‘Class A’ musical chairs stops for now
The 2020 F1 season is going to be very different from what we were all expecting. The pandemic is far from over, and the fact that races are set to take place at all is testament to the hard work and protocols the championship’s stakeholders have established to make sure F1 can visit various countries safely.
But it certainly will not be the record-breaking 22-race length that had been anticipated, and there are no guarantees the season will reach the “15 to 22” event target set by F1 CEO Chase Carey. Further developments in the pandemic could yet stop the championship traversing the globe, especially when moving on from the European summer events that will be tackled first.
Although they will be two separate competitions, the 2020 and 2021 campaigns are now also intrinsically linked by the pandemic, as the current cars will be kept on for a second season as a costsaving measure. The teams will be able to make two developments via a token-upgrade system in agreement with the FIA for 2021 (Mclaren must spend tokens on adapting its MCL35 to the Mercedes engines it will run from 2021), but essentially what they have now, and how they can adapt it over the coming months, is locked in until the latest rules reset is finally brought in for 2022.
“We’ve effectively got a year and a half to get out of these cars,” says Horner. “So it’s going to be a smashº-and-grab kind of season this year, with prolonged development that goes through with this car carried over into next year.”
Red Bull has had one advantage ahead of the Austrian GP. It was the only ‘Class A’ team to conduct a run with its 2020 challenger in preparation for the new season opener, although it was a designated filming day, which means a 100km limit to running conducted on demonstration tyres. Mercedes and Ferrari were limited to tests with their 2018 cars at Silverstone and Mugello respectively.
The purpose of these runs was largely to test the new safety protocols required for what F1 sporting director Ross Brawn called a “biosphere”, which means physical distancing for team members wearing personal protective equipment. But that doesn’t mean
“It’s going to be a smash-andgrab kind of season this year, with prolonged development carried over into next year”
the Red Bull boss missed an opportunity to score a psychological point regarding last week’s run. “It was good to get them doing some of the basics again – pitstops and some of the fundamentals just to blow away the cobwebs,” explains Horner. “It was a useful exercise. Good to see the cars running again and good to see the team straight back down to sub-two-second pitstops.”
Horner isn’t done laying down markers ahead of the new campaign, referencing Red Bull’s most recent title-winning year when asked to offer his expectations for the season ahead.
“It’s going to be intense,” he says. “Races are going to come thick and fast. And it feels that we’re going into the season better prepared – or that it’s the best we’ve been prepared since probably 2013. Certainly in the hybrid era, it’s been our best off-season.
Our second year in our relationship with Honda feels more integrated, and they’re very much part of the team now. And we’re excited – we’re really excited to go racing.”
After so much tragedy and heartbreak, we look again to sport to provide much needed relief. If Red Bull can reach the heights it most recently scaled in 2013 and take the fight to Mercedes, then however long the 2020 season lasts it will be even more noteworthy for motorsport historians. As the cliche goes, come the end of qualifying on Saturday, we’ll have the clearest indication yet regarding F1’s new reality.