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[Makariel]

It is almost time! The 2020 Formula 1 season is about to kick off. More eco-friendly millionaires than ever before jet around the globe in their quest to be the fastest driver on the planet.

Thread about the previous season see here.

2020 Race calendar

2020 team car launches

Date	Team	Launch venue
11 February	Ferrari	Reggio Emilia, Italy
12 February	Renault	Paris, France
12 February	Red Bull	Silverstone, UK
13 February	McLaren	Woking, UK
14 February	Alpha Tauri	Salzburg, Austria
14 February	Mercedes	Silverstone, UK
17 February	Racing Point	Mondsee, Austria
17 February	Williams	Digital-only launch
19 February	Alfa Romeo	Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona
19 February	Haas	Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona

Why the thread title? Because I want to see Ricciardo back on the podium ASAP:

 

[xrnzaaas]

I'm so happy we'll be getting the first car launches this week.

 

[Makariel]

The 2020 Grid:

Mercedes
Lewis Hamilton - #44
Valtteri Bottas - #77
Mercedes move into their fourth season of driver stability, with Valtteri Bottas once again partnering six-time champion Lewis Hamilton, who’s going after a Michael Schumacher-equalling seventh drivers’ title in 2020.
Ferrari
Sebastian Vettel - #5
Charles Leclerc - #16
Ferrari keep their potent line-up of Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc for 2020, as the Scuderia look to bring a title back to Maranello for the first time since 2008.
Red Bull
Alex Albon - #23
Max Verstappen - #33
Max Verstappen begins his fifth season with Red Bull, while having been promoted from Toro Rosso to replace Pierre Gasly midway through 2019, Alex Albon has the chance to show how he fares over a whole campaign.
McLaren
Lando Norris - #4
Carlos Sainz - #55
After their impressive 2019 renaissance, stability reigns at McLaren for 2020, with Carlos Sainz once again partnering Lando Norris in the MCL35, the first car originated under Technical Director James Key.
Renault
Daniel Ricciardo - #3
Esteban Ocon - #31
Daniel Ricciardo stays in the saddle at Renault, while after a year on the side lines as Mercedes’ reserve driver in 2019, Esteban Ocon returns to the F1 grid to partner the Australian.
Toro Rosso (becoming AlphaTauri)
Pierre Gasly - #10
Daniil Kvyat - #26
Daniil Kvyat and Pierre Gasly have been retained by Toro Rosso, with Kvyat marking a fifth season behind the wheel of one of the Italian team’s cars in 2020 – while Toro Rosso are set to be renamed Scuderia AlphaTauri.
Racing Point
Sergio Perez - #11
Lance Stroll - #18
Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll are paired up for their second season together at Racing Point, with Perez having now spent seven seasons at the Silverstone-based squad in their various guises.
Alfa Romeo
Kimi Raikkonen - #7
Antonio Giovinazzi - #99
Ferrari protege Antonio Giovinazzi is partnered at Alfa Romeo with 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen, who celebrates his 41st birthday ahead of the 2020 United States Grand Prix.
Haas
Romain Grosjean - #8
Kevin Magnussen - #20
Like Hamilton and Bottas, Grosjean and Magnussen are paired together for a fourth season at the American Haas outfit.
Williams
George Russell - #63
Nicholas Latifi - #6
George Russell contests his second season for Williams, while alongside him is 2019 Formula 2 driver Nicholas Latifi, the only ‘new’ driver on the grid for 2020.

 

[Grieves]

Nice one Makariel

Edit: I thought Racing Point were being re-branded as Aston Martin....Ah from 2021, my mistake.

 

[Nicktendo_]

Any news on China yet, GAF? Do we know if the race is going to be moved or cancelled?

 

[xrnzaaas]

Any news on China yet, GAF? Do we know if the race is going to be moved or cancelled?

It is effectively cancelled from this year's calendar because the teams haven't agreed to proposed calendar changes to switch other GP's and move China to later this year. We don't even know when (or if) China will contain the epidemic for all sports events to be officially resumed.

 

[YodaBB]

Drive To Survive Season 2 coming soon! Hyped, loved first season.

Coming February 28 – Formula 1: Drive to Survive Season 2 on Netflix | Formula 1®

F1 fans’ excitement levels are already mounting ahead of the start of the 2020 season – and to whet your appetite even more, Season 2 of Netflix’s stunning Formula 1: Drive to Survive launches on Netflix from February 28.

www.formula1.com

 

[Makariel]

Ladies and Gentlemen, the new livery for probably the first title contender:

Oh yeah and Haas showed it's livery a few days ago on Twitter:

But don't forget: all the "new cars" are just sketches until we see them actually on the track. Don't forget how Mercedes went with 2 entirely different cars to pre-season testing last year. Chances are we don't actually see the "real" Mercedes until Zandvoort

 

[Nicktendo_]

Mercedes livery is the best they've done yet. In love with the red and turquoise accents.

 

[xrnzaaas]

So it's a win-win livery. The new sponsor is satisfied and the car kinda gets its own version of Niki's hat (although I know it's not the same shade of red).

 

[Makariel]

So it's a win-win livery. The new sponsor is satisfied and the car kinda gets its own version of Niki's hat (although I know it's not the same shade of red).

Haven't thought of that, they actually driving with Niki in all their races this year!

In other news, today at 18:30 CET will be the livestream showing the new 2020 Ferrari.

SF1000, the New Ferrari Single-Seater - Ferrari.com

Discover the new SF1000 on the official site: exclusive specs, videos and images of the Ferrari Formula 1 Single-Seater.

www.ferrari.com

My educated guess is that the car will be red.

They claim it has been completely redesigned, and they do a Mercedes this year by pointing out how big their problems are in getting performance out of the car. Of course the difference is that if Mercedes claims they have bad performance they show up and still beat everyone by a second. If Ferrari claim they have bad performance they typically just have bad performance.

edit: Cars are getting ready for the show...

 

[xrnzaaas]

Ferrari launch stream from the official F1 channel, 46k people waiting already... nice!

 

[Makariel]

Of course the car will be looking quite different once on track, but so far it seems the air intakes are a bit different but the front wing is definitely not the actual part. Not that much of a revolution, more of an evolution from what I see so far, but waiting for better quality pictures.

edit:
Meanwhile, Mercedes launches Bottas 3.0

 

[Makariel]

Mercedes:


Ferrari:


Red Bull:

Renault:

Renault launches its car without showing it. Very clever.

In other News, the Chinese GP is postponed (not yet cancelled) due to the Corona-Virus.

F1 and FIA accept promoter's request to postpone 2020 Chinese GP

The Chinese Grand Prix has been officially postponed by the FIA and Formula 1 due to the recent coronavirus outbreak

www.autosport.com

 

[xrnzaaas]

I'll be very disappointed if Renault's black livery is for winter testing only. I really hate when the teams do that, ends up creating more frustration among fans.

 

[Mohonky]

I'll be very disappointed if Renault's black livery is for winter testing only. I really hate when the teams do that, ends up creating more frustration among fans.

It'll have Yellow on it, it's in their badge, no way they don't.

 

[Makariel]

McLaren:

 

[Blond]

Just got into F1 at the end of the last season, happy to start it up this year from the getgo!

 

[Grieves]

Welcome on board.

 

[xrnzaaas]

The new McLaren livery looks great, although it's strange that despite Zak bringing in so many sponsors they don't have any big logos on the engine cover.

 

[Nicktendo_]

The McLaren is beautiful. I think I even prefer this livery to the classic ones of the 80s (red + white) and 90s (silver).
I really hope they will be the ones to break the dominance of the top 3. I feel they have more chance than Renault. Would love to see Sainz and Norris pick up a few podiums.

 

[SaturnSaturn]

Fuck toto wolff, hamilton and mercedes
forza ferrari, forza alfa

I am actually more excited for the F2 season, was great last year.

 

[Makariel]

The new McLaren livery looks great, although it's strange that despite Zak bringing in so many sponsors they don't have any big logos on the engine cover.

 

[darkinstinct]

I am so glad that Ric will never do a Shoey again. One of the most stupid ideas to ever come out of an F1 driver.

 

[xrnzaaas]

I am so glad that Ric will never do a Shoey again. One of the most stupid ideas to ever come out of an F1 driver.

Still not as dumb as Alonso going to McHonda. Daniel left because he knew RBR was going to focus more and more on Max, not because he believed the promise of receiving a race-winning car from a weaker team.

 

[Makariel]

Alpha Tauri started showing their livery in between some sort of fashion show it seems. Been since spotted in the wild:

With that we have now much of the grid 2020:

I am so glad that Ric will never do a Shoey again. One of the most stupid ideas to ever come out of an F1 driver.

 

[massivekettle]

The new McLaren livery looks great, although it's strange that despite Zak bringing in so many sponsors they don't have any big logos on the engine cover.

That’s probably because the sponsorships aren’t anything material.

 

[xrnzaaas]

Four more weeks to go, gotta find something else to watch.

 

[xrnzaaas]

Gunther with the swearing again. xD

 

[Makariel]

Gunther with the swearing again. xD

And Toto will be punching various tables.

And with Williams new car actually being finished in time...

... we're just waiting for Alfa and of course to see the rest of the Twingo.

 

[xrnzaaas]

It's kinda funny that Williams has decided now to pick white & red. They're Polish flags colors and they would've worked if Robert was still racing for Williams.

 

[Makariel]

At this stage they're just rubbing it in...

 

[Makariel]

And the cars hit the track for the first time!



Quite a few that look white from the front at the moment, we will have a number of commentators that will be confused between Haas Alpha Romeo Tauri Williams.

 

[xrnzaaas]

So apparently Force India copied last year's Mercedes and other teams don't like it... as long as Merc didn't give them their plans where's the issue? The cars are for everyone to see and it's not like F1 regulations offer a lot of room to maneuver...

 

[Makariel]

It is just funny since Racing Point (or Force India or whatever) was quite vocal when Haas fielded essentially a Ferrari clone for testing in previous years. So now they get a taste of their own medicine

 

[Makariel]

Mercedes doing some funny things...



How this looks in action:



This is going to be a fun season...

edit:
Even the official F1 YT channel has a video about it up now:

 

[Mohonky]

I was literally laughing out loud when people started losing their shit over what was going on with the steering rack; and the Renault guys all huddled around the monitor trying to get a good look at the replay.

If it's legal (and I believe Merc have a track record with running upgrades via the FIA before even implementing them so as to avoid any discrepancy) it's not something teams can just throw on the car, they have to rework their whole front end mounting systems.

This is one of my favourite things about F1, the tricky shit the engineers come up with. A variable toe system, genius.

 

[xrnzaaas]

I was literally laughing out loud when people started losing their shit over what was going on with the steering rack; and the Renault guys all huddled around the monitor trying to get a good look at the replay.

If it's legal (and I believe Merc have a track record with running upgrades via the FIA before even implementing them so as to avoid any discrepancy) it's not something teams can just throw on the car, they have to rework their whole front end mounting systems.

This is one of my favourite things about F1, the tricky shit the engineers come up with. A variable toe system, genius.

IS HE DOING IT? IS HE DOING IT?

On one hand it's always nice to see innovation, on another hand Merc out of all teams getting this new toy could mean the season's already over.

 

[SaturnSaturn]

It's illegal, read fia's technical regulations for the 2020 season, page 51 article 10.2.3 "No adjustment may be made to any suspension system while the car is in motion"

But it's Mercedes so fuck the rules, Hamilton have to equal schumis records no matter what.

F2 will be interesting tho.

 

[Mohonky]

It's illegal, read fia's technical regulations for the 2020 season, page 51 article 10.2.3 "No adjustment may be made to any suspension system while the car is in motion"

But it's Mercedes so fuck the rules, Hamilton have to equal schumis records no matter what.

F2 will be interesting tho.

What does steering do?

That is their argument, this is just a 3 dimensional steering system, not an adjustable setting.

 

[YodaBB]

If it's just changing the toe-in it seems ok to me, if adjusting the ride height seems dubious. You wouldn't want to be acidentally pulling the wheel back mid corner, especially high speed ones. I wonder if theres some kind of mechanism with large steering angles forcing it foward or if it's always free to move.

 

[Mohonky]

Mercedes' DAS system will be outlawed by FIA from 2021 | PlanetF1

Dual-axis steering, also known as DAS, will only be available for use until the end of the 2020 season before the FIA enforces a blanket ban.

www.planetf1.com

Looks like DAS is in for the year but the rules from 2021 onward will close any loophole that looks to exploit such a system.

So now the big question; who is going to follow suite and try and add it to their 2020 car? It'll be a costly and time consuming development, especially considering you'll only be able to use it till the end of the season.....

My bet, if Merc do come out and the other teams see any decent advantage to it, only Ferrari and Redbull will have the resources to follow suite if it means staying in for a title fight. I dont see anyone from the midfield throwing resources at it, better spent on getting through the year and worrying about what to do in 2021

 

[Breakage]

 

[xrnzaaas]

It's self-inflicted pain, no need to feel sorry.

 

[Urprobablyright]

If DAS is an advantage they'll copy it.. i find it very unlikely that they would invest in something that wasn't a given.. so yeah i guess we'll be seeing it sometime around, well, is Malaysia still the second GP?

I ran out of interest in this sport when i grew old enough to realise that the winners are whoever has the best engine.

 

[xrnzaaas]

If DAS is an advantage they'll copy it.. i find it very unlikely that they would invest in something that wasn't a given.. so yeah i guess we'll be seeing it sometime around, well, is Malaysia still the second GP?

I ran out of interest in this sport when i grew old enough to realise that the winners are whoever has the best engine.

Malaysia is no longer a part of the calendar. Bahrain is now the second GP.

DAS is going to be banned in 2021 so unless you have the manpower to hurry and introduce it during this season it feels like a waste of money imo.

 

[Airbus Jr]

RIP RBR and SF

Winner : DAS

 

[SVLF1Freak]

Made a discord to bring fans of the sport together https://discord.gg/BmNqydA

 

[YodaBB]

#7timechampion

 

[Makariel]

I still think DAS system alone wouldn't necessarily relate to that much of a performance gain. My guess it's a bit of a distraction to keep other teams eyes away from other parts of the car where they surely improved things quite considerably. I know many would think it's a bit early to tell, but I think we can safely congratulate Lewis Hamilton to his 7th drivers championship!