Does anyone know if the fires in Australia will affect the opening round of F1 ? It is just a tragic situation they have there :(

Old news, I know but
 

I still feel Vettel should have won the Canadian GP, and Herta should have won Laguna Seca. IMO

Every time I see a replay I get more sure both outcomes were in error.

Just my opinion

I not looking to start trouble, but if I could fix it I would.

I shouldn’t think so, the fires are at least 200 km from Melbourne


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Ferrari will have a better chance if Vettel minimizes his mistakes.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/51090812

let's revisit this in August

Roy Nissany appointed as official Williams test driver. In other words: "Man who scored one point from 20 races in F2 in 2018 joins team that scored one point from 21 races in F1 in 2019" ;-)

I used to really like Williams, and while I hope they do better this year, I would be very surprised. Pay drivers, pay test drivers, no money, no parts...

Williams are done. Put a fork in them. F1 today is, unfortunately, all about money. Metric schitt tonnes of money. That simply rules Williams out. It used to be that clever, intuitive innovation could carry the day. Those days are gone. Things are so developed, so locked down into infinitesimally tiny gains wrought through untold hours of engineering development, modeling, and testing that smaller, less funded teams like Williams are just going to die. They had their glory days, back when one clever idea could put a team ahead for awhile. Those days are long gone.

I predict the commentary will exist of more talk about the new car for 2021 and less talk about the current season because we all know how it's going to end.
Vettel may have a nervous breakdown along the way. Hope he's been meeting with a motivational speaker during the off season.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/51201068

for those that remember, looks like Ceasar's Palace II

yes the track sucks
but at least it is here in my home area
lets hope they improve the track and keep the location

Potential bombshell (credit Autosport forum),
https://www.racefans.net/2020/01/29/mercedes-crunch-meeting-quit-f1-2020/

Please stay, Mercedes, F1 needs your unequalled level of professionalism and innovation.

As much as I hate to see Mercedes win so much, they are the CLEAR class of the F1 show. No other team can finish so many races, and even if they don't win, they score points. They put on a clinic for the other teams on how to do a race, and race to win.

Much like Porsche did in Endurance racing over so many series.

I remember when Mercedes first got back into F1 there were the back of the field. The board was thinking of withdrawing because they were spending millions and getting nothing. They they started winning. And winning and winning.

Guess who is going to be carrying the Aston Martin name in the future!

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51323241

Aston Martin: F1 billionaire owner leads rescue deal

3 hours ago
89 comments


Struggling luxury UK carmaker Aston Martin has announced plans to raise emergency funding worth £500m.

A consortium led by billionaire Lawrence Stroll will put in £182m, with the rest of the money coming from existing investors.

Mr Stroll partly owns the Racing Point Formula 1 team, which will be branded Aston Martin from 2021 under the deal.

The move comes hours after a board meeting held to discuss how to prop up the ailing firm.

Aston Martin's best known customer is fictional spy James Bond and the company recently revealed that four of its cars will feature in the next Bond movie, No Time To Die.
Image copyright Reuters
Image caption Lawrence Stroll partly owns the Racing Point Formula 1 team

The carmaker said its latest financial moves were aimed at strengthening its balance sheet after its "disappointing performance" in 2019.

Mr Stroll's consortium will take a 20% stake in the company and he will become its executive chairman.

As a result, Penny Hughes will be stepping down as Aston Martin's chairman once the deal is completed.

She said: "The difficult trading performance in 2019 resulted in severe pressure on liquidity which has left the company with no alternative but to seek substantial additional equity financing.

"Without this, the balance sheet is not robust enough to support the operations of the group.

"Notwithstanding recent weak trading, the strength of the Aston Martin brand and our expanding portfolio of cars has allowed us to attract a strong new partner in Mr Stroll to support the turnaround of the business."
Image copyright Reuters
Image caption Four Aston Martins will feature in the next Bond movie, No Time To Die

Earlier this month, the 106-year-old firm issued a profit warning, saying annual earnings were expected to fall by nearly half from a year earlier.

It said core retail sales - which covers sales from Aston Martin dealers to consumers - were up 12% from a year earlier. However, wholesale volumes - which covers how many cars the dealers are ordering from Aston Martin itself - were down 7% to 5,809.

The company said it was expecting earnings of between £130m and £140m, well below the £247.3m it reported last year.

Best
Les

Starting in 2021 the Force India/Racing Point team will be called Aston Martin racing . Makes sense with the cash outlay Stroll is investing .

Looks like Lance is another stepping stone closer to a Ferrari drive. Daddy just needs to wait for Ferrari to fall on hard times. :cool:

It must be cool to be that rich.

On the flip side, if you were that rich, would you work this hard and risk your life to drive an F1 car? I probably would choose a life of leisure in Monaco instead. Credit to him for that, and the talent to make a podium once. Hulkenberg is well regarded and never managed it.

Not at all a Stroll fan, just trying to be fair. He's no Pedro Diniz.

One of my favourite car projects was working on Lance's F3 car and helping him win the 2016 F3 Championship. F3 is an extremely tightly regulated championship which didn't have many loop holes in the rules to exploit so made it very difficult to improve car performance.

I'd just got back from Italy, was at home relaxing building a wall with Mrs Ahab and an ex-Ferrari F1 friend called me, asked me if I want to help him at Williams with a car project but he couldn't tell me what it was, of course I said yes :confused:.

Williams waited for me to finish my wall and when I rocked up on my 1st day I was shown Lance's new car in the workshop, told we only have 6 months until the 1st race, here is the tech rule book, see what weight you can take out of it and ways we can make it faster, I was a like a piggy in $hit :)

We helped Lance and his Italian based team Prema Powerteam (a very successful F3 team). It was a long 30 race championship and the team scored ....
22 pole positions (14 for Lance)
19 fastest laps (13 to Lance)
20 wins (14 to Lance)

Lance won with 507 points (his team mate was 2nd with 320) earning him a super license which allowed him to race for Williams in F1. At the time it was the most important project for Williams as a company

I still have twinges of guilt as with the help of his dad's millions we utterly destroyed the F3 championship which prevented a few far more talented but slightly less wealthy driver's their chance of reaching F1 by winning a talent biased championship

I don't however feel guilty about upsetting a few other billionaire dad's because their little boy's didn't win or contributing to the FIA having to rewrite the rules to keep the F3 championship alive

Personally I think Lance is good but not F1 world champion good!

Jordan Force Point Aston India Martin or whatever it's called is a team going places, exciting times for everyone there, Lance fans (I'm more a Kimi fan ;)), Canadian fans and F1 too

^(Typically) amazing story!

Ah, Jordan, they were the first team I really followed in F1. Joined the fan club and everything.

Yeah, I'm fumbling for a response. Thanks for sharing, its one of the reasons I'm here.

I'm really looking forward to seeing Zandvoort.