Formula One 2020

[METALMAN]

No. If there’s a broken system that doesn’t absolve the individual of ethical or moral responsibility. If someone is to be rewarded with a knighthood you would ideally hold them to a higher standard than “well at least he hasn’t broken the law”.

 

[Twist]

19 minutes ago, metalman said:

No. If there’s a broken system that doesn’t absolve the individual of ethical or moral responsibility. If someone is to be rewarded with a knighthood you would ideally hold them to a higher standard than “well at least he hasn’t broken the law”.

 

Except the system has never held people being awarded a knighthood to that standard.

And agreed, it doesn’t absolve him from moral responsibility but there is no evidence that Hamilton had direct knowledge of the decisions being made by EY. So on the evidence he is naive but is that a reason not to award a knighthood?

And Hamilton regularly demonstrates more moral responsibility that half the politically granted honours each year.

 

 

[The Lusophone]

No one should be given a knighthood tbh.

[Lineker]

Quote

Formula 1 CEO Chase Carey says that the organisation is targeting a calendar of 24 races “in the next few years” – with some events rotating.

A 23-race calendar for 2021 was announced earlier this month, featuring a new event in Saudi Arabia, but with no confirmation yet of what will replace the cancelled Vietnam GP.

Drivers and team principals have made it clear that 23 represents a tough target, especially for mechanics and other travelling crew members.

However, Carey says that the longer term plan is to extend the schedule even further, with the new or revived races added this year on the list of possible candidates.

“Looking beyond 2021, we continue to feel great about the excitement from locations around the world in hosting F1,” said Carey in a speech to a virtual meeting of investors.

“Many locations we raced at this year expressed great interest in new races and other countries have stronger than ever interest.

“We expect to move to a 24-race calendar in the next few years, and will probably rotate a few races so we will be able to accommodate a few new partners.

“But they will be limited as long-term partnerships continue to be our priority.”

Carey insisted that despite the challenges created by COVID-19 the sport will be able to operate close to normal in 2021.

“We have not only maintained but strengthened the relationship with our promoters,” he said. “We have completed renewals for next year on improved terms.

“We are planning for 2021 events with fans that provide an experience close to normal and expect our agreements to be honoured.

“We will also look to bringing the Paddock Club back to our events. We have great plans for the Paddock Club, which were deferred this year, and expect it to be a significant contributor to our long-term growth.

“We have proven that we can safely travel and operate our races and our promoters increasingly recognise the need to move forward and manage the virus.

“In fact, many hosts actually want to use our event as a platform to show the world they are moving forward.”

Carey, who hands his job to Stefano Domenicali in January, believes that the sport will be in a healthy state in the coming years.

“We have successfully weathered the challenges of the virus in 2020,” he said. 

“We are planning for a world that begins to move forward in 2021, and have been clear with all our partners as it relates to those expectations.

“We have an even more exciting 2022 right behind it, with new cars and regulations to energise competition and action on the track, with a healthier business model to broaden the appeal of the sport.

“That being said, we recognise that we do not have a crystal ball as it relates to the virus, so we will be prepared for the unknown.

“But what we are certain of is that when the world moves past the virus that F1 will be prepared to pick up where we were before the virus interruption.

“We believe the world will value unique events live and on screens as much as ever, that countries will want a platform to connect with a world that is sick of being cooped up, and the unique combination of an incredible sport married to state of the art technology will uniquely position us for success.”

 

Potentially good news for some of the tracks which stepped in at short notice this year!

Also, Channel 4 has announced that Alex Jacques is to take over as its lead commentator from 2021.

[Adam]

24 races is just too many for me. Shouldn't be more than 20 in a season.

[METALMAN]

Yeah. Maybe rather than cram all the races in one year they could rotate them so each track does 4 out of every 5 years or whatever. (And they could tell Saudi Arabia to gtf)

[Chris2K]

 

Last retirement Austria 2018, since when he has won the 2018, 2019 and 2020 titles. Ridiculous.

[METALMAN]

You can see here that when you strip away the low hanging fruit and easy wins and empty gestures like kneeling down or putting a little rainbow or cars or saying #weraceasone this is an organisation that doesn’t give a shit about anything but the bottom line.

https://amp.theguardian.com/sport/2020/nov/25/formula-one-faces-charge-of-aiding-sportwashing-by-racing-in-bahrain

And Saudi Arabia next, apparently?

[Lineker]

Quote

Lewis Hamilton has insisted that Formula One has a “consistent and massive” problem it must address with human rights abuses in countries it visits. The world champion was speaking in Bahrain which has been accused of sportswashing, torture and oppression this week and is to host the first of two consecutive races this weekend.

This week Hamilton was asked to address the issue in letters sent to him by three Bahraini citizens alleging they had been victims of oppression and torture by the Bahraini authorities. He said he would be considering their content in detail in the forthcoming days but was unequivocal that F1 had to make steps to address human rights abuses in the countries it visits.

“The human rights issue in so many of the places we go to is a consistent and massive problem,” he said. “It is very, very important. This year has shown how important it is for not only us as a sport but for all the sports around the world to utilise the platform they have and push for change. We are one of the only ones that goes to so many different countries. As a sport we need to do more. We have taken a step in that direction but we can always do more.”

Bahrain is hosting two races in successive weekends, with the first on Sunday, and the state’s human rights record has once more been called in to question by monitoring organisations. On Tuesday a cross-party group of MPs and a wide-ranging collection of NGOs, including Human Rights Watch and the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (Bird), wrote to the F1 CEO, Chase Carey, accusing Bahrain of sportswashing and calling on the sport to urge Bahrain to prevent “the normalisation of the violation of human rights in the country”.

F1 adopted a commitment to respecting human rights in its operations globally in 2015 and have reiterated they follow its protocols. “We take violence, abuse of human rights and repression very seriously,” a spokesperson said. “Our human rights policy is very clear and states that the Formula One companies are committed to respecting internationally recognised human rights in its operations globally.”

Hamilton, however, was emphatic that the sport had to follow through on its commitments with action and that he would continue pushing for them to do so. “There are some steps put in place for the places that we are going to,” he said. “But it is important to make sure they are implemented in the right way and it’s not just saying that we are going to do something, that we actually see some action taken. That is going to take some work from us all in the background.”

The Bahrain government has denied that hosting the race is sportswashing and firmly rejected claims of human rights abuses. “Bahrain takes its obligations in this regard extremely seriously, and is committed to upholding and maintaining the highest standards of human rights protection, including the right to free expression,” they said in a statement.

 

[The Lusophone]

Good on him for speaking out about this... 13 years into his F1 career and after having not done so in any of the 12 years during that period where he quite happily raced there or during the year it was cancelled due to the mass protests in 2011.

[Chris2K]

Jesus fucking Christ.

Thank God he's OK, that looked absolutely horrific. How the hell does something like that happen these days?

The absolute state of that car. I genuinely don't understand how he survived, let alone got away with just limping.

[METALMAN]

It’s pretty remarkable that he was safe. Impressive fireproofing.

[Chris2K]

The halo must have saved him from the barrier probably going... through him, for want of a better term, in the same way it split the car in half. It looks like he had to unstrap and escape behind him through the hole that used the other half of the car.

I don't know if that barrier is getting fixed any time soon, if at all today.

[LUKIE]

The safety of F1 cars was show in full effect there. If this was 5 years ago, Grosjean might not have survived that. The fact he could walk away is incredible.

[Chris2K]

And now Stroll is upside-down. His completely non-plussed reporting of the situation was great though.

[METALMAN]

Kvyat again. Is he invisible? 

[Lineker]

That fuck Romain escaped with just relatively minor injuries. Terrifying stuff. Apparently he hit the barrier at 53 G!

[JasonM]

2 hours ago, Chris2K said:

The halo must have saved him from the barrier probably going... through him, for want of a better term, in the same way it split the car in half. It looks like he had to unstrap and escape behind him through the hole that used the other half of the car.

I don't know if that barrier is getting fixed any time soon, if at all today.

Definitely would've been decapitated if the halo hadn't been there to shear through the barrier.

Just wild that all that force didn't do anything to ding up the halo, there's only a small crack on the safety structure highlighted in blue.

Romain has been sent to the hospital for a health check and a suspected busted rib, but honestly it's mindblowing how safe the cars are.

Metal barriers need to gtfo though, the fence caught the front but ended up ripping off the rear and causing the reinforced fuel tank to go. There's no reason they can't use tecpro which is a lot safer in catching a car.

 

Edited November 29, 2020 by Jasonmufc

[Adam]

 

[Lineker]

Presumably it's either Pietro Fittipaldi or Louis Delétraz we'll see in his seat next week. Wouldn't be surprised to see him miss Abu Dhabi as well.