Where to from here for F1
Drivers and teams look to the future
When F1 CEO Chase Carey addressed the media on the Friday of the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, to announce the race was being cancelled, it was difficult to grasp just what that really meant for the sport.
Now, two weeks later as most countries enter into a period of enforced lockdown, the bigger picture for F1, and in fact for all sport, is becoming clearer and frightening surreal. Already the first eight grand prix on an original calendar of 22 races have either been cancelled or postponed. In addition to Australia, and the Chinese GP, which was the first event dropped from the calendar, you can add Bahrain, the inaugural Vietnam GP, the Spanish P, the revived Dutch GP, the race that is the jewel in the F1 crown, the Monaco GP and now Azerbaijan in Baku, scheduled for June 7.
Immediately following the cancellation of the Australian GP, Carey provided an open letter to F1 fans, apologising for the situation forced on Liberty Media, the owners of F1, in having to cancel or postpone events. His letter began by acknowledging the realty of the decisions taken.
“First and foremost, our priority is the health and safety of the fans, teams and organisations of Formula 1, as well as wider society,” Carey wrote. “We apologise to those fans affected by the cancellation in Australia, as well as the postponement of all the other races to date. These decisions are being made by Formula 1, the FIA, and our local promoters in rapidly changing and evolving circumstances, but we believe they are the right ones and necessary ones.”
As to the big question of what comes next for F1, Carey said they could not provide specific answers due to the fluidity of the situation, but they planned to get the season under way “as soon as it is safe to do so”.
F1 is just one of many sports cancelled or postponed around the world, including rugby, soccer, tennis, golf and cycling. Confirmation that the Tokyo Olympics, set for July, will be postponed was inevitable. But of all the sports mentioned, F1 and motorsports generally, have some advantage over other sports. If you are a professional tennis player or a golfer, you can practise but not compete, and maintaining form and game fitness becomes an issue. Similar scenario for team sports like rugby, soccer and league. Professional cyclists have seen classic events like Milan-San Remo, Paris — Roubaix and the Giro D’Italia cancelled. The Tour de France, scheduled to start at the end of June in
Nice, France, is under eminent threat. Cycling has been banned in Spain and Italy, meaning indoor training is the only option for some.
Engines of course don’t have any issues about maintaining fitness for performance, so motorsport has that advantage over other sports. When it is possible for F1 to resume, in simplistic terms it is just a question of starting up the engines. One of the reasons horse racing continued, despite the
First and foremost,
our priority is the health and safety of the fans, teams and
organisations of Formula 1, as well as wider society.
F1 CEO Chase Carey
absence on track of punters and spectators, is that horses are trained to peak in their performance and quickly lose condition if not being trained and racing. But horse racing is now shutdown for four weeks also.
Not so with the horsepower that drives an F1 car, but nonetheless, the drivers and teams, not to mention sponsors, event promoters and race fans, are anxious to know when the season might now begin.
Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko said after the Melbourne race was cancelled, that his team wanted to race.
“We would have been ready to race,” Marko told Auto Motor und Sport. “There was a corona case in the paddock. Now that everyone was already there, you could have started free practice, carried out further examinations and then made a final decision. Others were ready but they wouldn’t have got an engine.”
Mercedes and Ferrari supply engines to four other teams, so what Marko is inferring is their withdrawal meant the racing couldn’t then continue. In hindsight, considering what has happened globally with the coronavirus pandemic since, his statement sounds rather simplistic and na¨ıve. Italy, where Ferrari is based, is totally locked down and has now registered more deaths than China where the virus began. Spain is the other country badly hit, and Spanish driver Carlos Sainz, who drives for McLaren, says it is not possible to say when the 2020 F1 season might begin.
“It is a question that I don’t think anyone knows at the moment,” Sainz said. “It’s impossible to know, but hopefully soon. Hopefully we’ll stay home, it will happen quickly and soon and then we can all go back to our normal lives, but it’s definitely a strange situation.”
Sainz said he had been selfisolating since returning to Spain from Australia.
“But I’m feeling great, honestly, I’m training more than ever because there’s so much time to do it.”
The team representatives had a telephone conference with the F1 owners and the FIA to discuss the calendar from here on and also delaying the introduction of the 2021 regulations. Nine of the 10 teams voted for the 2021 changes to be delayed, given the huge financial hit all teams will take this year. That means they will be allowed to use the 2020 cars in 2021 with a freeze on regulation changes. Only Ferrari didn’t vote for it, as it wanted to give the matter more thought.
Mercedes was represented by technical director James Allison, rather than team boss Toto Wolff. His absence has been treated by some of the media as confirmation of his rumoured links with Aston Martin, which is the name by which the Racing Point team, of which Lawrence Stroll is the majority shareholder, will be called in 2021. Wolff and Stroll are mates and they are believed to have travelled back from Australia together, which is proof enough for some British publications that Wolff is set to take over as the chief executive of Aston Martin! Perhaps the reason the Racing Point is an almost exact replica of the Mercedes car, was to make Wolff feel more at home should he change teams?! That of course is mischievous speculation, just like the English press, who go even further by suggesting that if Wolff leaves Mercedes, so too will six-time world champion Lewis Hamilton.
The rationale for that line of thought is because while Hamilton has said he wants to stay with Mercedes next year, he has made it clear his future is linked to what Wolff does.
“When you’ve been with a team for so long, we are kind of joined at the hip,” Hamilton has stated. “As a business you need to have the right people in place, and he has been the right person-it has been the perfect match. So, I don’t particularly want him to leave if I’m staying in the sport but ultimately that’s going to be his choice.”
Hamilton has also been selfisolating since Australia, but has not been tested for coronavirus because he is fit and healthy according to a post on his Twitter account.
“There has been some speculation about my health, after I was at an event where two people later tested positive for coronavirus,” he posted.
“I wanted to let you know that I’m doing well, feeling healthy and working out twice a day. I have zero symptoms.”
Whatever Wolff or Hamilton might do next year, their mutual goal this year is a seventh constructors’ title for Mercedes and a seventh drivers’ title for Hamilton. The title defence is off to a very uncertain and unsettling start. The summer break has been brought forward by the World Motor Sport Council changing the regulations to move the JulyAugust summer break to March and April. F1 will then try to fit in 15-18 races, now hopefully starting with Canada in mid-June, and may reduce races to being two-day rather than three-day events and hold back-toback races, to try and fit in some of the postponed races.
Red Bull boss Christian Horner says when racing starts, it will be a season to remember.
“Like all fans, we share the disappointment that we are unable to race and further Grands Prix have been postponed or cancelled, like the #Monaco GP but this pandemic transcends our sport and change is a necessity given the current global situation. Rest assured that once the season does begin, it will be one to remember.”
Esports virtual F1 races are now being held on the internet. Entertaining it may be, but can never be a substitute for the real thing.
Stay safe everyone.