0:08 - Expert “Not Optimistic” Chinese Grand Prix Will Go Ahead 1:29 - Red Bull “Will Definitely Protest” Any Ferrari Irregularities
2:17 - F1 Calendar Expansion Being Felt by Teams
3:11 - Fast Feed
Expert “Not Optimistic” Chinese Grand Prix Will Go Ahead
The coronavirus outbreak has already resulted in the postponement of the Chinese ePrix and it looks plausible that the F1 race in China scheduled for April 19th might be in jeopardy. Shanghai, which plays host to the Chinese Grand Prix, already has a fatality recorded due to the virus and the folks at FIA have made it clear they will “take any action required” to prevent any further health issues.
Dr Sergio Brusin, who happens to be a senior expert at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, has suggested that if he was a ticket holder for the Chinese GP that he wouldn’t be too optimistic about it.
“The virus is still spreading, there is no doubt about it. There has been a huge increase of cases in China and more countries importing cases. We are seeing human to human transmission outside the area of Wuhan that can indicate that it will spread further.”
“We are in for the long run. It is not something that is going to disappear next week, it will be quite a lot of work to contain. What happens between now and April is extremely difficult to predict but if the infection keeps on spreading at this pace I would not be optimistic at having an F1 ticket in my pocket.”
Red Bull “Will Definitely Protest” Any Ferrari Irregularities
One area where Ferrari seemed to to stand out from the rest of the field in 2019 was in straight line speed and as this advantage seemed to come out of nowhere according to its rivals like Red Bull, it was a cause of a lot of back and forth off the track.
Helmut Marko has made it clear that Red Bull will continue protesting if there is anything suspect about the performance of the Ferrari engine in 2020. He believes that Ferrari had an unfair advantage in 2019 and while nothing was conclusively proven, Marko has promised that they will not hold back if they feel that things are repeating in 2020 as well.
“There were several points with Ferrari’s engine that were likely to be beyond any grey area, but nothing was done about it. If we do suspect that there are irregularities again, we will definitely protest."
F1 Calendar Expansion Being Felt by Teams
Alpha Tauri principal Franz Tost has echoed similar sentiments of many F1 drivers that 22 races are the maximum that race mechanics and engineers can accommodate in their already busy schedule.
Race engineers and mechanics already spend a lot of time away from home and Tost has offered a side of the story that is rarely heard – of the people comprising the pit crew. This year features an extra race but that hasn’t required any extra work, at least at Alpha Tauri and this is what Tost had to say about the whole thing:
“For 2020 we start in March and the last race is at the end of November, there’s not a big change. But if we have more races in future then I think teams have to rotate people — mechanics, engineers. Otherwise it’s too much for them.”
Fast Feed
- Jack Aitken has confirmed that he will leave Renault as its test driver and expressed his “thanks to Renault and the Academy”
- Antonio Giovinazzi has made his goals clear and said that he would be lying if he said he didn’t “dream about Ferrari”
- Daniel Ricciardo has expressed his relief at finishing 5th in the 2019 constructors standings and avoiding “a real punch in the stomach” if they were to be beaten by Toro Rosso
- Charles Leclerc has suggested that his mistakes in 2019 were the result of him possessing “that killer instinct”
- Negotiations are underway to bring the Spanish GP back to Jerez with an announcement “expected to be made in May or June”
- The Formula E race in China has been postponed due to the “current growing health concerns” surrounding the coronavirus
- Red Bull “would've definitely finished second” in the constructor’s championship if Daniel Ricciardo was still a part of the team according to Helmut Marko
- Helmut Marko does not want to retire from F1 anytime soon and will stay in the sports while he can “keep up mentally and physically”
- Red Bull are also “ahead of schedule” when it comes to their 2020 car
- Sergey Sirotkin feels that his F1 dreams might be all but over having
- Otmar Szafnauer wants the team to return to being the best of the rest while acknowledging that “it isn't gonna be easy”
- Jamie Chadwick even if offered a seat at Williams said she wouldn’t take the opportunity as she feels she isn’t “ready yet” for F1
- 2021 is the target for McLaren to achieve something substantial with a mix of “some great weekends and some bad weekends” but mostly “moving forward”
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