Ideas being looked at to get 2020 season going!!
After the cancellation or postponement of the first eight races of the 2020 F1 season and the near impossibility of the French Grand Prix going ahead due to further government restrictions in the country it was looking like we may never see any actual on track racing this year.
Over the last two weeks however it has emerged that the sport is trying to get things moving and put some cars on the race track. I believe it was Silverstone who first revealed that they had been in discussions with the sports bosses to hold multiple races at the the venue. Then this last week RedBull have also said that they are in the process of trying to organize back to back races at thier own RedBull Ring in Austria.
If these talks and plans come to fruition, and we should say at this point that further developments in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic may still prevent this, then we could see the season start with two double headers. This is indeed a very interesting prospect and I for one would welcome this, as long as it is done with the safety of everyone in mind of course.
If this plan were to come off then we would see the races take place behind closed doors with only a TV audience watching. Normally I am not keen on closed door sports events as I feel that if it is not possible to have spectators in attendance then the event shouldn’t happen. However these are very unusual times were are living in and this is an unprecedented situation and if that is the only way that the sport can get going safely then so be it. I’m sure that there will be a lack of atmosphere that will come across to the TV viewers but given we are now almost in May and we have had no racing then we as fans shouldn’t be put off by that. And it has to be emphasized as well that as sports fans we will have to deal with sports being conducted this way for some time yet. The lengh of time needed to create a vaccine for Coronavirus and the fears of a second wave mean that large social gatherings are going to be next to impossible for the rest of the year at least.
And lets face it we all as fans would love to see some racing on our screens, I personally have been missing the F1 action a lot. It has been great fun watching and reliving old races but nothing compares to live sport for thrilling entertainment.
And the two circuits mentioned do wet the appetite for a return to racing. The RedBull Ring , although short in nature is a good track with overtaking opportunities and it has produced some exciting race action in past years. And Silverstone, well I’m not being biased here as Brit but is one of the best race tracks anywhere in the world and to watch any race taking place there is a huge pleasure. Two British Grand Prix IN A ROW would be awesome (and yes this time I am being biased).
Aside from being exciting to see cars again it could additionally be very interesting to see teams face two races at the same venue. Things were be learnt in the first race that would be fed into the preparations for the second and more risks may be taken as teams know they have another race at the track to make amends if something goes wrong.
How the events would work and be organised in terms of timings and so on are not knowe at this stage although the idea of mid week races has been mentioned. A wednesday evening Grand Prix anyone? Sounds like good mid week viewing to me. Mid week or consecutive weekends,either way I’m up for the idea and would find it brilliant to watch.
One thing that is worth talking about though is that as yet the sport hasn’t, and probably isn’t able to say how the rest of the season would look. Global travel restrictions and possible further or extensions to government imposed lock-downs in certain countries may make putting a calendar together very difficult. The sport has already said that the original 2020 schedule has had to be torn up and a new one put out to be able to deal with the disruption but any sport putting a series of events in different countries together in this environment is facing a real battle.
So who know what F1 2020 will end up looking like. Imola has spoken about being ready to host a race at short notice. If you read my piece about classic circuits two weeks ago you will know that that idea definitely gets my seal of approval. Whatever we see this year it has to be done with the safety of the personnel of the sport and local population, and indeed the world population in mind. We all want racing to resume but first and foremost we want the world to go back to some sort of normality and that cant happen until we have found a cure for Coranvirus.
My F1 talk 