The First F1ntastic Formula 1 News Roundup

For all Fantastic F1 fans, here comes a Formula 1 news roundup by F1ntastic. This roundup also includes some incredibly important news released in the latter days of last week. There have been some significant confirmations in the past 10 days, and this post gives you information about all of those confirmations.

1st Formula 1 News – Pirelli Confirms Tyre Compounds For Next 8 Races

I decided to put this news at the top of the post, as it is like a follow-up of the previous post. The first Formula 1 news is about the tire compounds which teams can use in 2020’s first 8 races. On the 11th of June, Pirelli confirmed the tire allocations, and there were some pretty interesting selections…

Pirelli has created 5 different tire compounds for this year’s Formula 1 cars. 6 out of the 8 races will see the C2, C3 and C4 tires available; the other 2 will have the C1, C2 and C3 compounds available. If you want to know more about the Pirelli’s tire range, visit the page on their official website.

Pirelli has provided the medium-range compounds for the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix. However, the British Grand Prix will see the harder tires out on the track. Two races at the same circuit have different compound choices? Upon hearing this news, I couldn’t wait for these races to take place; it will be so interesting to see all the different strategies for the same track play out. The 70th Anniversary Grand Prix is more experimental; the harder tire range is usually the choice in Great Britain, meaning the medium-range compounds could play out differently. We’ll just have to wait and watch.

2nd Formula 1 News – Ross Brawn Gives an Update on the 2020 F1 Calendar and More

Ross Brawn is the Formula One managing director of motorsports and technical director. On the same day as the news above, Brawn gave an update on the 2020 F1 calendar, and more. By more I mean possibilities for racing at new tracks or current tracks with different layouts.

The first 8 races of the season are final. This means the F1 bosses are trying to work with race promoters to finalize the second half of the season. The current situation is so unpredictable, and different countries are coping with the coronavirus differently. This makes it harder for the second half of the season to be finalized. However, some things are more certain than uncertain. Brawn commented on the later races in the season being in Bahrain and Abu Dhabi, after the European section of the calendar.

Brawn said that with 10 races pretty much confirmed, a few more races could be put into the middle. Like races in Europe. However, as mentioned in the paragraph above, these races won’t have to be in current F1 tracks. Tracks like Mugello, Imola, Portimao in Portugal, and Hockenheim, can all be included in the second half of the season. More on Hockenheim, it was cut out of this year’s calendar so that Hanoi and Zaandvoort could come in. Brawn also talked about plans for releasing and announcing the second half of the calendar.

“What we really want to avoid is announcing and changing it,” says Brawn. “We also need to announce it in enough time so people can make plans. We hope some races in the second half of the season will have spectators, so we need time for ticket sales and promotion to take place.”

When people find out about important Formula 1 news, they need time to react upon it, and to do something, like make plans to go to a race.

Bahrain Could Host 2 Races like Austria

Brawn also elaborated on how Bahrain could host a double-header like Austria. Bahrain would be especially suited for 2 races since different track layouts could be used. For example, the Endurance Circuit was the main F1 circuit in 2010. Bahrain also has a short circuit, and you can race on it in the F1 game. The most likely layouts to be used for a double-header would be the current layout and the endurance layout.

“One of the nice attractions of Bahrain is it has many configurations, so we could go to Bahrain and race on two different tracks there,” says Brawn. “There’s a nice sort of almost oval track that would be quite exciting, and all the layouts have a Grade 1 licence with the FIA, so that is an option in the pocket.

“Using two configurations involves quite a lot of work for the riggers – for example the timing needs setting up for two tracks so you need plenty of notice. That’s something we have to take into account.”

A double-header at Bahrain with different layouts would be great, but the coronavirus is incredibly unpredictable. There could be regulations related to the number of riggers and workers allowed to work on the track. Let me know in the comments below what you would say if a double-header with two different layouts is held at Bahrain.

Grid Order

Brawn spoke about how at those tracks that have double-headers reverse grid sprint races could be held on the second Sunday. This is much like a Formula 2 weekend, in which the top 8 finishers of the Feature Race line up in reverse grid order in the Sprint Race. Be sure to let me know in the comments below if you want me to write about the Formula 2 weekend structure. Back to Formula 1, the idea was ruled out for 2020 due to Mercedes being against it, which didn’t allow the decision to be unanimous. However, we could see reverse grid order sprint races in 2021, because the idea is only off the table for 2020.

“Reverse grid races are still on the table for next year,” says Brawn, who added that any changes to formats this year will be “quite subtle”.

Dropped Points System

The dropped points system is a system that hasn’t been in F1 for the last 30 years. There was a possibility that this system returned to Formula 1 due to this year’s calendar being much shorter than it was supposed to be. The reason behind this was that a driver dropping out of a race due to the coronavirus, the driver’s championship could be severely affected. The dropped points system would allow the driver to choose if they want the race to count as part of the championship. This seems to be a good solution, but there are some major disadvantages to this system.

 “The problem with that is the teams could ‘game it’.” says Brawn. “They could work out how they could take advantage of an opportunity and you might find they get to a race where they aren’t likely to score a point because they are having problems, so they decide not to finish.”

“They would say, ‘we’re not going to score points this race, we might as well drop out and save the engine’. Or ‘we’re at the stage where the points we’re going to score in this race aren’t enough’.

Formula 1 decided not to re-introduce the dropped points system. A lot of gamesmanship could come into play, and that would make Formula 1 look bad. However, despite the shortened calendar, this season will still be exciting, and incredibly fun to watch. Let’s move on to the final piece of Formula 1 news in this post.

Final News – Three More Races Cancelled

Race promoters have collaborated with Formula 1 and cancelled Azerbaijan, Singapore, and Japanese Grands Prix. Due to the current situation, some major challenges that have presented themselves for the races above. The Azerbaijan and Singapore Grands Prix are held at street circuits, meaning that the circuits are temporary. Temporary circuits require a lot more effort and attention. It is much harder to set up and then dismantle the circuit. The Japanese Grand Prix has been cancelled due to the limitations for travel still going on. However, recent news tells us that the restrictions are being eased off a little. This news means that the Vietnamese, Russian, and Canadian Grands Prix will be the only street races on the calendar for this year if they aren’t cancelled. The Australian, Monaco, Azerbaijan and Singapore Grands Prix are the street races that have been cancelled.

That brings us to the end of this post; a lot of important Formula 1 news has come out in the past ten days. I hope you have enjoyed this post, and I’m sure that you are as optimistic as I am towards the rest of this year. Stay on the lookout for new posts!