The official Formula One and General Motorsport Thread for the 2020 season!

[Imrahil]

Yep, I think the general view is it's a great track for lower speed formulas. But F1 throws up some surprise decent races occasionally on tracks that might not be best suited, so you never know.

Long run-up into turn 1 could be interesting. If Verstappen manages to get first place after that corner, could liven the race up a bit.

[Captain Kinopio]

My Grand Prix at Rye House was predictably great fun, if very tiring. I’m really not sure I could do a full hour. Qualified 13 out of 21, finished 12th. Could have been higher up, but I spun on about the 5th lap and dropped half a dozen places so spent the rest of the race making places back up.

Having 21 cars packed onto the grid when you line up to start is quite daunting, there’s not a whole lot of room. My brother got caught up in a first lap spin, in which I managed to make up 4 or 5 places. I was going around great guns until I got over eager on one of the hairpins and spun myself which is when I dropped back a lot. I was able to use a couple of the long right handers to make up a chunk of time on people but my most fruitful hunting ground was the back to back hairpins. Some slower drivers would try to block me and though I wasn’t bold enough in general it was at the hairpins when I would let them have the middle of the track for the first and just watch them out break themselves on a bad line for the second. It’s great lining up what you plan to do and then just seeing it come off beautifully. The faster switchback corners are where I had the biggest problems, because I just didn’t know the optimum method to go through them, the bumpiness didn’t really help either. A few late incidents saw me get a few more quick places and though my spin probably cost me the chance to fight further up the pack, around midfield in a pack this size felt about the right level for me.

I had a big shunt in qualifying when coming round the switchback right hander I spun. I waited for a gap to right myself but one strawberry floater just had zero patience at all and just rammed me at about 70% full pace. Was a big shock, but thankfully nothing broken.

It’s a great track (though could use resurfacing) and the karts are really good but the whole venue could use a bit of a spruce up. 57 quid for a half hour GP (10 mins qualifying, 20 mins race) is quite expensive, but so it everything these days and it’s such a unique experience definitely worth it.

[Vermilion]

Yep, I think the general view is it's a great track for lower speed formulas. But F1 throws up some surprise decent races occasionally on tracks that might not be best suited, so you never know.

There's also the fact that unlike most modern F1 tracks, errors will be punished by a visit to the gravel or grass.

[Robbo-92]

Been watching the channel 4 coverage this weekend (and will be tonight as well), Mark Webber the best of their presenting team in my opinion. Qualifying was business as normal except for Leclerc (Vettel sadly really doesn’t give a crap now by the looks of it) who must have put a good lap in for 5th, he surprised if he stays there though. The track must be amazing to drive though it looks amazing, non stop corners and in a very picturesque part of the world. I don’t know how F1 will fare racing wise round here though, except into turn 1, I really can’t see a decent overtaking spot unless someone messes up a corner and runs wide onto the gravel so I’m expecting a bit of a procession. Shame about the yellow flag in Q3 ruining most of their second runs though.

[Victor Mildew]

My Grand Prix at Rye House was predictably great fun, if very tiring. I’m really not sure I could do a full hour. Qualified 13 out of 21, finished 12th. Could have been higher up, but I spun on about the 5th lap and dropped half a dozen places so spent the rest of the race making places back up.

Having 21 cars packed onto the grid when you line up to start is quite daunting, there’s not a whole lot of room. My brother got caught up in a first lap spin, in which I managed to make up 4 or 5 places. I was going around great guns until I got over eager on one of the hairpins and spun myself which is when I dropped back a lot. I was able to use a couple of the long right handers to make up a chunk of time on people but my most fruitful hunting ground was the back to back hairpins. Some slower drivers would try to block me and though I wasn’t bold enough in general it was at the hairpins when I would let them have the middle of the track for the first and just watch them out break themselves on a bad line for the second. It’s great lining up what you plan to do and then just seeing it come off beautifully. The faster switchback corners are where I had the biggest problems, because I just didn’t know the optimum method to go through them, the bumpiness didn’t really help either. A few late incidents saw me get a few more quick places and though my spin probably cost me the chance to fight further up the pack, around midfield in a pack this size felt about the right level for me.

I had a big shunt in qualifying when coming round the switchback right hander I spun. I waited for a gap to right myself but one strawberry floater just had zero patience at all and just rammed me at about 70% full pace. Was a big shock, but thankfully nothing broken.

It’s a great track (though could use resurfacing) and the karts are really good but the whole venue could use a bit of a spruce up. 57 quid for a half hour GP (10 mins qualifying, 20 mins race) is quite expensive, but so it everything these days and it’s such a unique experience definitely worth it.

This sounds great! I was lucky enough to be invited to a corporate schmoozing day at Thruxton years ago, which involved me driving a Mazda RX8, Ferrari F355 and a formula ford single seater on the track. Best of all was for the second half of the day we went across to the outdoor karting cicruit and had about 3 hours of smaller races and then a grand prix. I was pretty gooseberry fool (I spun loads as it was in damp conditions with slicks and I didn't know how to deal with it really). It was amazing fun though, I'd love to go and do it again now I actually know how to drive properly.

I was going to treat myself to a proper driving experience this year for my 40th, as in blow a lot and drive a proper race spec single seater for half a day on a proper track like Silverstone or something, but world events have put a stop to that

[Captain Kinopio]

They do endurance racing which would be quite interesting.

[Captain Kinopio]

Red Blol

[Victor Mildew]

Max VerstLOLpen

[captain red dog]

Well, I get the impression Max's car was likely strawberry floated anyway.

[Victor Mildew]

He had bugger all in the way of power so probably would have retired after 5 laps.

[Victor Mildew]

The state of this race

[Cuttooth]

strawberry floating hell.

We’ve had, what a full lap of racing altogether so far?

[Captain Kinopio]

Giovenazzi What the strawberry float was he doing

[Memento Mori]

Giovinazi is a moron.

[Victor Mildew]

Race restart, yeah I think I'll slam my brakes on in the middle of the track.

[captain red dog]

That accident started at the front I think bunching up the field so bad. I don't recall seeing someone stack the field like Bottas did. Important to remember though, that isn't against the rules.

They look like strawberry floating idiots though when Indycar does that multiple times per race with no issues

[Mini E]

Partially Bottas' fault surely for weaving to back the pack up? Definitely Giovanazzi's fault for the most part. The sound of Grosjean on the radio saying it was the worst thing he's seen in a race was mildly amusing, though. Hope Sainz's hand is alright.

[captain red dog]

Partially Bottas' fault surely for weaving to back the pack up? Definitely Giovanazzi's fault for the most part. The sound of Grosjean on the radio saying it was the worst thing he's seen in a race was mildly amusing, though. Hope Sainz's hand is alright.

He didn't do anything outside of the rules, but I would suspect they will change the rules after this!

[Mini E]

Partially Bottas' fault surely for weaving to back the pack up? Definitely Giovanazzi's fault for the most part. The sound of Grosjean on the radio saying it was the worst thing he's seen in a race was mildly amusing, though. Hope Sainz's hand is alright.

He didn't do anything outside of the rules, but I would suspect they will change the rules after this!

Yep - would agree with this as an improvement to my original statement!

[Captain Kinopio]

It's partly the rules, partly the track, partly the guys at the back not realising what was going to happen. Bottas did exactly what he should have done.

Like Anthony said you can't overtake until you pass the line anyway so jockeying and trying to get the jump as far back as they did was pointless.

No need to change any rules though as it's a bit of a freak situation.