Apologies for the long title of this weeks blog but there are three things I want to highlight about the post.
New Events
Firstly we had an announcement over the last few days that three further Grand Prix have been added to the schedule for this year bringing the total to 13 races. The three further races however are not regular races, or at least they haven’t been for a good few years. The three events will take place following the Russian Grand Prix and will start with the Nurburgring in Germany, however it will not be called the German Grand Prix because of naming rights issues. It’s name will be The Eiffel Grand Prix after the region where it is situated, but who cares what it is called, I think it will be good for F1 to go there again. The circuit last hosted F1 in 2013 and has over the years produced some exciting races. The weather normally plays a part in the weekend as it it is situated in the Eiffel mountains and its 9-11 October date should see some Autumn weather intervene in precedings. It is nor an event that I anticiapted making a return as it had not really been discussed much in the media, indeed Hockenheim was the German circuit that had been mentioned alot, but it appears that talks with Hockenheim faltered for whatever reason and the Nurburgring was able to accommodate F1. Its a challenging rasce track with a good layout so Im looking forward to seeing the race.
After that event F1 will be heading back to Portugal for the first time since 1996 but not to the circuit that hosted that race. Estoril was the home of the Portuguese Grand Prix for a number a years but the Portimao track will host the race this year. F1 tested there ten years ago and F2, or GP2 as it was then has raced there but it will be the first F1 race at the circuit. I am not very knowledgeable about the track but it do know that there is some elevation change there along with some good overtaking opportunities so I believe that this track to too is a welcome addition to this years very different F1 calendar.
And then we will go back to Imola for the first time since we saw Micheal Schumacher and Fernando Alonso battle it out for victory there in 2006. If you read my blog earlier in the year where I discussed what classic tracks should male a return you will know that this is one I approve of more than any other. Imola is a great track with plenty of character and history behind it and always presented the drivers with a challenge. Seeing F1 cars there again will be a real treat for any F1 fan this year. It will not be named the San Marino Grand Prix but instead will be named after the region of Italy where it sits.
I must say well done and hats off to Formula One, the FIA and all the others involved in putting F1 on track this year, they have had work with a lot of uncertainty and at short notice but they have managed to put together a very good schedule of races so far and with the races in Bahrain and Abu Dhabi likely to go ahead we should have 15 events this year, more if Bahrain does indeed host two races as has been discussed. Other races likely to be added are unclear, the ones in the Americas have all been cancelled for obvious reasons and Vietnam is still undecided, although with news coming through this morning that they have that they have acted on an outbreak of Covid-19 this weekend I wonder if that one will fall by the wayside as well. No matter though because with some new events added and some making a welcome return we have a very good calendar ahead of us.
Next up though have two races at the mighty Silverstone coming up in the next two weeks and Im very excited for that. It is one of the worlds greatest racetracks and a track where we see F1 cars perform at their very best. It is hard to see anyone but Mercedes coming out on top as they have such an advantage at the moment so hopefully Bottas will be up to the task of presenting Hamilton with a fight. Maybe Racing Point will be able to use their Mercedes copy to take the podium position that I believe they have in their grasp.
And lastly this week I want to share with you an idea I have for spicing up Fridays at a Grand Prix meeting. There has been talk in recent years about Fridays not adding much to the show and maybe reducing the weekend to two days. I feel that this would be a mistake as I personally enjoy the Friday sessions. Also as someone that has attended Grand Prix in the past and will in future when I go to an event I want to see as much as possible, going to a race is special and unless you are very lucky not something that happens very much so when I’m there I want to see as much on track action as I can. cancelling Friday practice would rob people of that and that would be a real shame.
So instead lets make Friday count for something, have something on the line so that there is a competitive element to the day and not just the teams testing parts and fine-tuning setups. How about practice two being part of qualifying by having the top ten from that session automatically going through to Q2. There would be something to play for on the first day of the weekend then and teams would have to get up to speed with their programs a lot quicker so as not be behind the pace in the afternoon session. You could still keep FP3 so that there would still be something happening Saturday morning as a pre-courser to Quali and Q1 would be less busy on track making it a little easier for those runners to get clean laps in. I think this idea could work well and provide an extra element to the weekends excitement and should be considered. Whether the powers that be would think of it or agree to I don’t know but I believe it is a workable solution to then Friday issue.
Anyway thats all I have to say for today. Next Monday I will be blogging about what will hopefully have been an entertaining and eventful British GP.
My F1 talk 