London (AFP) – Seven months after the last serious competition, the Formula 1 circus will press a reset button after locking to open the 2020 season in Austria on Sunday.
The event in Spielberg takes place on its original calendar day, but it is not the expected 11th round of the championship, but the first – a season opener that is being delayed by the global coronavirus pandemic.
More than three months after the Australian Grand Prix was canceled on the eve of the opening training session in Melbourne, the race in the Styrian Alps is being held behind closed doors without fans, sponsoring agents and guests and just a handful of reporters being restricted to the United States are media center.
The usual high-rise campers are replaced by tents and awnings, while the teams, which are reduced to 80 members and all wear protective clothing, work in sanitary “bubbles in bubbles” on a paddock that has no human contact and the usual rumors and speculation .
It will be an unprecedented and unique experience for everyone involved who will be tested four days before the event and five days later.
Despite all the changes and the surreal atmosphere, the action is expected to deliver the same likely story when it starts.
Lewis Hamilton, driven by the all-conquering Mercedes, is looking for a seventh driver title that matches Michael Schumacher’s record.
“It was unbearable – I missed the race and the competition so much that it will be great to be back,” said Mercedes team manager Toto Wolff.
Even during the suspension, the driver changes for the next year took place. Ferrari announced the release of four-time champion Sebastian Vettel, whose successor Carlos Sainz of McLaren and Daniel Ricciardo should be leaving Renault and the Spaniard’s replacement for the starved team being so badly hit by the pandemic.
– On road –
These moves in 2021 will not affect this year’s lineups, but may affect the relationships between departing drivers and teams that are careful not to leave unique operational and performance information with them.
If anything, this will likely have the greatest impact at Ferrari as the Italian team tries to avoid an open conflict between emerging star Charles Leclerc and Vettel, who is a free agent and a potential target not only for Renault but also for Mercedes is.
The pair, who were intense rivals last year, tested in Italy before the first “double header” last week with two consecutive races at the Austrian Red Bull Ring before a third race in Hungary.
“I have no experience of going back on the same track and running a second race, but I’ve been here for a while,” said Vettel.
“I think the level of perfection will be higher on the second weekend – the level of errors will be even lower.
“It will be a chance to review the strategy just seven days later. So this is a first and we will see how we tackle this challenge.”
– Orange aid –
The first three races are only part of an intense phase of eight European races in 10 weeks, which can become nine to eleven if a lap is added in Mugello, Italy.
Vettel added that he “can’t imagine what it will be like to drive without fans”, especially on the extensive track where Max Verstappen was roared to victory last year by a huge orange wave of Dutch fans.
Verstappen and Red Bull are expected to challenge Mercedes. Ferrari and Racing Point, dubbed the “Pink Mercedes” team after copying the champions’ cars, will be closely watched at the opening events, where it will be exciting to see if Hamilton has focused on being affected by his active and vocal support for the current protests against racism.
Last week, just a few days after the start of the Hamilton Motorsport Diversity Commission, he criticized what former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone said was “ignorant and uneducated” before calling for the African Grand Prix to be restored.
“It’s a really strange time in the world and the biggest challenge in my head isn’t necessarily the championship,” he said. “It’s not a normal year.”
