Official 2020 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix **SPOILERS**

[Piginapoke]

Round 13 and Imola, a proper F1 circuit, even if it’s not quite the same as it used to be. Probably the most interesting thing will be the new 2-day timetable; there seems to be some possibility of this being adopted if successful.

Hamilton will win I imagine.

Here’s Schumacher’s 2008 Ferrari on the circuit (lovely sound): https://youtu.be/4xloq_seJaE

Date(s): Saturday 31 October 2020 - Sunday 2 November 2020

UK Broadcast Timings (and local time)

All sessions are live on Sky F1; Channel 4 showing highlights of Race and Qualifying:





Live timing for all sessions available here:

https://www.formula1.com/en/f1-live.html

Lap times, PU component use, technical reports and Stewards' decisions for the weekend will appear here:

https://www.fia.com/events/fia-formula-one-world-c...

Weather forecast:
https://weather.com/en-GB/weather/today/l/44.36,11...

Tyre options:



2019 Race Result:

[n/a]

2019 race highlights:

n/a

[Piginapoke]

RonaldMcDonaldAteMyCat said:

Thanks for that. Pedant corner- do you mean the 2008 Ferrari is owned by Schumacher?

Good pedanting! It's his 2008 F1 car but I don't know who owns it now.

[Piginapoke]

RonaldMcDonaldAteMyCat said:

Who was Schumacher driving for in 2008?

Doh!

[Piginapoke]

For all the commercial advantages of Friday gate receipts, P1 and P2 do seem a bit pointless now.

Once GPs above 22 per year, a shorter weekend looks an obvious move I think. I wouldn't mind it.

[Piginapoke]

TheDeuce said:

Eric Mc said:

Great to see Imola back on the list again. Sadly likely to be a one-off.

Depends doesn't it? They wouldn't normally consider such circuits these days perhaps... But now they have been forced to, if the viewer reaction is very positive then that could change things. Have to wait and see of course. Although, say the vaccine (about to be rolled out in London for front line staff) is successful, would F1 really go back to the 'normal' more familiar calendar? I would think there would be some concerns it could look a little dull and ordinary after this seasons 'knee jerk tour or Europe'. Lot's of commercial considerations I know, and this season's solution clearly isn't sustainable. But one of the biggest commercial factors is the reaction and happiness of the global TV audience. Some circuits which don't make much sense to FOM on paper may however prove to be very appealing to viewers.

Something good has to come out of this turd infested year after all

The draft 2021 calendar is being shared with teams this week- it looks very similar to the original 2020 schedule (according to Autosport)

[Piginapoke]

ch37 said:

ChocolateFrog said:

The timings in the OP look a bit squiffy.
Session start time jumps from an hour after local time to an hour before for the race.

I'm assuming it's a 1410 race start for us?

Edited by ChocolateFrog on Tuesday 27th October 00:32

UK times are correct on the OPs list, just a typo on the local quali time which should say 14:00.

So, race is 12:10 UK time.

Apologies, it was early. UK times are all correct, the local quali time isn't.

[Piginapoke]

Crap

[Piginapoke]

Has anyone seen the viewing figures for the last few GPs?

They've been a bit dull (minor placings aside) and I wonder if people are still tuning in. Last weekend I lasted until Lewis lucked into the lead & then switched off.

[Piginapoke]

TheDeuce said:

Good for you!

Regard Piginapoke's comments... I just did some googling about sports viewership in general (can't find anything about F1 2020 figures), it appears that the networks were mostly expecting to people to watch more sport after it returned to screen this year, which is what I assumed - as per my post above. BUT... apparently the opposite has happened. Lots of theories as to why, perhaps people found other interests to replace the missing sports early this year and haven't returned, or there is a theory that with the massive covid increase in on demand box set viewing, people have stopped following TV fixtures altogether and simply forget to check when their sport is on. The most convincing theory was that people got used to not watching the sport when it was normally on, have filled that part of their day with new routines and are instead just following the sport via social media - which has shown some increases that reflect the TV viewership decline this year.

The above is for sports in general, not F1. It perhaps does give an insight in to how tough things could still get for F1 though. Have to wait and see on that point. Hopefully any loss of interest for F1 will be somewhat offset by the fact it was one of the very first sports to return and as such might have attracted previous fans to give it another go, or attracted some new ones - as there was chuff all else for sports fans..

Strange times we live in!

Edited by TheDeuce on Monday 2nd November 16:06

Interesting, thanks Deuce. I also wonder if there is F1 fatigue, after so many races so close together.

[Piginapoke]

C350Akra said:

Piginapoke said:

Last weekend I lasted until Lewis lucked into the lead & then switched off.

Not sure what race you were watching? Lewis was on a different strategy to Valterri following MB covering Max by bringing Valterri in early. Lewis had to stretch his lead to more than +27 seconds before coming in, which he had done a couple of laps before the safety car, there was no luck involved. It was interesting to see if he could do this whilst lapping the back-markers, which he did.

You don't think that Lewis being able to take his stop under the VSC killed the race?