2020 - A Golden Season

[StevieBee]

I'd harboured the thought we'd not see F1 race this year. When they started to announce races, I did think that it would be a bit of limp-fish season.

As it is, we've had some of the most exciting, dramatic, intriguing racing to levels and a consistency I can't recall any other season providing. Russia was the only real dud.

I've noticed a lot of people who had drifted away from interest in F1 poking their noses back over the parapet to see what's going on. Mainstream media are giving it more airtime.

It's December..... and there's still two races to go!

I wonder if this will all carry over to 2021?

[SpudLink]

Not just great races.
New tracks F1 hasn’t used before, and the return of tracks that were not being used because they couldn’t afford to buy their way into a normal F1 season.
Even double headers at the same circuit show that all the testing and data doesn’t produce the same result in consecutive weeks.

A golden season indeed.

[Muzzer79]

I'd agree that :

• The novelty of new tracks and places has added intrigue.

• We've had some exciting races - Turkey, Monza, etc.

• There's been intrigue added with driver subs - Hulkenburg, Russell this weekend.

However

I think it's hard to argue that a season where one team has taken pole at every race and then won every race apart from two has been 'golden'

Also, I'm pretty sure we've had the same 3 drivers on the podium for 9 of the races....

It's better than nothing, but let's not pretend this is a vintage year.....

[snotrag]

I said this at the weekend when they played a bit of montage during the hanging around waiting to build the concrete barriers.

Some stuff I'd already forgotten about - the 2020 Season Review show is going to be absolutely brilliant.

[HustleRussell]

I agree that it's a golden season. I'm not optimistic about 2021 matching up and then with the regs changes we may see a much higher field spread again.

I'm just glad I was onboard from the start with this one. I will follow next year as I have done for many years before. There will be plenty of points of interest and good racing I'm sure.

[TheDeuce]

2021 calendar is out and we know that it's a fairly standard collection of circuits, so it won't have the novelty value of this season...

But as said below

SpudLink said:

Not just great races.
New tracks F1 hasn’t used before, and the return of tracks that were not being used because they couldn’t afford to buy their way into a normal F1 season.
Even double headers at the same circuit show that all the testing and data doesn’t produce the same result in consecutive weeks.

A golden season indeed.

There has indeed been lots of exciting things tried and tested in this unusual season, and what has been learned will have an influence on plans and decisions moving forward. As you say, some of the circuits we have loved this season can't pay for F1 in a normal season, but that's not to say F1 can't heavily discount what they would need to pay IF Liberty judge it to be worth it in terms of interest and viewership. Liberty make money from a mixture of hosting fees and the value each circuit adds to the TV rights they sell. Some less popular destinations pay a huge amount and hardly anyone watches. Others pay very little but remain on the calendar because Liberty know they draw a huge audience. At least by being forced to try some new (and old..) circuits this season they will have a good idea of just how popular and therefore valuable to the sport they could be.

Same goes for the double headers at the same circuits - they were forced to try it this season, turns out it was fascinating and the races weren't just slightly different, they were dramatically different.

If any of the above is to find it's way on to a future seasons calendar it might take a while though. There area agreements in place for various numbers of years with the circuits already scheduled.

Personally I think one thing that would be very popular is to have a guest circuit or two every season. That would represent a high cost to Liberty as many such circuits won't be able to pay very much at all, and also the associated costs of getting the circuit up to grade. But it is now known how much of a buzz a new circuit gets even if it's not traditionally 'ideal' for F1 and hopefully the viewing figures so far have backed that up and would make it worth the cost in the future. I mean if they don't keep trying new circuits... how will they know which could become future classics?

[ch37]

Muzzer79 said:

I think it's hard to argue that a season where one team has taken pole at every race and then won every race apart from two has been 'golden'

Also, I'm pretty sure we've had the same 3 drivers on the podium for 9 of the races....

It's better than nothing, but let's not pretend this is a vintage year.....

I'd argue that you can have a vintage season despite that. Do we discount the Silverstone race with Lewis finishing on 3 tyres because it had two of the usual guys on the podium? The midfield battles have been superb and incredibly tight, we've had loads of incidents, and although you wouldn't want it to happen again, the freak occurrences (Grosjean's crash, COVID replacement drivers) have certainly kept us on the edge of our seats.

As a general rule, the vast majority of races have been worth watching for one reason or another. There aren't many times in the history of the sport you can say that. Even less so in a season where the history books will show utter dominance from one driver.

Edited by ch37 on Wednesday 2nd December 11:49

[kiseca]

For me it's definitely been a vintage year. Lots of excitement despite the Mercedes dominance, which in itself has led to some of the highlights as we've witnessed Hamilton breaking records.

[StevieBee]

ch37 said:

Muzzer79 said:

I think it's hard to argue that a season where one team has taken pole at every race and then won every race apart from two has been 'golden'

Also, I'm pretty sure we've had the same 3 drivers on the podium for 9 of the races....

It's better than nothing, but let's not pretend this is a vintage year.....

I'd argue that you can have a vintage season despite that. Do we discount the Silverstone race with Lewis finishing on 3 tyres because it had two of the usual guys on the podium? The midfield battles have been superb and incredibly tight, we've had loads of incidents, and although you wouldn't want it to happen again, the freak occurrences (Grosjean's crash, COVID replacement drivers) have certainly kept us on the edge of our seats.

As a general rule, the vast majority of races have been worth watching for one reason or another. There aren't many times in the history of the sport you can say that. Even less so in a season where the history books will show utter dominance from one driver.

Edited by ch37 on Wednesday 2nd December 11:49

I agree with ch37 here.

If you look at 2012, you had six different drivers winning the first six races and a fairly mixed bag for the rest of the year so this would fulfil Muzzer's criteria but I think falls way short of 2020 in terms of the whole package.

[WickerBill]

Considering 1 team has dominated, if you look back, its rarely been that simple.

This year has had some amazing performances from several drivers, unexpected results, big 'moments', great circuits.

its one of those seasons where the points table doesnt tell the story....by quite a long way

[kambites]

WickerBill said:

its one of those seasons where the points table doesnt tell the story....by quite a long way

I think you could argue that applies to almost every year.

[WickerBill]

kambites said:

WickerBill said:

its one of those seasons where the points table doesnt tell the story....by quite a long way

I think you could argue that applies to almost every year.

you could, but i feel this more than most.

Hamilton sitting 130ish points ahead of bottas, mercedes utterly dominating the constructors completely misses out

Austria - Norris podium, hamilton licence points, hamiltons amazing qualifying lap
Silverstone - tyre issues and 3 wheel win, Hulk!
Hungary - Hamilton domination
Spain - Hamiltons amazing drive
Italy - Gasly, restarts etc
Mugello - what a circuit! action packed race!
Russia - Penalties and controversy
Germany - amazing performances by hamilton, shoeys and tattoos
Portugal - amazing track
Imola - Hamilton performance, Max retirement, daniel on the podium
Turkey - too many things to talk about!!!

Lets leave out boreain lol.

[Dermot O'Logical]

The FIA should arrange the calendar around certain "fixed" or "cornerstone" circuits, whose hosting fees should be subsidised by the "nouveau-riche" circuits who want to host a grand Prix for bragging rights on the Global stage.

And any of these countries should have their hosting fees doubled if they have a Presidential Palace, or questionable human rights records. The additional monies raised should be used for races at the classic "cornerstone" circuits (Spa, Monza, Suzuka), and additional races at some of the circuits which have hosted races this year - Imola, Mugello, Portimao, etc.

I commend the suggestion to the House.

[SpudLink]

WickerBill said:

you could, but i feel this more than most.

Hamilton sitting almost 100 points ahead of bottas, mercedes utterly dominating the constructors completely misses out

Austria - Norris podium, hamilton licence points, hamiltons amazing qualifying lap
Silverstone - tyre issues and 3 wheel win
Hungary - Hamilton domination
Spain - Hamiltons amazing drive
Italy - Gasly, restarts etc
Mugello - what a circuit! action packed race!
Russia - Penalties and controversy
Germany - amazing performances by hamilton, shoeys and tattoos
Portugal - amazing track
Imola - Hamilton performance, Max retirement, daniel on the podium
Turkey - too many things to talk about!!!

Lets leave out boreain lol.

Some people judge their sport on results and statistics. I think your post explains why there is so much more to sport.

[entropy]

Would be interesting how this season would be looked back in history.

Just another but record equaling WDC for Lewis?

2004 season I very much enjoyed but history of it has been unfavourable. Just another Ferrari domination even though BAR were best of the rest; Button, arguably, had race winning car if the circumstances had been correct; McLaren & Williams developed their cars into race winners and Renault were up there as well for best of the rest honours.

[kiseca]

For me 2020 has been the most enjoyable season since 1997, the last year before the cars went narrow, grooved and ugly, the McLarens (MP4/12?) looked beautiful in their first year with the black and grey West livery, and while they didn't trouble the championship they were fast enough to win a few races. Williams and Ferrari were the main contenders, Berger got his final win at Hockenheim, where he was a specialist, Damon Hill came within a lap of winning in an Arrows of all things at Hungary, where he was a specialist and had the right tyres for that track...

[sgtBerbatov]

kiseca said:

For me 2020 has been the most enjoyable season since 1997, the last year before the cars went narrow, grooved and ugly, the McLarens (MP4/12?) looked beautiful in their first year with the black and grey West livery, and while they didn't trouble the championship they were fast enough to win a few races. Williams and Ferrari were the main contenders, Berger got his final win at Hockenheim, where he was a specialist, Damon Hill came within a lap of winning in an Arrows of all things at Hungary, where he was a specialist and had the right tyres for that track...

I'd agree with this.

I also think it's a good example of having less races in the season, not more.

[Swervin_Mervin]

Is it time to bring back the European GP, with it rotating around some of the venues that we've seen used this year? Imola, Turkey, Mugello and Portugal in particular have been highlights, but it was also nice to racing at the Nurburgring again.

[Derek Smith]

SpudLink said:

WickerBill said:

you could, but i feel this more than most.

Hamilton sitting almost 100 points ahead of bottas, mercedes utterly dominating the constructors completely misses out

Austria - Norris podium, hamilton licence points, hamiltons amazing qualifying lap
Silverstone - tyre issues and 3 wheel win
Hungary - Hamilton domination
Spain - Hamiltons amazing drive
Italy - Gasly, restarts etc
Mugello - what a circuit! action packed race!
Russia - Penalties and controversy
Germany - amazing performances by hamilton, shoeys and tattoos
Portugal - amazing track
Imola - Hamilton performance, Max retirement, daniel on the podium
Turkey - too many things to talk about!!!

Lets leave out boreain lol.

Some people judge their sport on results and statistics. I think your post explains why there is so much more to sport.

I'm with your two guys. It's been a superb season. I thought it'd be a bit of a drag, but then I'm used to being wrong about F1 when it comes to predictions.

There's been some great racing, with most of the field within sight of one-another. We've had many races where 1 pit stop could drop the drivers 10 places. I remember a mid-race shot of the mid field with them all on the same straight. The McLaren/Renault/RP battle has been riveting. The fact that the front two spaces have normally been settled early on is hardly unique in F1 history. It's the norm in fact.

Yeah, great season. Many of the races have had something going on all the time. I follow the races with live timing and it can be irritating when what can be seen on LT isn't shown until after a pass or incident. It's the norm of course. With Now TV, Radio 5 Live, F1.tfeed.net and PH (of course), it's been thrilling.

Those who only judge the racing on who wins are going to be disappointed most seasons. It's the norm for them.

And even the latest race, with Hamilton and Grosjean missing, we will have other drivers in their cars to follow. That's not to mention an unusual circuit.

Silverstone was great fun.

Given my predictive ability, I feel it incumbent on me to say that 2021 will be the most boring season yet.

[kiseca]

I'm trying to work out what year it was when... I'm sure it was either Fisichella or Frentzen, and I'm sure in a Jordan, were actually an outside contender for the championship until about the halfway point. Sure it was late '90s?

A bit like Button in the early 2000s when he had one year in either a BAR or a Honda where he was never the favourite for the title but was in contention for a good part of the season.

EDIT: Some googling says it must have been Frentzen in a Jordan in '99. He never led but was in contention for most of the season.

Edited by kiseca on Wednesday 2nd December 16:42