higher mode brings and I can’t see a team attending a non championship race if it compromises their performance at the “main event”.
Overall a very complicated and difficult situation and, in light of larger concerns, not the most important.
teams attending a demo event need not use race season allocated engines shirley?

The idea of alternative non championship rounds has been floating at the back of my head for a while, you could have some real fun.. In fact with the saturated calendar issues we're having now you could even make them a thing, as you don't require the regular race team, cars or even drivers

TheDeuce

22,241 posts

67 months

Sunday 8th March 2020
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Piginapoke said:
The amount of old/vulnerable people who will likely die is the scary reality Deuce, not a motor race.
I gave up adding that same sentiment to each CV post, it should be obvious that F1 isn't as important as people's lives - it doesn't need saying every single time.

This remains the F1 forum however, so it's ok to comment about F1 in isolation surely?

Sandpit Steve

10,314 posts

75 months

Sunday 8th March 2020
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Teddy Lop said:
teams attending a demo event need not use race season allocated engines shirley?

The idea of alternative non championship rounds has been floating at the back of my head for a while, you could have some real fun.. In fact with the saturated calendar issues we're having now you could even make them a thing, as you don't require the regular race team, cars or even drivers
We’ve not had a non-Championship event in ages, there’s probably a few fun things you could mess around with in order to put on a big show for the crowd. The possibilities depend on how much notice you have and whether or not you have a crowd watching live, but:

With engine restrictions and Parc Fermé lifted, I’d run qualifying on the softest available tyres and with everyone’s engines turned up to 11, let’s see some record laps.

Saturday evening could be a one hour sprint race, with reverse-Championship grid, timed to finish at sunset. Otherwise known as the demolition derby. wink

Sunday morning could be another one hour sprint, but this time one of the drivers in each team needs to be substituted for the team’s reserve driver.

For Sunday’s main race, I’d drop all the tyre restrictions, so some guys will do three or four stops, and others the usual one if at all.

Oh, and open the F1 TV Pro thingy up worldwide to everyone for the weekend, then show the races on Netflix afterwards!

SeeFive

8,280 posts

234 months

Sunday 8th March 2020
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Sandpit Steve said:
Teddy Lop said:
teams attending a demo event need not use race season allocated engines shirley?

The idea of alternative non championship rounds has been floating at the back of my head for a while, you could have some real fun.. In fact with the saturated calendar issues we're having now you could even make them a thing, as you don't require the regular race team, cars or even drivers
We’ve not had a non-Championship event in ages, there’s probably a few fun things you could mess around with in order to put on a big show for the crowd. The possibilities depend on how much notice you have and whether or not you have a crowd watching live, but:

With engine restrictions and Parc Fermé lifted, I’d run qualifying on the softest available tyres and with everyone’s engines turned up to 11, let’s see some record laps.

Saturday evening could be a one hour sprint race, with reverse-Championship grid, timed to finish at sunset. Otherwise known as the demolition derby. wink

Sunday morning could be another one hour sprint, but this time one of the drivers in each team needs to be substituted for the team’s reserve driver.

For Sunday’s main race, I’d drop all the tyre restrictions, so some guys will do three or four stops, and others the usual one if at all.

Oh, and open the F1 TV Pro thingy up worldwide to everyone for the weekend, then show the races on Netflix afterwards!
Following my recent acquisition and exploring its handling limits, I would suggest that we give them all Freelander 2s and let them race them on dry tarmac. Last one the right way up wins smile

LaurasOtherHalf

21,429 posts

197 months

Sunday 8th March 2020
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So any none championship event becomes an unlimited test where the richest team wins?

rev-erend

21,434 posts

285 months

Monday 9th March 2020
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Sounds like Maranelo is caught up in the Northern Italy lock down.

Will it affect Ferrari getting to the 1st race or did the staff get out before the lock down?

kambites

67,667 posts

222 months

Monday 9th March 2020
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Does it go as far south as Maranello? Looks to be pretty close to the southern border of the travel ban region.

I suspect Ferrari got all of its critical race team out of Italy as soon as the scale of the outbreak there became clear.

Edited by kambites on Monday 9th March 08:58

AJB88

12,550 posts

172 months

Monday 9th March 2020
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Modena is listed as one of the areas in the ban area, would suspect they could get the "special permission" to travel, suspect they would need to be tested and then released to travel.

thegreenhell

15,624 posts

220 months

Monday 9th March 2020
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Maranello is in the new lockdown area, but most of Ferrari's race personnel are already in Aus.

StevieBee

12,976 posts

256 months

Monday 9th March 2020
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Seems Aus GP is definitely on: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/51789298

All freight is there already and all personal en-route including those from Italy so assume they escaped the lock-down in time. And no thinning of the crowd either.

I guess this will be the litmus test, then.

Teddy Lop

8,301 posts

68 months

Monday 9th March 2020
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StevieBee said:
Seems Aus GP is definitely on: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/51789298

All freight is there already and all personal en-route including those from Italy so assume they escaped the lock-down in time. And no thinning of the crowd either.

I guess this will be the litmus test, then.
Brawn and the aussies seem pretty bullish. Lucky from Brawns perspective it's Oz and not somewhere more likely to panic and cave.

methinks there's going to be some heros and zeros when the dust settles...

StevieBee

12,976 posts

256 months

Monday 9th March 2020
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Teddy Lop said:
methinks there's going to be some heros and zeros when the dust settles...
Quite. I guess that it will be useful to gauge the impact rather than guess at it.

Nampahc Niloc

910 posts

79 months

Monday 9th March 2020
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seymourski said:
But it’s not that simple either. If you have one team not attending an event and others running a “demonstration race” you will end up with a disparity of engine mileage. This would give the teams that don’t race a slight performance advantage over those that do. We have seen the advantage that a “fresh” engine or higher mode brings and I can’t see a team attending a non championship race if it compromises their performance at the “main event”.
Overall a very complicated and difficult situation and, in light of larger concerns, not the most important.
I’ve been thinking about this. The counter point is that they would get a whole weekend of free testing that they would otherwise miss out on. Some of the teams might jump at that opportunity. All they would have to do is turn the engine down to negate the effects.

It’s swings and roundabouts.

6 of one and half a dozen of the other.

....

TheDeuce

22,241 posts

67 months

Monday 9th March 2020
quotequote all
Nampahc Niloc said:
I’ve been thinking about this. The counter point is that they would get a whole weekend of free testing that they would otherwise miss out on. Some of the teams might jump at that opportunity. All they would have to do is turn the engine down to negate the effects.

It’s swings and roundabouts.

6 of one and half a dozen of the other.

....
As it wouldn't be a championship race, barring issues of cost, no reason why they couldn't run a non championship engine I guess.

The thing is, the teams would have to want to do it - they're not obliged. I suspect most would rather put on a show if possible for the sake of retaining the sponsors though.. and that's a whole other discussion, the money side for both sponsorship and TV rights is huge, and is all based upon a full championship - so whatever they do to fill cancelled races, it needs to be something good and worth watching.