Tag: F1

List of Races Affected By Coronavirus / COVID-19

The attempt by authorities to slow and contain the pandemic Coronavirus / Covid-19 has seriously affected the motor sport calendar for 2020.

As drastic as it may seem this is not the ordinary ‘flu (see this sobering tweet) and serious precautions must be taken to protect all those in society.

It may seem frivolous to talk of how it affects the motor racing calendar but at some point this will be over and the pieces will need picking up. It is getting quite hard to keep up with what has been cancelled and rescheduled for later.

This blog post attempts to note every change.

At the time of first writing (13th March) it is hard to predict how long this will last. What at first seemed like a 2-4 week interruption is fast becoming something much bigger. It is becoming clear all events will be cancelled in the rest of March, all of April, most of May and probably into June. The consequence will be a lot of rescheduled events from August to December, some later events made double-headers, but also a lot of outright cancellations with no make-up races.

I am updating IWTMR Google/iCal Calendars often.

I am in the process of relisting races here in order of their rescheduled dates with cancellations underneath.

This post will be updated.

Last updated:  Thursday 18th June 2020

Formula 1

Austrian Grand Prix – 5th July, becomes opening round behind closed doors, date unchanged..

Styrian Grand Prix – 12th July. New 2nd race at the Red Bull Ring.

Hungarian Grand Prix – 19th July. Swaps places with Silverstone to provide ease of travel for teams.

British Grand Prix – 2nd August. Swaps places with Hungaroring.

F1 70th Anniversary Grand Prix – 9th August. New 2nd race at Silverstone celebrating the 70th anniversary of the World Championship.

Spanish Grand Prix – 16th August. Originally 10th May.

–

Bahrain Grand Prix – Postponed (TBC). Originally 22nd March.

French Grand Prix – Postponed (TBC). Originally 28th June.

Australian Grand Prix – Cancelled. Originally 15th March, Postponed on race weekend. McLaren withdrew after a team member tested positive, race postponed a day later.

Vietnam Grand Prix – Cancelled. Originally 5th April.

Chinese Grand Prix – Cancelled. Originally 19th April.

Dutch Grand Prix – Cancelled. Originally 3rd May.

Monaco Grand Prix – Cancelled. Originally 24th May.

Azerbaijan Grand Prix – Cancelled. Originally 7th June.

Canadian Grand Prix – Cancelled. Originally 14th June.

Singapore Grand Prix – Cancelled. Originally 20th September.

Japanese Grand Prix – Cancelled. Originally 11th October.

 

Formula E

Some races may be rescheduled later, more likely other rounds will be made double-headers.

Berlin ePrix – Will host the entirety of the 2nd half of the season in the space of 9 days utilising 3 layouts. These will be:
Wednesday 5th August – layout 1;
Thursday 6th August – layout 1;
Saturday 8th August – layout 2;
Sunday 9th August – layout 2;
Wednesday 12th August – layout 3;
Thursday 13th August – layout 3;

Sanya ePrix – Cancelled. Originally 21st March.

Rome ePrix – Cancelled. Originally 4th April.

Paris ePrix – Cancelled. Originally 18th April.

Seoul ePrix – Cancelled. Originally 2nd May.

Jakarta ePrix – Cancelled. Originally 6th June.

New York ePrix – Cancelled. Originally 11th July.

London ePrix – Cancelled. Originally 25th & 26th July.

 

MotoGP

Qatar GP – Moto2 and Moto3 races ran as planned with teams already on site. MotoGP class cancelled.

Spanish GP (Jerez) – 19th July. Originally 3rd May.

Andalucia GP (Jerez) – 26th July. 2nd race at Jerez.

Czech GP – 9th August. No change.

Austrian GP – 16th August. No change.

Styrian GP (Spielberg) – 23rd August. 2nd race at Red Bull Ring.

San Marino GP (Misano) – 13th September. No change.

Emilia Romagna GP (Misano) – 20th September. 2nd race at Misano.

Catalan GP – 27th September. Originally 7th June.

French GP – 11th October. Originally 17th May.

Aragon GP – 18th October.

Teruel GP (Aragon) – 25th October.

European GP (Valencia) – 8th November. 2nd race at Valencia, ahead of the ‘primary’ Valencia GP.

Valencia GP – 15th November. Back on its original date.

–

Thailand GP – TBC

US GP – TBC

Argentina GP – TBC

Malaysia GP – TBC

Italian GP (Mugello) – Cancelled.

German GP – Cancelled.

Dutch GP – Cancelled.

Finland GP – Cancelled.

British GP – Cancelled.

 

World SBK

Jerez – 24/25 October. Originally 28/29 March.

Aragon – 29/30 August. Originally 23/24 May.

France – 3/4 October. Originally 26/27 September. Moved to avoid MotoGP’s new schedule.

Misano – 7/8 November. Originally 13/14 June.

–

Assen – Postponed. Originally 18/19 April.

Qatar – Cancelled. Originally 13/14 March.

Imola – Cancelled. Originally 9/10 May.

 

BSB

Silverstone – Postponed. Originally 12th April.

Oulton Park – Postponed. Originally 3rd May.

Donington Park – Postponed. Originally 24th May.

Snetterton – Postponed. Originally 21st June.

 

IndyCar

The entire Indy Lights season has been cancelled for 2020.

Revised dates for IndyCar:

Texas – 6th June. Season scheduled to begin here, race date unchanged.

Indy GP – 4th July. Originally 9th May. Postponed to 4th July NASCAR Cup weekend. NASCAR Xfinity will also race the road course.

Road America x2 – 11th & 12th July double-header. Delayed from 21st June with a make-up race added on the Saturday.

Iowa x2 – 17th & 18th July double-header. Second race added on Friday 17th.

Mid-Ohio – 9th August. Rescheduled by one week from 16th August to make way for Indy 500 qualifying.

Indy 500 – 23rd August. Originally 24th May. Qualifying will be 15th/16th August.

Gateway – 30th August. Originally 23rd August, delayed to make way for Indy.

Portland – 13th September. Originally 6th September.

Laguna Seca – 19th & 20th September double-header. Second race added on Saturday.

Harvest Grand Prix – 3rd October. New event at IMS road course on the bill with the inaugural SRO Intercontinental GT 8 Hours of Indianapolis.

St Pete – 25th October. Originally 15th March.

–

Barber – Cancelled. Originally 5th April.

Long Beach – Cancelled. Originally 19th April.

Detroit Belle Isle Double-Header – Cancelled. Originally 30th & 31st May.

Richmond – Cancelled. Originally 27th June.

Toronto – Cancelled. Originally 12th July.

 

NASCAR Cup, Xfinity and Trucks

NASCAR has set up a plan to race at tracks local to most of the teams, starting with races at Darlington and Charlotte. The Coke 600 remains in place. The Darlington races will have no effect on the September race. Many of these are replacement races.

Darlington 400 – Cup – Sunday 17th May.
Darlington 200 – Xfinity – Tuesday 19th May.
Darlington 500km – Cup – Wednesday 20th May.

Charlotte Coco-Cola 600 – Cup – Sunday 24th May. This is the original date.
Charlotte 300 – Xfinity – Monday 25th May. Originally 17th May.
Charlotte 200 – Trucks – Tuesday 26th May.
Charlotte 500km – Cup – Wednesday 27th May.

Bristol – Xfinity – Saturday 30th May. Originally 4th April.
Bristol – Cup – Sunday 31st May. Originally 5th April.

Atlanta – Trucks – Saturday 6th June. Originally 13th March.
Atlanta – Xfinity – Saturday 6th June. Originally 14th March.
Atlanta – Cup – Sunday 7th June. Originally 15th March.

Martinsville – Cup – Wednesday 10th June. Originally 10th May.

Homestead – Trucks – 13th June. Originally 20th March.
Homestead – Xfinity – 13th June. Originally 21st March.
Homestead – Xfinity – 14th June. New race.
Homestead – Cup – 14th June. Originally 22nd March.

Talledega – Xfinity – 20th June. Originally 25th April.
Talledega – Cup – 21st June. Originally 26th April.

–

Texas – Cup/Xfinity/Trucks – Postponed. Originally 27-29 March.

Richmond – Cup/Trucks – Postponed. Originally 18-19 April.

Dover – Cup/Xfinity/Trucks – Postponed. Originally 1-3 May.

Martinsville – Cup – Postponed. Originally 9th May.

All-Star – Cancelled. Originally 17th May.

FIA WEC

1000 Miles of Sebring – 20th March – Cancelled.

Le Mans Test Day – 31st May – Cancelled.

6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps – 25th April – Postponed to 15th August.

24 Hours of Le Mans – 13-14 June – Postponed, rescheduled for 19-20 September (originally the weekend of Spa ELMS).

Bahrain 8 Hours – 5th December – Rescheduled to 21st November and becomes the season finale of the current 2019/20 season. Effectively replaces 2020 Sebring and maintains 8 rounds.

2021/2022 Season – Silverstone, Monza, Fuji and Kylami – All cancelled.
Bahrain moved to current season. Season will start in March.

A new 2021 schedule will be announced a later time and will run in a calendar year as it used to.

 

IMSA WTSC

Daytona 2h40m – 4th July. New race.

Sebring 2h40m – 18th July. New race.

Mosport is cancelled.

Road America and VIR are unchanged.

Laguna Seca – 6th September. Originally 13th September.

Mid-Ohio – 27th September. Originally 3rd May.

Watkins Glen – 4th October. Originally 28th June

Petit Le Mans – 18th October. Originally 11th October.

Lime Rock – 31st October. Originally 19th July.

12 Hours of Sebring – 14th November. Originally 21st March.

Long Beach – Cancelled. Originally 18th April.

Detroit Belle Isle – Cancelled. Originally 30th May.

 

ELMS and Le Mans Cup

4h Paul Ricard – 19th July – No change. Becomes Round 1 with pre-season testing at the same venue the week before.

4h Spa-Francorchamps – 9th August. Originally 20th September.

4h Barcelona – 29th August. Originally 5th April.

4h Monza – 11th October. Originally 10th May..

4h Silverstone – Cancelled. Originally 6th September.

 

Asian Le Mans Series

4h Buriram 1 – 9th January 2021. No change.
4h Buriram 2 – 11th January 2021. New race added just 2 days later.

4h Sepang 1 – 23rd January 2021. No change.
4h Sepang 2 – 26th January 2021. New race added just 3 days later.

4h Suzuka – Cancelled. Originally 29th November 2020.

4h Shanghai – Cancelled. Originally 13th December 2020.

 

DTM

New schedule released in the first week of June, it is totally different all versions released previously and is as follows. All other previously-announced rounds are cancelled.

Spa – 2nd August.

Lausitzring – 16th August.

Lausitzring – 23rd August.

Assen – 6th September.

Nürburging GP – 13th September.

Nürburging Sprint – 20th September.

Zolder – 11th October.

Zolder – 18th October.

Hockenheimring – 8th November.

 

Super GT

New 8 round schedule released in the first week of June.

Fuji – 19th July.

Fuji – 9th August.

Suzuka – 23rd August.

Motegi – 20th September.

Fuji – 4th October.

Suzuka – 25th October.

Motegi – 8th November.

Fuji – 29th November.

 

Super Formula

Suzuka – 14th November (Saturday). Joins the weekend of the existing final round on 15th November for a double-header. Originally 5th April.

Fuji – Postponed, date TBC. Originally 19th April.

Autopolis – Postponed, date TBC. Originally 17th May.

Sugo – Postponed, date TBC. Originally 12st June.

 

GT World Challenge Europe

Imola 3H (Endurance) – 26th July. New race on the original date of the Spa 24 Hours.

Misano (Sprint) – 9th August. Postponed from 6th July. 3rd 1-hour race added.

Nurburgring 6H (Endurance) – 6th September. Race extended to 6 hours from 3.

Magny-Cours (Sprint) – 13th September. New race.

Zandvoort (Sprint) – 27th September. Postponed from 28th June and replaces the Hungaroring round.

Barcelona (Sprint) – 11th October. 3rd 1-hour race added.

Spa 24H (Endurance & IGTC) – 24th-25th October. Postponed from 25th-26th July.

Paul Ricard 1000km (Endurance) – 14th November. Postponed from 30th May.

–

Monza 3H (Endurance) – Cancelled. Originally 19th April.

Brands Hatch (Sprint) – Cancelled. Originally 3rd May.

Silverstone 3H (Endurance) – Cancelled. Originally 10th May.

 

GT World Challenge America

Virginia – 11/12 July  – Moved. Was 6/7 June.

Sonoma, Road America, Watkins Glen, Indianapolis – No change and will run on original dates.

Mosport – Cancelled. Was 16/17 May.

GT World Challenge Asia

Sepang – 12/13 September. Rescheduled from March.

Shanghai 888 – 18 October. GTWC Asia’s first 3-hour race.

China – 31 Oct / 1 Nov – New round added, venue not announced.

Sepang – 5/6 December.

–

Fuji – Cancelled. Was 23/24 May.

Suzuka – Cancelled. Was 21/22 June.

Autopolis – Cancelled. Was 11/12 August.

 

24H Series

12H Monza – 28th March – Postponed, rescheduled for 11th July.
A replacement race at Estoril scheduled for 28th March was itself cancelled.

12H Paul Ricard – 11th July – Cancelled and replaced with Monza.

 

GT Open

Paul Ricard – 26th April – Postponed to 23rd August.

 

Supercars

Sydney – 27-28 June. Moved forward from August and made a day race – the SuperNight format will be used at this venue in December.

Winton – 18-19 July. Originally 6-7 June.

Hidden Valley – 8-9 August. Originally 18-19 July.

Townsville – 29-30 August. Originally 27-28 June.

Sandown – 19-20 September.

Bathurst 1000 – 11 October, no change.

Perth – 31 Oct – 1 Nov. Was 16-17 May.

Symmons Plains – 21-22 November. Originally 4-5 April.

Sydney SuperNight – 5-6 December. New race to replace Newcastle, using the night racing format originally scheduled for August.

Melbourne – Cancelled. Originally 13-15 March.

Hampton Downs – Cancelled. Originally 25-26 April.

The Bend – Cancelled. Originally 19-20 September.

Newcastle – Cancelled. Originally 5-6 December.

 

WTCR

Salzburgring – 13th September. 2 races.

Nurburgring Nordschliefe – 26th September. 2 races alongside N24.

Slovakiaring – 11th October. 3 races.

Hungaroring – 18th October. 3 races.

Aragon – 1st November. 3 races.

Adria – 15th November. New venue, 3 races.

Vila Real – Cancelled. Originally 21st June.

Ningbo – Cancelled. Originally 20th September.

Macau – Cancelled. Originally 22nd November.

Sepang – Cancelled. Originally 13th December.

 

BTCC

Season due to begin at Donington in August. One Silverstone meeting dropped.

Donington Park – 2nd August. Originally 29th March.

Brands Hatch (Indy) – 9th August. Originally 12th April.

Oulton Park – 23rd August. Originally 14th June.

Knockhill – 30th August. No change. Becomes rounds 10/11/12.

Thruxton – 20th September. Originally 17th May.

Silverstone (National) – 27th September. Originally 26th April. The date at the International track has been rescheduled to the National track. There will only be one visit to Silverstone.

Croft – 11th October. Originally 16th August.

Snetterton – 25th October. Originally 26th June.

Brands Hatch (GP) – 15th November. Originally 11th October.

 

British GT

Oulton Park – 13th April (Easter Monday) – Postponed.

Snetterton – 17th May – Postponed.

Silverstone 500 – 7th June – Postponed.

Donington Park – 21st June – Postponed.

 

VLN NLS

VLN 1 – 21st March – Cancelled.

VLN 2 – 4th April – Cancelled.

VLN 8 – 26th September – Date taken by the rescheduled N24. I’ve not yet seen whether VLN8 will be rescheduled.

 

WRC World Rally Championship

Currently only three rounds have not been altered, two have been postponed but not yet rescheduled and five have been cancelled. There is talk the WRC may join the European Championship at some events.

No change:

Turkey – 24-27 August.

Germany – 15-18 October.

Japan – 19-22 November.

Postponed TBC or Cancelled:

Argentina – Postponed. Was 23-26 April.

Italy – Postponed. Was 4-7 June.

Portugal – Cancelled. Was 20-24 May.

Safari – Cancelled. Was 16-19 July.

Finland – Cancelled. Was 6-9 August.

New Zealand – Cancelled. Was 3-6 September.

Great Britain – Cancelled. Was 29 Oct – 1 Nov.

 

European Rally Championship

Roma-Capitale – 24-26 July, no change.

Liepāja – 14-16 August, was 29-31 May.

Czech – 28-30 August, no change.

Azores – 17-19 September, was 27-29 March.

Cyprus – 16-18 October, delayed by one week.

Hungary – 6-8 November, no change.

Canary Isles – 26-28 November, was 8-10 May.

Poland – Cancelled.

 

World Rallycross

Sweden – 22-23 August, was 5 July.

Finland – 29-30 August, new round.

Latvia – 19-20 September, no change.

Belgium – 2-4 October, was 17 May.

Portugal – 9-11 October, was 3 May.

Spain – 16-18 October, was 19 April.

UAE – 30-31 October, no change.

Germany – 11-13 December, was 2 August.

Norway – Cancelled.

France – Cancelled.

South Africa – Cancelled.

 

NHRA

GatorNationals – 15th March – Postponed.

Las Vegas – 5th April – Postponed.

 

Other

Nurburgring 24 Hours – 26-27 September. Originally 23-24 May.

N24 Qualifying Race – Cancelled. Originally 25th April.

Goodwood Festival of Speed – Cancelled. Originally 10th-12th July.

Isle of Man TT – Cancelled.

Motorsport UK has cancelled all organising permits until the end of June, meaning no motorsport can take place in the UK until after that date.

2020 Race Schedules for Google Calendar & iCal

In order to watch too much racing you will need to know when it happens.

In order to watch too much racing you will need to know when it happens.

Keep up with your favourite racing series by adding my Calendars to your Google Calendar, Apple iCal, Microsoft Outlook, or other service which supports ICAL or HTML format.

Just click the link for the race schedule you want to import and it will appear in your calendar in your browser or on your phone.

Screenshot_20181124-212802

Go here for details:

www.toomuchracing.com/calendar

Lastly, I would like to say a huge thank you to the people who have kindly donated!

I have a Paypal tip jar on the top right of the blog which is aimed at covering my site hosting fees and domain name registrations for the year. These aren’t big, just a basic WordPress.com blog plus some domain names.

I’m astonished people pay at all, let alone anything more than £2, I know acutely there are far more worthy causes than this. It does encourage me to put in the work through a dark dingy autumn and winter, so thank you.

I’m pleased to say thanks to you I’ve covered my fees and enough to keep me in cups of tea for the year as well.

[This is a pinned post on the main blog to direct traffic, please click through to the Calendar page for more details including upload schedule.]

Races Watched (2019 Week 15): F1 Shanghai, IndyCar Long Beach, FE Rome

Week 15:  8-14 April 2019

In what was a busy weekend both in racing and personally, I found time to watch two live races and one recorded race (OK, so this was after the weekend). I also got one done before the weekend started.

It was annoying that my live picks were the most boring races I’ve seen in ages. I hope you fared better.

Formula 1 – R4 – Chinese Grand Prix
Shanghai International Circuit, Jiading, Shanghai, China
Seen live, 14th April

Bottas pole, Hamilton, Vettel, Leclerc, Verstappen, Gasly, Ricciardo, Hulkenberg.

This race sums up the worst tropes of F1:  lots of hype, not a lot of action.

The PR machine has been in overdrive about “the 1000th race” for a year. Yet when it came to it there seemed little happening at the track, a small handful of old F1 cars and very few dignitaries. They didn’t even get Bernie. What a waste.

The 1000th? Add the “World Championship for Drivers” since 1950, including those championship-counting Indy 500s and those races run to F2 rules, to the successor “Formula 1 World Championship” from 1981 onwards, then it is the 1000th race. This is not the same as the “1000th F1 race”, which doesn’t include Indy or those F2 races but does include all the non-championship F1 races back to 1948.

The Chinese GP is actually pretty good on a regular basis, Tilkedromes have this reputation of being terrible but Shanghai has been a great track over the years with overtaking and strategy. But not this year. This year was tedious.

Very little happened after lap one. I’ve seen many F1 GPs like this and I thought its type had been banished.

Hamilton passed Bottas at the first corner and ran off to win. To his credit, Bottas stayed within 7 or 8 seconds, the Mercedes pair basically cruising in team formation for the entire race. They even pitted together at the 2nd stops, choreographed beautifully, Bottas arrived just after Hamilton left and didn’t have to wait. This was done to protect against a Safety Car, with Ferrari and Verstappen having stopped already.

Ferrari played the strategy call. Vettel and Leclerc were switched but Leclerc was no faster, so he was put on the long game strategy and Vettel mirrored Mercedes. Running Leclerc long had put him behind Verstappen, he was able to close down the gap but not overtake, so this strategy was a net loss of 1 place. Gasly had a better day, close to Leclerc, the results sheet shows he was miles behind but he pitted near the end to successfully go for the fastest lap bonus point.

Renault won ‘best of the rest’ with Ricciardo. Alexander Albon had a fantastic run from a pitlane start to finish 10th. Kvyat and the two McLarens collided on lap one, two of the three retiring 40 laps later from the damage. I’ve no idea what happened elsewhere. TV direction seemed off par.

The Mercedes pair already have a significant points advantage over the field having finished 1st & 2nd in the first 3 GPs, the first time this has happened since Williams in 1992. This is starting to look a lot less close than pre-season testing suggested.

Next up is the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in a couple of weeks.

  1. Hamilton (Mercedes)
  2. Bottas (Mercedes)
  3. Vettel (Ferrari)
  4. Verstappen (Red Bull)
  5. Leclerc (Ferrari)
Driver Team CHI TOTAL
Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 25 68
Valterri Bottas Mercedes 18 62
Max Verstappen Red Bull 12 39
Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 15 37
Charles Leclerc Ferrari 10 36
Pierre Gasly Red Bull 9 13
Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo 2 12
Kevin Magnussen Haas 8
Lando Norris McLaren 8
Nico Hulkenberg Renault 6
Constructor PU CHI TOTAL
Mercedes Mercedes 43 130
Ferrari Ferrari 25 73
Red Bull Honda 21 52
Alfa Romeo Ferrari 2 12
Renault Renault 6 12
Haas Ferrari 8
McLaren Renault 8
Racing Point Mercedes 4 7
Toro Rosso Honda 1 4

NTT IndyCar – R4 – Grand Prix of Long Beach
Long Beach, California, USA
Seen live, 14th April

Rossi, Dixon, Power, Newgarden, Pagenaud, Rahal, Hunter-Reay, Sato.

This one promised a lot. I thought the hard-to-handle aero package would create a lot of sideways moments and overtakes, maybe some sliding into walls. Didn’t happen.

We don’t have any idiots at the back these days, the ones at street tracks who used to cause a bit of chaos that perhaps wasn’t always welcome, gave the series a bad name for weird accidents, but made it all fun. Those days are mostly gone.

Nobody told the back of the field. Lap 2 Pigot slowed, as everyone braked Ericsson ran into Harvey. We finally saw a car in the flowers at the fountain!

It was then a long green flag run at a race where strategy choices aren’t available. Unlike Barber you don’t get the mix of 2-stoppers versus 3-stoppers. The difference here was between those starting on red soft tyres and black hard tyres, and vice versa later, but it turned out not to make a lot of difference anyway. The reds were durable on the streets.

Rossi and Dixon raced hard into turn one on the original start and again on the restart. Each time the pair pulled a gap on the field.

At about lap 34 of 85, Power overshot turn 1 with dust pouring out of his left front brake duct. He spun it around and continued only losing a few places. Ferrucci had previously stalled in a runoff and the series recovered him under local yellow.

After pit stops, Newgarden was 2nd ahead of Dixon, but Rossi had him covered as well. Looked like he extended his lead in every stint. The battle for second was on between Newgarden, Dixon, Rahal, Hunter-Reay.

On the last lap Dixon made the move on Rahal, who defended stoutly and got a penalty for it. Dixon was awarded 3rd. This caused half of Twitter to erupt in anger at Rahal blocking Dixon and half of Twitter to erupt in anger at the stewards for penalising racing!

Watching live it looked like Rahal made a harsh move but a fair one, he left space for Dixon. I was against the penalty. But on review it became clear Rahal made a second move right and then returned to his racing line. I’m okay with picking one of two lines and sticking to it into the corner, I’m not so okay with weaving. And I also remembered if it had been Michael Schumacher I’d have been all over it, clamouring for a penalty, so I can’t argue otherwise for someone else!

Rossi wins by over 20 seconds, the highest for something like 25 years. With this he moves to 2nd in the points standings.

Newgarden extends his points lead as Dixon drops to 3rd. Hunter-Reay gains a few spots. Rahal is a big points mover into the top ten. Colton Herta the big loser, just 7 points after sliding into the wall and out with steering damage.

Next up is the GP of Indianapolis in a couple of weeks.

  1. Rossi (Andretti)
  2. Newgarden (Penske)
  3. Dixon (Ganassi)
  4. Rahal (Rahal)
  5. Hunter-Reay (Andretti)
Driver Team Eng LB TOTAL
Josef Newgarden Penske Chevy 41 166
Alexander Rossi Andretti Honda 54 138
Scott Dixon Ganassi Honda 35 133
Takuma Sato Rahal Honda 25 116
Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Honda 30 96
James Hinchcliffe Schmidt Honda 22 93
Will Power Penske Chevy 27 93
Sebastien Bourdais Coyne Honda 19 91
Graham Rahal Rahal Honda 32 90
Colton Herta Harding Honda 7 88

ABB Formula E – R7 – Rome E-Prix
Rome, Italy
13th April, watched 16th April

Lotterer, Evans, Lopez, Vandoorne, Gunther, Buemi, Mortara, Frijns.

Halfway in the season. 6 races done before this one, 6 races to go after this one.

As clean a start as you can manage here and on a damp track, a bit of bumping but okay. Guenther had a huge slide and loses parts of his front wing. At the end of the lap Bird gets hit, car damaged, apparently out for the second race in a row.

Chaos on lap two!

Red Flag. Lopez broadside across the track and Paffett under his car. Lopez hit the kerb and spun by himself and caused a complete track blockage. Luckily for those caught in the melee it was just in front of pit entry, so everyone once released was recovered and the race order restored. Replays showed Sims in the wall as well. And Sam Bird managed to get his car to the pits so it was repaired under the red and restarted last.

On the restart half the field activated Attack Mode, although it didn’t seem to achieve anything. Frijns got alongside Buemi for 4th but couldn’t make the move.

Lopez got a penalty for contact with Bird on lap one. Reliability trouble for Mortara and Massa so we had FCY in which JEV overtook Da Costa as they braked.

Evans passes Lotterer for the lead! Tense move! Very forceful into a chicane, elbowed his way through, got a warning from the race director but only a wag of the finger. Lotterer was fine with it, good hard racing.

Fairly strung out field but the pace was hot, unlike Rome 2018. Everyone pushed all the way, not a lot of energy saving except in the last lap or so, this is what we want to see. I don’t mind a lack of passing when the cars are visibly flat out.

Bird got up to 11th at the end, excellent recovery, great work by team and driver.

  1. Evans (Jaguar)
  2. Lotterer (Techeetah)
  3. Vandoorne (HWA)
  4. Frijns (Envision Virgin)
  5. Buemi (Nissan e.Dams)
Name Team Rome Points
Jerome d’Ambrosio Mahindra 4 65
Ant Felix da Costa BMW Andretti 2 64
Andre Lotterer DS Techeetah 21 62
Mitch Evans Jaguar 25 61
Lucas di Grassi Audi Sport 6 58
Robin Frijns Envision Virgin 12 55
Jean-Eric Vergne DS Techeetah 54
Sam Bird Envision Virgin 54
Eduardo Mortara Venturi 52
Daniel Abt Audi Sport 44
Team PU Rome Points
DS Techeetah DS 21 116
Envision Virgin Audi 12 109
Mahindra Mahindra 5 102
Audi Sport Abt Audi 6 102
BMW Andretti BMW 2 82
Venturi Venturi 67
Nissan e.dams Nissan 19 65
Jaguar Jaguar 25 62
HWA Racelab Venturi 15 22
NIO NIO 6

European Le Mans Series – 2017 R4 – Le Castellet
Circuit Paul Ricard, Le Castellet, France
26th August 2017, watched 10th April 2019

18 months behind! This one felt like ticking an item off a list. A shame, I really like the ELMS as a good way to while away an afternoon or evening

This time they used the chicane on the Mistral Straight so the only interesting thing about the track, the super-fast balls-out run into Signes, was lost

ELMS catches you out because when you think things are settled with huge gaps after the first hour – it changes. After three hours the order can be completely different. This catches me out because I tend to put endurance races on in the background while I get other stuff done.

Teams put their rated drivers in at different times. Early you see a Platinum or Gold driver racing away to a healthy lead while a Silver or Bronze driver loses loads of time. At the driver change it switches, the lead teams put in their Bronze driver and the distant cars suddenly get a Platinum at the wheel chasing them down. It converges.

In LMP2 Ben Hanley gave Dragonspeed a huge lead which was lost when Bronze driver Henrik Hedman faced the likes of Nic Minassian and Felipe Albuquerque chasing him. And the same principle applies in LMP3 and GTE. Niki Thiim brought the TF Sport Aston up from last to 2nd. You have to pay attention throughout.

Unfortunately this featureless track is a hard watch, I lost the thread in the middle as my mind drifted and got hold of it again in the last hour.

At least the mountains in the distance look nice.

But will I get the 2017 and 2018 seasons done before the 2019 Le Mans 24 Hours?

LMP2:

  1. SMP Racing (Dallara P217) – Isaakyan / Orudzhev;
  2. G-Drive Racing (Oreca 07) – Rojas / Roussel / Minassian;
  3. Graff (Oreca 07) – Guibbert / Petit / Trouillet;

First ELMS win for the SMP Dallara and their young driver pairing. A 4th straight podium for G-Drive.

LMP3:

  1. United Autosports (Ligier JS P3) – Falb / Rayhall;
  2. Inter Europol (Ligier JS P3) – Hippe / Smiechowski;
  3. M.Racing YMR (Ligier JS P3) – Cougnard / Jung / Ricci;

A second win in LMP3 for United.

GTE:

  1. Spirit Of Race (Ferrari 488) – Cameron / Griffin / Scott;
  2. TF Sport (Aston Martin Vantage) – Hankey / Thiim / Yoluc;
  3. JMW Motorsport (Ferrari 488) – Fannin / Smith / Cocker;

Second straight win for SOR, 4th straight podium for TF.

Next Week

15th to 21st April, Easter Weekend so much quieter than usual.

  • British GT at Oulton Park on Holiday Monday.
  • 24H Series at Spa.
  • Super Formula at Suzuka.
  • British Superbikes at Silverstone (on the National layout).

It might be a good time to catch up on past races but I’ll be using it to start, yes, start, watching Game of Thrones! Now I’ve got Sky I can watch it On Demand so I’ve already downloaded them to the box.

And if it is wet weekend and I can’t get outside I’ll see if I can squeeze in a WEC race or something.

Races Watched (2019 Week 13): F1 Bahrain

Week 13:  25-31 March 2019

Formula 1 – R2 – Bahrain Grand Prix

Okay I admit this was a fun race. I really wasn’t expecting it to be this good!

DRS & Overtaking

The addition of a 3rd DRS zone left me assuming it would be filled with simple push-button-to-pass overtakes down the main straight and those did happen, too many times.

But for the most part the strategy worked. The DRS zone at start/finish often brought a following car alongside the car in front leaving the drivers to sort it out at turn 1. If they swapped places, the passed car got DRS on the very next straight, giving an opportunity to get the place back. That worked really well. I like it when the chances are fair. Sometimes he got his place back, sometimes he didn’t, and often the cars were side by side into the next corner.

And that meant the opening 10 laps or so were fantastic! Drivers were able to stay with each other and attack each other yet still leaving it in the hands of the drivers to hit the apex first.

It worked less well when a trailing driver used DRS to get behind a car, then got another DRS activation on the next straight and sailed on past. Although, you could argue the trailing driver was being smarter and using the zones to his advantage, deliberately waiting for the second activation to prevent himself being passed back.

So I concede that DRS can improve the racing. The big caveat? I’d still prefer technical regulations allowing cars to race closely without needing a flappy wing to get them close. There is hope in the 2021 proposals. In the meantime, stick with the consecutive activations so each driver gets a fair use, or better still, simply let anyone in the zone use it.

Team by Team

Charles Leclerc was a revelation. Topped the times all weekend, seemingly laying down an early marker against Sebastian Vettel, yet never in a negative, combative way. Open, friendly, welcoming, taking it all in his stride as if he didn’t feel pressure. Until lap 47. A cylinder failed, initially reported as MGU-H, and he started to panic as he lost a comfortable lead and gradually dropped to 3rd. To be honest he was lucky the car was still running at all and lucky the Safety Car came out with 3 laps to go, which protected his podium finish from Verstappen. He kept his head in the end and brought the car home.

Was it the sign of a championship challenge? Of course not. Not yet. It was simply a good performance in a single weekend. Vettel might yet dominate the rest of the season. It did show Leclerc’s potential, showed he didn’t need time to settle in, showed that Ferrari had made the correct decision on drivers.

Vettel himself was very close to Leclerc on pace but he got boxed in on strategy midrace, falling to 3rd behind Hamilton. He was still quicker though, but when he tried to race his way through, he spun. Ferrari couldn’t believe it. I don’t think anybody could believe that again he spun the car in wheel-to-wheel racing. But it probably wasn’t his fault.

There were severe gusts of wind all day, the pre-race coverage from Sky really showed it, even if the in-race coverage from FOM probably didn’t. As Vettel crossed Hamilton’s car’s airflow and unsettled his own car it wouldn’t surprise me if he also caught one of those strong gusts.

The Mercedes weren’t quite there but had enough to fight the Ferraris in the early laps, Hamilton was close enough to catch Leclerc. Unfortunately the All New 2019 Bottas reverted back to 2018 Bottas and by lap 45 was some 15-20 seconds behind Hamilton.

Red Bull were in no-mans land. Well, Verstappen was. Gasly again mired in the field after another poor qualifying effort. At least he recovered to 8th, but that would’ve been 10th had it not been for Renault.

Renault in the closing stages were running 6th and 7th even though they ran divergent strategies, Ricciardo stayed out long, even leading for a bit, it didn’t work in the end, Hulkenberg who started near the back had got ahead of him. But then both retired on the spot at Turn 1 at the same time! Both with car problems, either mechanical or electrical. I’ve never seen that before, both team cars out in the same place with unrelated problems within seconds of each other. They’ll be back but these points were vital.

Something Lando Norris knows. He had a great day. Fell back early then raced his way through, putting solid moves on the likes of Kimi Raikkonen. 8th became 6th when the Renaults went out. A much better showing of speed for McLaren. Lots of potential at McLaren this year. They aren’t quite with the works team on speed, but they might beat them if they finish more races and are definitely hugely better than last year. Sainz suffered damage early, needed a new wing and ran at the back until retiring late on.

Alexander Albon also impressed with some good speed and overtakes including on Kvyat who’d otherwise done a decent job before being shunted into by Giovanazzi, who didn’t get a penalty for it for some reason.

Alfa Romeo had Raikkonen up there and he fought back after pit stops dropped him down. Giovanazzi as above hit Kvyat, other than that I don’t remember seeing him.

Haas qualified well but Magnussen had no race pace at all and Grosjean had damage by turn 2 of lap 1 after contact.

I didn’t see a lot of Racing Point other than Stroll’s car getting damaged in the contact with Grosjean, sparks everywhere. With a new front wing he still caught and passed the Williams pair but had no hope of more. I don’t think I saw Perez all race, he inherited the final point when the Renaults went out.

Williams again at the back. Kubica started on the mediums (everyone else on softs) yet I noticed he pitted first, perhaps he had a slow puncture? He and Russell raced each other all day. Positively, both cars finished the race and right now mileage and race finishes are the most important thing.

Points

Just the point for Fastest Lap in Melbourne keeps Bottas ahead of Hamilton. Verstappen sits a lucky third. The Ferraris surely retain a speed advantage into the next round at Shanghai and should close the points gap. There’s a very long way to go yet in 2019.

The rest of the field is tight as anything. Early season reliability trouble is having an effect. It has long been a truism of F1 that you can’t throw away points in the early races to poor reliability, they’re worth just as much as the season-closing races.

BAH TOTAL Driver Team
18 44 Valterri Bottas Mercedes
25 43 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
12 27 Max Verstappen Red Bull
16 FL 26 Charles Leclerc Ferrari
10 22 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari
6 10 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo
8 Kevin Magnussen Haas
8 8 Lando Norris McLaren
6 Nico Hulkenberg Renault
4 4 Pierre Gasly Red Bull
2 Lance Stroll Racing Point
2 2 Alexander Albon Toro Rosso
1 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso
1 1 Sergio Perez Racing Point

A lucky break for Mercedes but I think this just gives them a temporary advantage. Ferrari will be quicker at fast, open tracks which make up the bulk of the calendar.

BAH TOTAL Constructor
43 87 Mercedes
26 48 Ferrari
16 31 Red Bull Honda
6 10 Alfa Romeo Ferrari
8 Haas Ferrari
8 8 McLaren Renault
6 Renault
1 3 Racing Point Mercedes
2 3 Toro Rosso Honda
Williams Mercedes

Catch-Up

Nothing!

With the previous week off work (watching all that MotoGP), last week I was very busy and never got around to catching up with anything in the evenings. Over the weekend I was getting jobs done and visiting family for Mother’s Day.

Next Week

1st to 7th April

IndyCar is at Barber Motorsports Park. I need to watch the first two rounds and hope to do that by then, next week’s post may be an IndyCar Special. It helps that UK and US are back in sync with DST. Unlike the previous race I can actually get home for it.

This is likely to be the only live race I’ll see this weekend. I’m at an astronomy course on Saturday, then o Sunday I’m probably helping to put up a fence!

Your other viewing options include:

  • BTCC Brands Hatch on ITV4. I considered actually going to this one but other plans have cropped up, there are plenty of other chances though.
  • WTCR Marrakesh on both Eurosport and, amazingly enough, the BBC Red Button. Of all the series. Plenty of UK interest with Shedden, Huff and Priaulx.
  • World SBK at Aragon.
  • Supercars Australia in Tasmania.
  • Blancpain GT Asia at Sepang.