Admin Lineker Posted June 1, 2020 Author Admin Report Share Posted June 1, 2020 Quote Formula 1 has been given the go-ahead by the UK government to hold two races at Silverstone this summer, BBC Sport has been told. F1 sources say people involved in elite sports events will be exempt from a requirement on international travellers to self-isolate for 14 days. Sports will be required to submit and win approval for a detailed plan of their movements and activities. The government is expected to confirm the move later this month. The exemption should also allow the Champions League to resume and this summer's cricket Test series in England to go ahead. An F1 spokesperson said: "We welcome the government's efforts to ensure elite sport can continue to operate and their support for our return to racing. "We will maintain a close dialogue with them in the coming weeks as we prepare to start our season in the first week of July." On Saturday, the culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, announced that sport can resume behind closed doors subject to strict conditions, with social distancing maintained where possible. He said: "Football, tennis, horse racing, Formula 1, cricket, golf, rugby, snooker and others - all are set to return to our screens shortly." F1 bosses have been working on extensive plans to ensure their races are as safe as possible in the context of the coronavirus crisis that has laid waste the start of the season, which has seen the first 10 races called off. The races will be held behind closed doors, with no spectators allowed, and teams will take the minimum number of operational staff. Personnel will be tested before travelling to ensure they are virus-free, flown on charter jets and tested every couple of days while at the events. Teams will be kept apart from each other and stay in different hotels, to which they will travel by bus to minimise contact with the public. F1 is poised to confirm the European part of a rescheduled 2020 season early this week, with plans to start the campaign with two races in Austria on 5 and 12 July, followed by a third in Hungary on 19 July. The Silverstone events would follow in early August, before - it is believed - further races in Spain, Belgium and Italy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris2K Posted June 1, 2020 Report Share Posted June 1, 2020 There's also talk of a reserve grid sprint race to replace qualifying for the second races at circuits that are holding two events, with the finish order being the grid for the race. I'm sure a lot of people think it will be fun, unfortunately I'm a traditionalist who thinks pole position should be earned through a single lap time, so I'm not a fan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazz Posted June 1, 2020 Report Share Posted June 1, 2020 I don't even think reverse grids would be that entertaining in F1. We've all seen what happens when a top 3 car ends up at the back of the field, the other teams pretty much move out of the way as there's no point racing them as they will just pass and drive off into the distance sooner rather than later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcos Posted June 2, 2020 Report Share Posted June 2, 2020 Quote The 2020 Formula 1 season will start in Austria on 5 July, the first of a run of eight races in Europe. An F1 statement said the championship would begin across three consecutive weekends - two in Austria on 5 and 12 July and a third in Hungary. There will then be a two-week break before two consecutive races in Britain and events in Spain, Belgium and Italy. All will be run behind closed doors with participants following guidelines to minimise the spread of Covid-19. The British Grands Prix at Silverstone will be held 2 and 9 August, followed immediately by the Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona on 16 August. The Belgian and Italian Grands Prix will complete the European part of the season on their original dates of 30 August and 6 September. Plans for the remainder of the season were not announced, because of the uncertainty of the coronavirus situation in the various countries that would have made up the original schedule. However, F1 said it had "an expectation of having a total of 15-18 races before we complete our season in December". It is understood that F1 is highly confident of finishing the championship with races in Bahrain on 6 December and Abu Dhabi on 13 December. Before that, the low incidence of coronavirus in China, Vietnam and Japan makes races in those countries a strong probability in October. The Russian Grand Prix, which is pencilled in for after the European events along with the race in Azerbaijan, and those in the US, Mexico and Brazil are more uncertain because of the high rates of infection in those countries. F1 2020 opening calendar 3-5 July Austrian Grand Prix (Red Bull Ring) 10-12 July Steiermark Grand Prix (Red Bull Ring) 17-19 July Hungarian Grand Prix (Hungaroring) 31 July- 2 August British Grand Prix (Silverstone) 7-9 August 70th Anniversary Grand Prix (Silverstone) 14-16 August Spanish Grand Prix 28-30 August Belgian Grand Prix 4-6 September Italian Grand Prix First eight races have been confirmed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris2K Posted June 2, 2020 Report Share Posted June 2, 2020 Weird they didn't just go with European Grand Prix for the second Austrian race. 70th Anniversary Grand Prix is a nice touch though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJB Posted June 2, 2020 Report Share Posted June 2, 2020 First eight races are; 05/07 - Austria 12/07 - Austria 19/07 - Hungary 02/08 - Britain 09/08 - Britain 16/08 - Spain 30/08 - Belgium 06/09 - Italy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazz Posted June 2, 2020 Report Share Posted June 2, 2020 Spain in August might be interesting. Do F1 tyres work at 3000C track temperature? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katsuya Posted June 2, 2020 Report Share Posted June 2, 2020 I suspect they're holding off "European Grand Prix" in case they have to do a double header at Hockenheim at any point. I think they've purposefully only said those 8 in case they can't get out of Europe and then they'll just do the minimum 10 by doing a double there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Lineker Posted June 3, 2020 Author Admin Report Share Posted June 3, 2020 Quote Formula 1 says there are no plans to offer more live free-to-air television coverage of the series this year, despite fans being unable to attend races. With governments around the world still pushing to try to avoid a second wave of coronavirus infections, the first batch of European grands prix will all take place behind closed doors with no spectators allowed. While other sports, including some of football's major leagues, are showing selected events on free-to-air television because governments are eager to put live action on again for the public, F1 has made clear that it will be sticking to its current broadcast arrangements. That means, in the UK, F1 will be shown exclusively live on pay-TV channel Sky Sports F1, with delayed highlights of qualifying and the races broadcast on Channel 4. The only exception is the British Grand Prix, which C4 also shows live. Although Silverstone is now set to host two F1 races, F1 says that only one of them - most likely the official British GP - will be live on C4. The second event, titled the 'F1 70th Anniversary Grand Prix' would then be live only on Sky. In a Q&A posted on its official website, F1 said: "F1 has existing contracts in place for broadcast and it is right we honour those commitments with our long-term partners. "Silverstone will host two events, with one of those events available live as free-to-air (FTA) within the UK. "Each market situation is different and has comprehensive highlight packages to complement the live broadcast of the races." Even with no spectators allowed into races, F1 still expects to have about 2000 people at each race this year. There will be 1200 essential personnel, which compares to the usual number of between 3000-5000. F1 teams will be bringing only 80 staff each, rather than their usual 130. F1 is also cutting back on its broadcast personnel, with it now taking only 60 staff to each race rather than the normal 250. This has been helped by it electing to operate a remote broadcast operation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris2K Posted June 3, 2020 Report Share Posted June 3, 2020 I've been under the assumption that the only reason sport is coming back this early is because of the amount of money that has been spent on the broadcast rights, the chances of those broadcasters allowing what they paid for to go free-to-air (with the exception of a whole 5 PL matches) are laughable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazz Posted June 3, 2020 Report Share Posted June 3, 2020 14 minutes ago, Chris2K said: I've been under the assumption that the only reason sport is coming back this early is because of the amount of money that has been spent on the broadcast rights, Well, the Women's Super League ain't resuming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katsuya Posted June 12, 2020 Report Share Posted June 12, 2020 Baku, Singapore and Suzuka all definitely cancelled. Double race at Hockenheim is apparently likely now and they might even have a race at Mugello, which would be a pretty big surprise (especially considering there’s still no mention of Imola in all this...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris2K Posted June 12, 2020 Report Share Posted June 12, 2020 I was hoping that Imola, Jerez and some of the other "classic" circuits might get a look in. I'm surprised Suzuka has been cancelled, as it's an actual race track that seemed to be one they could have held any time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katsuya Posted June 12, 2020 Report Share Posted June 12, 2020 (edited) 2 hours ago, Chris2K said: I was hoping that Imola, Jerez and some of the other "classic" circuits might get a look in. I'm surprised Suzuka has been cancelled, as it's an actual race track that seemed to be one they could have held any time. Japan still aren’t saying when they’ll let people in, which I guess is probably part of the issue. EDIT: F1 Twitter put a poll up asking where people wanted to see a race, with Imola, Algarve (Portimao) and Mugello as the three named options Edited June 12, 2020 by Katsuya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris2K Posted June 12, 2020 Report Share Posted June 12, 2020 If they're picking "open" countries then the Nurburgring GP circuit is more than available surely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Posted June 12, 2020 Report Share Posted June 12, 2020 4 hours ago, Chris2K said: If they're picking "open" countries then the Nurburgring GP circuit is more than available surely. Its a dull circuit though. I'd be down with Imola. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Lineker Posted June 12, 2020 Author Admin Report Share Posted June 12, 2020 I'd love Imola. I think one thing really holding it back is council restrictions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katsuya Posted June 14, 2020 Report Share Posted June 14, 2020 Portimao is in "advanced negotiations" to host a race (or two) in 2020. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris2K Posted June 18, 2020 Report Share Posted June 18, 2020 For those not following social media madness, Lewis Hamilton is seemingly doing a fine job of making the BLM movement all about himself. First he went off on a tirade at Helmut Marko based on comments that were created on a fake Twitter account, now he's calling himself the "first working class world champion". There's about 90% of previous world champions who'd like to argue with that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FestiveJack Posted June 18, 2020 Report Share Posted June 18, 2020 3 hours ago, Chris2K said: For those not following social media madness, Lewis Hamilton is seemingly doing a fine job of making the BLM movement all about himself. First he went off on a tirade at Helmut Marko based on comments that were created on a fake Twitter account, now he's calling himself the "first working class world champion". There's about 90% of previous world champions who'd like to argue with that. Ah yes, that most working class of pursuits, childhood motorsport. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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