2020 Formula One

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Aug 21, 2008
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Alright, let's do this.

It will (hopefully) be an interesting year. One year prior to another big rule change and the cost cap.

The highly likely scenario is that the order will be largely the same. Will McLaren close the gap? Or will they fare the same way Red Bull did in their last season with Renault engines? Can Hamilton equal and then beat Schumacher's win record, and equal his titles? What version of Seb will we see? Can Renault improve? How many quotable lines will we get from Kimi?

The off-track action could be more interesting than the on-track. Bring on DTS Season 3. Most big name drivers - Vettel, Hamilton, Max, Dan, Bottas and Kimi are all out of contract at the end of the season.

22 races welcome in the largest ever season, with Vietnam and the Netherlands adding themselves to the calendar, at the expense of Germany - which has hosted two very good races in the last couple of years.

It will be interesting to see how teams manage this season. The bigger resourced teams will likely be fine - but down the order will a plucky team like Racing Point or Alfa Romeo shoot up the midfield in the second half of the season as other midfield teams focus on 2021?

Can anyone other than Ferrari, Mercedes or Red Bull grab a race win?

At least we can all agree on one thing - the F1 theme is a banger. And Lando Norris will make people laugh again.

2020 Calendar
-19-21 FEBPRE-SEASON TEST 1Barcelona
-26 - 28 FEBPRE-SEASON TEST 2Barcelona
115 MARAUSTRALIAMelbourne
222 MARBAHRAINSakhir
35 APRVIETNAMHanoi
419 APRCHINAShanghai
53 MAYNETHERLANDSZandvoort
610 MAYSPAINBarcelona
724 MAYMONACOMonte Carlo
87 JUNAZERBAIJANBaku
914 JUNCANADAMontreal
1028 JUNFRANCELe Castellet
115 JULAUSTRIASpielberg
1219 JULGREAT BRITAINSilverstone
132 AUGHUNGARYBudapest
1430 AUGBELGIUMSpa-Francorchamps
156 SEPITALYMonza
1620 SEPSINGAPORESingapore
1727 SEPRUSSIASochi
1811 OCTJAPANSuzuka
1925 OCTUNITED STATESAustin
201 NOVMEXICO CITYMexico City
2115 NOVBRAZILSao Paulo
2229 NOVABU DHABIYas Island
2020 Team Launches:

MercedesTBD
FerrariFeb 11
Red BullTBD
McLarenTBD
RenaultTBD
Alpha TauriFeb 14
Racing PointTBD
Alfa RomeoTBD
HaasTBD
WilliamsTBD but probably Bahrain
 

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Mar 20, 2007
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Oct 7, 2001
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He’s made a mistake.
Merc/Ferrari, both contenders would snap him up at the end of 2020 at bigger dollars and better opportunity.
RB will be snapping at the heels of Merc and the red cars, but they’ll be nuisance value only.
I agree with this. Without significant engine regulation changes, I can't see RBR catching the Top 2.
In fact I don't know much how much of an effect 2021 will have on changing the grid order.
 
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Oh right. Now RB is the third best team and won't be championship contenders.

But when discussing Ricciardo, Honda is improving heaps and will get ahead of MB and Ferrari, and Ricciardo will regret leaving RB.
I can't see the Honda matching Mercedes and Ferrari on power and reliability. It can and probably already has however surpassed the Renault.
 
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Dan to Ferrari?
The contract situation will be interesting.

I think at this stage Daniel is still the "best of the rest" option for any vacant seat at Ferrari or Mercedes (especially with Max signed up), but another dwindling season in the middle of the pack for Renault, and I fear that younger drivers may be more attractive alternatives.

Ferrari have stated they wish to lock in their 2021 lineup sooner rather than later, which is basically saying Vettel needs to make his mind up pretty soon.
 

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Oct 26, 2007
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The contract situation will be interesting.

I think at this stage Daniel is still the "best of the rest" option for any vacant seat at Ferrari or Mercedes (especially with Max signed up), but another dwindling season in the middle of the pack for Renault, and I fear that younger drivers may be more attractive alternatives.

Ferrari have stated they wish to lock in their 2021 lineup sooner rather than later, which is basically saying Vettel needs to make his mind up pretty soon.

Ferrari just hasn't been the dream Seb imagined. I could see Seb going back to RBR or retiring.

The rumor last time around was that Hamilton blocked Dan from joining Mercedes, conceivably you'd see this happening again.

Ocon is no slouch either, will be tough competition for Dan.

Carlos Sainz is another driver who'd surely be on the radar for Merc/Ferrari/RBR.

Will be interesting to see it all unfold.....

Here's hoping Dan lands at Ferrari
 

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So, Norris "accidentally" leaked the McLaren car launch date, 13th of Feb. Well played by their marketing dept on this one!

 
Here's my thoughts on the upcoming F1 season:

Firstly, with little changing on the technical side, and the retention of the 2019 tyres, I can see it being very close between the top 3 teams. McLaren are the wildcard although they have tempered expectations of another big lift in performance like they had in 2019.

Again, the midfield is going to be where the main race action is going to take part with the majority of the other 7 teams (except Williams) capable of finishing in the top 10 behind the top 3 teams. Toro Rosso gets renamed as AlphaTauri and apparently they get the 2019 Red Bull rear end so I would expect them to be pretty quick straight out of the box. Haas and Alfa Romeo continue their tie up with Ferrari so I'd expect them to be solid out of the box as well.

If I was going to speculate on the pecking order this year I'd put it as:

Tier 1 - Mercedes/Ferrari/Red Bull
Tier 2 - McLaren
Tier 3 - Renault/AlphaTauri/Racing Point/Alfa Romeo
Tier 4 - Haas
Tier 5 - Williams

Haas' race performance will completely depend on tyre management during the race which completely compromised them in 2019.

Williams will be in for another difficult year with the possibility that they'll use an updated version of their 2019 car rather than a brand new design. Paddy Lowe left the team in 2019 and I can't even find who his replacement is. The 2019 Williams was multiple seconds off the pace and I wouldn't be surprised if they fell further behind in 2020.

From an engine perspective it looks like Mercedes, Ferrari, and Honda are pretty close from a power perspective during races, but Mercedes still has the advantage of extra performance during qualifying. The big question is whether or not there are any further big advances in 2020. I doubt if Max Verstappen would have re-signed with Red Bull if Honda had indicated that they were nearing the end of their engine development cycle.

I see 2020 as a transition season for the more veteran drivers (Hamilton, Vettel etc) as the younger drivers (Verstappen, LeClerc etc) start to have more influence over the Championship. That being said you'd have to have Hamilton and Mercedes as favourites for the Championship but I do expect it to be a lot closer than it was in 2019.

I'm really looking forward to the Vietnamese Grand Prix as the track looks really good, whereas the Dutch Grand Prix looks like it could be a boring as the French race. Hopefully we can see some new race winners this year as it has been a bit of a Mercedes/Ferrari/Red Bull procession in recent times (Kimi's win in Australia 2013 in the Lotus was the last time someone outside the top 3 won a race).
 
Oct 7, 2001
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Just watched Avenue 5 and noticed they used McLaren F1 headquarters as Judd Galaxy headquarters.

3477E7F1-1B3F-4018-A7D6-CF0A3D812322.png


I have no pics, but the interior control centre looked exactly like the McLaren control centre as shown in the computer racing series.
Exactly. I even thought they may have filmed it there, but no credit to McLaren in the end roll.
 
Oct 7, 2001
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Is Avenue 5 any good ?
I’ll persevere.
It has some little gems that have been planted that I’m hoping will develop. The “stowaway“ looks capable of leading a revolution.
Right now I’m not sure Hugh Laurie is being used to his full potential. Surely that will change.
It‘s an interesting concept, a small space cruise turns into a three year journey. Questions arise, how do you supply 5,000 passengers and 1500 crew with food? How do you keep that many people sanitary? Without being able to dock close to earth to replenish supplies.
Those are serious questions, and this is a sci fi comedy show.
Interesting episodes ahead.
 
Rumours of aero problems with the 2020 Ferrari....


The bigger problem with this type of information is that there must be someone inside the Ferrari team who is providing this information (unnamed sources) and it begs the question of whether or not there are internal problems at Ferrari.
 

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