Formula 1 2020 Season

[Nicktendo]

Segwaying off from my Bad Stuff thread post, one thing I noticed was that we used to have an active F1 community here. 

Current Desktop image:

 

Reviving that S-O-B. Join me. Jooooin, me. Prove to me that forums aren't dead! 

It's 2020, lads and lasses. The field is tighter than ever. 

Coronavirus is causing calendar chaos. China has already fallen to the wayside. How many more?

Only 14 days to go until Melbourne. Give me your horrible predictions. Albon podium first race? Racing Point ahead of Ferrari? How does the Gasly fall to redemption arc forecast look for 2020? 

Can we please get this going again. 

Call to action for @Retro_Link who has not visited N-E since Nov 2018. Come baaaaaack. Baby, come back. 

1. Merc
2. Red Bulls
3. Ferrari
4. McLaren
5. Racing Point / Renault
7. Alpha
8. Alfa
9. Williams (so bold)
10. Haas

Additional: I watched all 10 episodes of DtS back-to-back yesterday. I want your thoughts. 

NB: I will be keeping this thread alive throughout the season. Whether anyone bothers to respond is a different kettle of kippers. 

[Aperson]

Personally I'm a big F1 fan but my watch time of it has kind of decreased to just the Youtube channel since I don't have Sky. I just watch the highlihgts on Youtube nowadays.

 

There are definitely some exciting races over the last few seasons but Mercedes have made the sport a bit of a monotony over the past few seasons. I miss 2012 when the entire season was just so exciting.

[Nicktendo]

I can see where you’re coming from about Mercedes domination, but last year, bar a couple of duds, was a fantastic year with some incredible races and sub-stories. Some of the most exciting races in years. 

It’s a shame Sky have it on lockdown in the U.K., but the YouTube content was really good last year. An eight-minute highlight package isn’t the best was to maintain interest, but I think they do a good job overall. Hopefully F1TV will go global soon! (I think Sky’s deal ends in 2024). 

If you don’t want to pay for Sky, there are other means of watching races... And you should! I have a feeling this will be a very close season. 

Edited February 29, 2020 by Nicktendo

[Will]

I think we'll have a repeat of last year, close and exciting racing but ultimately dominated by Mercedes. By the end of the year Lewis will have broken all of Schumacher's records.

I'm quite looking forward to seeing how the Ferrari battle plays out. I think Leclerc will win that and Sebastien probably retires at the end of the year.

I just cancelled my TV sport package as F1 is shown through Fox here and it totally sucks. Have subscribed to F1TV and while the testing coverage was good, the quality was crappy and it dropped out a lot. That's fine when nothing is really happening but not sure I'll be too happy about it when we're mid-lap in a tight battle. Still, it should be better. It's not technically available here but no reason you can't subscribe through a VPN.

[Nicktendo]

I think Lewis will win the title again but will be pushed harder this year by Max (hopefully Valterri too). All the inter-team battles are quite tasty this year so I don’t mind if Merc walk it, everything else should be fascinating. 

F1 isn’t even shown where I am, but luckily my brother gave me access to his Sky account and SkyGo works here thanks to EU legislation. I subscribed To F1TV too, but we can only get Access for €26 a year, not Pro. They do show races “after the session”, so if I miss one, I can catch up there almost immediately.

How does it work with a VPN then? Everything I’ve read suggests their detection is really good and that for it to work, you need to purchase it with a credit card from the region you plan to watch from. Where are you living now? What did you set your region to?

[bob]

Mercedes cool steering thing is interesting. I wonder how much advantage it's going to give them?

[Will]

 

 

 

1

3 hours ago, Nicktendo said:

How does it work with a VPN then? Everything I’ve read suggests their detection is really good and that for it to work, you need to purchase it with a credit card from the region you plan to watch from. Where are you living now? What did you set your region to?

I'm in Singapore and did it via the US site. The payment thing could well be true, but was very easy to get around - I did the following:

1. Downloaded the F1TV App from the App Store
2. Subscribed through my US Apple ID
3. Set the VPN to US
4. Watched F1

Making an apple ID set to US region is pretty simple and you can just buy top-up cards from Amazon to do the payment with, no need to add a credit card to the account. So far I haven't had any issues with it detecting the VPN and locking me out of any content.

[Nicktendo]

36 minutes ago, bob said:

Mercedes cool steering thing is interesting. I wonder how much advantage it's going to give them?

With speed it won't help too much, but it should assist them with tyre wear, which has notoriously been weaker than the Red Bull's. Saying that though, they've had problems with their engines, so they may have a few reliability problems in the early part of the season, even if they're fast. Hopefully someone else will take charge of the championship early on and Mercedes will be forced to claw their way back.

1 minute ago, will' said:

I'm in Singapore and did it via the US site. The payment thing could well be true, but was very easy to get around - I did the following:

1. Downloaded the F1TV App from the App Store
2. Subscribed through my US Apple ID
3. Set the VPN to US
4. Watched F1

Making an apple ID set to US region is pretty simple and you can just buy top-up cards from Amazon to do the payment with, no need to add a credit card to the account. So far I haven't had any issues with it detecting the VPN and locking me out of any content.

Nice one, I'll have to give this a shot if Sky stop letting EU countries have access to Sky Go. 

It baffles me why I can't get F1TV Pro here because in the Baltic's they don't even have an official F1 broadcaster, I literally have no "legal" way of watching it on TV/Cable/Online. I know the populations are small and insignificant in the grand scheme, but you'd have thought it would be the perfect place to have an online sub  Don't see the point in having the race up on access after it finishes when they could just show everything live. 

[Aperson]

So, McLaren have officially withdrawn from the Australian Grand Prix due to the Corona Virus, after one of their team members has tested positive for it.

 

There are conflicting reports over whether the Australian Grand Prix is going to go ahead now but if it did we would have an 18 car field in the first race. Maybe there won't be a race this weekend after all though...

 

EDIT: The Australian Grand Prix has been officially suspended.

Edited March 12, 2020 by GenericAperson

[BowserBasher]

Well this is an interesting turn. Wonder how this will all work now? More races closer together or extend the season at the end to put them in. I say they all just play Mario Kart instead. 

[Aperson]

Never mind about the race being cancelled, the race is still going to go ahead but no spectators will be allowed in.

 

I think the cost of hosting an event is going to cause major headaches in terms of cancellations... and I suspest the teams may strike anyway.

[Julius]

19 minutes ago, GenericAperson said:

Never mind about the race being cancelled, the race is still going to go ahead but no spectators will be allowed in. 

It's still unconfirmed from the looks of things; Victorian premier Daniel Andrews:

Quote

I want to make the point that any other chains to any mass gathering or large event will be based on a supervise the chief health officer.

That is what has happened with the Grand Prix. There’s been events at the Grand Prix —they have been wildly reported. There has been elements around the world. The chief health officer updated his advice.

That’s been communicated to Grand Prix organisers. Now they are making the choice between no event or an event without fans. But at the very least, there will be no fans at the Grand Prix this weekend.

What a mess. The F1, FIA and the local government just passing the ball along on who is calling the shots. 

The decision is simple. Call it off. 

Edited March 12, 2020 by Julius

[Will]

This whole thing seems to be an absolute mess. It seems they're still going ahead with the 'event' despite the F1 being cancelled. Seems to me they should have cancelled it before anyone got there, and now that everyone is there the only thing you can really protect is the fans so why not hold the event behind closed doors like Bahrain? Instead we now get no F1 but all the fans will be there for the support events - totally bonkers.

[Aperson]

Well there's no doubt now, the race has been officially cancelled.

 

https://t.co/ecqwHzDCAL?amp=1

[BowserBasher]

All racing until May has now been cancelled. 
 

 

Edited March 13, 2020 by BowserBasher

[Pestneb]

It's the right call obviously, but gutted by this, I was looking forward to following F1 again. Might give Mercedes time to figure out their reliability issues though... and other teams time to try getting a steering system similar to Mercedes cobbled together. I hope the this virus fizzles out quickly and life can get back to normal soon (and obviously fewer fatalities would be rather useful too)

[gaggle64]

Aye, a shame but understandable. Seemed a real mishandling let it get as close as it did. Was going to see the BTCC with my dad in April but that's off too. Weird times all around, let's hope it all passes soon. 

Until then:

 

Edited March 17, 2020 by gaggle64

[Pestneb]

Nice, the marble I was hoping to win came second, exciting race, this could replace F1 for me

[BowserBasher]

Vettel leaving Ferrari at end of the 2020 season.

 

bit of a shock there. 

[gaggle64]

Been rumblings for a while. Crazy that Sly Season for 21 is starting before the season even has.

[Londragon]

Nice to think about who's going to replace him.  Some have given it to Sainz.  Which will allow Ricciardo to move to Mclaren.  Or Vettel could go straight across to Mclaren himself.

Anyone think he'll leave F1?  Given that he won't be in a competitive car.  

[Nicktendo]

I think he will...

As for his replacement, I'd be happy with either Sainz or Ricciardo. Maybe Lewis will jump? Even Giovinazzi would be interesting, if unlikely.

2021 is going to be excellent!

[Will]

I thought he would retire at the end of this year and I still think that will be the case. I just don't see what team would be a good fit for both sides.

I would guess the Ferrari drive will probably go to Sainz, but Ricciardo could be in with a shot of it if they can come to some sort of arrangement. He'd probably have to take a huge pay cut but may well be willing to do that for such a seat. Totally unlikely but I'd love to see them put Alonso back in the car for one or two years before bringing in Schumacher for the long term.

[Nicktendo]

Rumours from Italy that Sainz and Vettel are going to swap places next year.

Personally, I would love to see this. I've always wondered how fast Sainz really is (I rate him in the top 5 on the grid) and it would be amazing to see Vettel up against Norris. 

I'd also love to see Danny Ric get a WC, looks like that dream is fading unless Renault really start turning stuff around.

[gaggle64]

Sainz would be the most obvious choice, personally I'd also love to see Perez get something decent to work with. If Sainz goes Russell better get that McLaren seat or I'll riot. Can't see Vettel being anywhere else on the grid, he'd be well advised to get better work elsewhere (WEC maybe) that'll let him spend time with his family.