Well its that time of the year yet again to get the new yearly thread up and as now seems customary, we start (and probably end) the thread with my main motorsport addiction, Formula One.
Let’s start with the lineups, we have quite a few changes for the coming season after all,
Team Line upsMercedes - Lewis Hamilton (44) & Valtteri Bottas (77), now Hamilton (well I suppose its Sir Lewis now!) hasn’t officially signed an extension yet but if I shake my magic 8 ball I reckon all signs point to yes, probably a matter of when not if.
Red Bull Racing - Max Verstappen (33) & Sergio Perez (11)
McLaren - Lando Norris (4) & Daniel Ricciardo (3)
Aston Martin - Sebastian Vettel (5) & Lance Stroll (18)
Alpine - Fernando Alonso (14) & Esteban Ocon (31)
Ferrari - Charles Leclerc (16) & Carlos Sainz Jr (55)
Alpha Tauri - Pierre Gasly (10) & Yuki Tsunoda (22)
Alfa Romeo - Kimi Raikkonen (7) & Antonio Giovinazzi (99)
Haas - Mick Schumacher (47) & Nikita Mazepin (9)
Williams - George Russell (63) & Nicholas Latifi (6)
So thats how the teams/drivers are lining up this year, for once we actually have some very exciting changes! First up we have a a couple of rookies entering the sport who actually show some promise in 7 time WDC Michael Schumacher’s son, Mick. In Formula 2 Mick took a season to properly get to grips with the cars but hopefully he can absolutely annihilate Mazepin from day 1, whatever happens it’s great to see the Schumacher name back on the grid. The other notable Rookie is Tsunoda, who in his rookie season in Formula 2 finished 3rd, the less said about Mazepin the better I think but at least his dads money has saved Haas for the short term.
Secondly after a fantastic season for Perez for Racing Point in a wonderfully designed (definitely not copied, I repeat NOT COPIED) car he finally got his maiden win despite nearly being wiped out of contention on lap 1 round the outer circuit at Bahrain, I think short term it was definitely the best option for Red Bull and Perez but Sergio’s performance in the Red Bull team will dictate his future there but he is the first none Red Bull affiliated driver to be signed since Mark Webber. Replacing the outgoing Perez at Racing Point (now Aston Martin) is Sebastian Vettel, on the back on probably his least competitive season in the sport he has moved himself into what could be a very strong challenger going forward with the upcoming budget cap as the team have a knack for getting very good performance despite their lesser budget, this alongside a very close technical partnership with Mercedes could be a bit of a dark horse for 2022. Mercedes have extended their technical partnership with Williams as well, who will now be buying more parts rather than making them in house, which is probably a wise decision when you can see how well its worked out for Racing Point over the past few years.
The other notable driver moves are Ricciardo moving to a resurgent McLaren team with a new Mercedes power unit, if the power unit change doesn’t hamper their aero package I think they could be fighting Red Bull a little more for the podium as they ended the 2020 season very well indeed. Sainz Jr must be slightly rueing his decision going to Ferrari which seems very much team Leclerc at the moment (and rightly so, he looks like a very good F1 driver for the future) and with the clear lack of performance they had for most of the previous season, although Ferrari do seem to be quietly confident about their new engine but the proof will be seen in testing. Last up is Alonso returning, reckon he’s going to batter Ocon which might not bode well for his future career.
2020 season recap2020 was a truly wonderful yet bizarre season. To start with we didn’t even know if we’d get the 8 races needed to class it as a WDC season due to the coronavirus pandemic sweeping the world, but in the end we were treated to an amazing 17 race season (well there was the odd dud, but not everything can be perfect), revisiting some old classics and then going to places who’ve never held an F1 race before. Some of the new/returning circuits provided some excellent racing too, with Turkey being a real highlight due to the new track surface alongside poor weather conditions all weekend making it a bit of a lottery alongside a test of skill, plus Vettel’s sole podium came at this race
While the WDC and WCC were more or less a forgone conclusion even before the season started the midfield was intense from start to finish, with a very tight fight between McLaren, Racing Point and Renault. In comparison Ferrari had an absolute nightmare season, lack of power with a less than stellar car meant they had one of their worst seasons in a good few years, although Leclerc shone and had a much better season than Vettel who really struggled to get to grips with the car, only scoring a single podium throughout the year. The back end of the really struggled for the most part too, although Williams did make some solid progress throughout whereas Haas and Alfa Romeo didn’t really. Hopefully the midfield is the star of the season again as I don’t see anyone catching Mercedes this year.
This past season we were also treated to two first time winners in Pierre Gasly and Sergio Perez, winning round Monza and Sakhir respectively and who have both seen a huge upturn in their stock due to both having a fantastic season with the latter getting a move to Red Bull, it’ll be interesting to see how he stacks up against Verstappen. I don’t think he’ll have much of a chance in qualifying but in the races where he has very good tyre management it could play to his advantage at some tracks.
Series SchedulesI’ll link the official Formula One (and others) calendars here as and when they’re available, I don’t think the F1 one is up on the official site as of yet, imagine a lot of them could see changes throughout the year too. I’m not sure where they are holding pre season yet either, if Bahrain will be the opener it could make sense to do it out there (and have a second test instead of the first race?) but I’m not sure how Spain is coping with Covid as its bad enough looking at how woefully poorly our country seems to be managing it without looking for news about it elsewhere.
Formula One calendar -
World Rally Championship calendar -
https://www.wrc.com/en/news/season-2020 ... ndar-2021/World Endurance Championship calendar -
https://www.fiawec.com/en/calendar/80 Formula E calendar -
https://www.fiaformulae.com/en/champion ... e-calendar Indycar calendar -
https://www.indycar.com/-/media/Files/C ... hedule.pdfIf there are any other series you’d like to add here, just quote me with the relevant series name/calendar link and I’ll add it as soon as I can!
Official Grcade F1 2020 Hotlap competitionWith a couple of people showing interest I thought I’d add this in, with Australia being the first track of choice as its looking very unlikely we’ll actually have a Grand Prix there this year due to Covid. Any suggestions on choice of car? Can be one of the F1 2020 cars (think they’re equal performance in time trial?), a classic thats on both versions of the game or even a F2 car, just as long as everyone is happy but it’ll change with each track. No limits on assists or control method of course, just use whatever makes you drive to the limit! We’ll have to decide if we run the default setup or allow custom ones, default would be be more of a level playing field of course. I would say winner gets to choose the next track/car combo but that’d mean our resident sim racing expert would be picking each week
F1 2020 game thread -
t:f1-2020---codemasters---pc--ps4--xbox-one--stadia---scumacher-edition-out-now?f=2&hilit=F1%2C+2020F1 2021 game thread -
t:f1-2021?f=2Closing thoughtsSo what are everyone’s thoughts about the upcoming season? Reckon we’ll get the full calendar in with Covid still having a grip on the world? Are we in for another cracker of a season or will it have more Abu Dhabi’s than Turkeys? Personally I’m just hoping we see a bit of a resurgence from Vettel, his last season at Ferrari has been far from ideal and I really hope we can see him pull out the performance we know he is capable of producing. Plus with Aston Martin coming back in F1 as their own team I’m really hoping we get a gorgeous looking livery from them.
As with last years thread I’ll pop up a poll too, which will run until the first race is held, hopefully that will be sooner than 2020’s first race in July!
If you’ve taken the time to read all of this then thanks and lets hope for a good season
Previous years threads,
2019 -
https://grcade.co.uk/t:the-official-formula-1-and-general-motorsport-thread-for-2019?f=7&hilit=2020+F1+2020+Formula+One+20202020 -
https://grcade.co.uk/t:the-official-formula-one-and-general-motorsport-thread-for-the-2020-season?f=7&hilit=2020+F1+2020+Formula+One+20202021-
https://grcade.co.uk/t:the-official-formula-one-and-general-motorsport-thread-for-the-2021-season-mercedes-domination-set-to-continue?f=7