I still remember the first week of March when I got that message from the office where I worked. It would have closed as a precaution due to Covid-19. The pandemic had not yet exploded but this country quickly stopped. I thought I can’t leave the house, but the F1 2020 season is about to begin!
When the Melbourne weekend arrived I was looking forward to seeing the race, but soon the first news arrived. Mclaren members, contagion in the paddock. Until the end, we thought they could race but then… everything stopped.
It is said that even from bad times, opportunities can be recognized. That changes should not necessarily scare, but often for the human being, they seem a threat, a misfortune, more than teaching, or perhaps an invitation to reflect.
It’s actually a convenient summary of what’s happened in Formula one this year. We’ve gone from the potential disaster of no races, which could have
forced a number of teams out of business altogether to a rammed
calendar packed with races and venues that fans could have only dreamed of 12 months ago.
As more of this year’s schedule has fallen into place, F1 has silenced any talk that the 2020 championship may not be as worthy as any previous.
In fact, it’s moved into territory where actually there is a mounting argument that winning this year’s crown will be more impressive than a regular campaign.
We’ll even put forward the case that when we come to look back to the 2020 campaign, providing it’s not wrecked by a second wave of the pandemic, wear a ask people! that it will be viewed as a golden yar when f1 stepped away from the norm and produced something special.
On the one hand, we have the extreme circumstances of teams having to live through unprecedented times of lockdowns extended factory shutdowns, car freezes, triple headers, regular testing, and social distancing requirements. this is an f1 like nothing experienced before. and it’s not just team personnel who are being pushed to the extremes and potential breaking point by the intensity of the campaign.
We’ve already seen with Lando Norris in Austria, that drivers are having their own niggles too.
Not to mention Sergio Perez catching coronavirus, and having to sit out the last two races. Where this year campaign has the potential to really stand out for fans though, is the calendar. With F1 picking something old, something new, something borrowed and something okay maybe not blue. in a bid to get enough races on the schedule, venues like Imola and Mugello, will provide a treat for fans, and perhaps a real opportunity for the championship to understand what shape it needs to take in the future like many sporting contests.
F1 is too often affected by people viewing it’s past better than the present.
Whether it’s no overtaking, or too much overtaking through DRS. The same teams winning all the time, or too many teams winning making it a lottery. Time and again section of his audience have always found a reason to complain about the here and the now. The recurring theme being “it was always better back then”. But thinking the past was only great overlooks the fact that as humans, we only seem to recall the highlights.
Talk to anyone now about the Ayrton Senna versus Alain Prost domination in the 1980s. Or the Schumacher glory years with Ferrari in the 2000s. And all you’ll hear is how great they were and what a thrill F1 was to witness in those moments.
What’s got lost in the mists of time, is the amid all the spectacular moments. and the record-breaking achievements which were all pretty great by the way, there were also some pretty boring races that were no more exciting than some of the dull races we have on occasion these days.
The delta moments though have been wiped from our memory banks. This love affair with the past is why there has been excitement about the return of tracks like Imola and the Nurburgring. And intrigue about venues like Mugello and The Algarve that hosted f1 tests in the past but were never able to get the funding together, to be able to hold a Grand Prix in normal times.
Will these venues live up the hype generated by their most famous moments?
What will be fascinating to see, how each of F1’s different types of venues play out in terms of spectacle.
We have an old school track in Imola. And High-speed challenging venue in Mugello. A modern undulating medium speed circuit in the Algarve. A potentially a super fast tri-oval in Bahrain, and finally, a come-back to the Istanbul Park for the Turkish Grand Prix! that should all deliver something unique.
With F1 having been lambasted in the past for all it’s tracks looking identical, with the same type of slow-speed corners leading to the same type of slow chicanes, with the same type of features, the variety on offer this year should hopefully a catalyst for mixing it up. It is also hugely refreshing that the F1 schedule isn’t just a cut and paste of the previous seasons. So teams will face greater uncertainty about setups a tactic for venues that aren’t on a regular beat. Spain in August anyone?
Having an identical calendar year in and year out can be a bit just too repetitive.
For too long F1’s key motivating factor in picking where it races was just how many dollars governments were willing to pay out for the privilege of hosting a race.
The quality of the action and the spectacle on offer to fans was only a secondary consideration. Now the coronavirus crisis which has derailed F1’s finances by not allowing fans into races has offered the opportunity to pick tracks for the right reasons.
Thankfully that opportunity wasn’t let go. By the end of this year (especially when thrown in with the Imola two-day race weekend format experiment) F1 should have an incredible data set about the type of venues that the series needs in the future, with or without a pandemic to deal with.
Were the old-school tracks just better?
Was Mugello better than a crazy Bahrain oval?
Would the Algarve be better on the calendar than another race in Europe?
Is the classic Istanbul park circuit prove something we already knew?
F1 2020 schedule is certainly a calendar for the ages. It’s a brilliant pick of the past, the present, and the unknown. So let’s enjoy in the moment and reveal what we’ve got right now, and not when we’re sitting there with our rose-tinted spectacles in 10 years’ time.
What do you think about F1 20202 season: could it be the best season we’ve had in decades? let me know…..