Coronavirus – Australia set to go-ahead
Organisers of the Australian Grand Prix say they are expecting the season-opening Albert Park race to go ahead as planned, despite ongoing concerns regarding the coronavirus.
The season opener is one of the races that could be under threat following the outbreak of Covid-19 in China. Despite the postponement of the Chinese Grand Prix, concerns that travel bans and/or strict quarantine procedures could make it impossible for some F1 team staff to get to Melbourne.
Italy is the most significant potential sticking point, with a spike of reported cases leading to the Australian Federal Government re-assessing its travel advice in the past 24 hours.
It’s been confirmed today that the advice for both Italy and South Korea has been changed, with people working in the medical or aged care sector now urged to self-quarantine for fourteen days after returning from either country.
At the moment Italy has avoided the fourteen day isolation period when arriving in Australia. chief medical officer Brendan Murphy, told Motorsport.com, “In Italy and South Korea, where they have large outbreaks but they are confined and been localised, the risk, the proportionality of putting in a travel ban was not justified in terms of its benefits to the health protection of the Australian community.”
In a statement the CEO of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation, Andrew Westacott says it is expecting the event to go ahead. In a statement, he said “The Australian Grand Prix Corporation has robust health, safety and emergency management arrangements in place at each event and we are working collaboratively with health agencies and related government and emergency services organisations in addressing this matter.
“We continue to closely monitor the situation in the leadup to the Grand Prix and are taking guidance from subject matter experts, including Victorian and National Chief Health Officers and the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee.”
Unfair to race without full grid
Alpha Tauri team principal Franz Tost says it would be “unfair” for the Australian Grand Prix go ahead with a reduced grid if some teams cannot make it there because of coronavirus travel restrictions.
The Chinese Grand Prix has already been postponed and the opening race of the season is set to go ahead. However, the Italian team could face restrictions as some countries have placed travel bans or strict quarantine rules to stop the spread of the virus.
Italy is the first European country to have a widespread outbreak, which could affect Ferrari, Alpha Tauri, Haas and tyre supplier Pirelli. It remains unclear what would happen in a situation where one or two teams could not compete, but Tost is adamant that it would not be fair for the race to go ahead in those circumstances.
Asked by Motorsport.com if there were any assurances about what would happen in that scenario, Tost said: “If [some] teams can’t run for whatever reason, and I have not thought about this and also I’m not a decision-maker, but then I think it would be unfair to start the season. This is a big disadvantage for whoever it is.”
With F1 already struggling to find a slot later in the year for the postponed Chinese Grand Prix, any change of plans for other races would almost certainly mean them dropping off the calendar.
Tost is believed all twenty-two races will go ahead, even if it means racing into December.
Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto said any restrictions on its staff attending races would likely have an impact on its customer teams too – so an issue for Italy could affect four outfits in total.
He added, “I say it’s not only two [teams] because we are supplying assistance to Haas and the Alfa Sauber team, so it will be four teams at least, plus the Pirelli situation which we need to understand.”
Ferrari could switch early to 2021 car
Ferrari says it could make an early switch to focus on its 2021 car if the gap to the front of the field is too big early in the season. Last week, team principal Mattia Binotto admitted that the team heads into this season needing to work on both its engine performance and aero package in a bid to recover.
This year, the Italian team faces a challenge in balancing resources on this year’s car and the regulation changes for 2021. Binotto says the focus remained on recovering lost ground this season but hinted at turning off the 2020 development push early if the situation looks bleak after a few races.
Team principal Mattia Binotto said, for now, the team’s focus remained on recovering lost ground this season. However, he has hinted that the team could turn off its 2020 programme early if the situation looks bleak after a few races.
He told Motorsport.com, “How much will the 2020 catch-up affect the 2021 [project]? – that’s certainly a good point. I think it’s a compromise that we need to find out. I think we are very early in the season, and you cannot compromise the entire season itself.
“So at the start of the season, we certainly keep pushing on 2020 as much as we can, because it’s time for us to understand the car and the weaknesses. And hopefully, it is things that we can address as soon as possible.”
However hinted that there are many things they would need to take into account, but there were things the team could take into account before they made that decision.
Ferrari’s rival Mercedes believes that teams need to be very careful in not switching their focus to 2021 too late, because doing so could result in them falling well behind. F1 CEO and team principal Toto Wolff believes that the allocation of resources would be crucial.
Adding “The learning and development slope is much steeper at the beginning. So if you get it wrong and you’re months behind, you might be half a second behind.”
Anger over ‘settlement’ on Ferrari engine legality
Teams are considering next steps after some were left “shocked” and “angry” by the conclusion to last year’s Ferrari engine controversy. On Friday, the sports governing body the FIA announced it had “reached a settlement” with Ferrari after an investigation into their 2019 engine.
Teams have expressed their unhappiness at what they see as an unsatisfactory and opaque decision. While no team is prepared to speak publicly, some have spoken to BBC News anonymously, expressing concerns that it is unclear whether Ferrari’s engine was legal at all times last year or not.
An FIA statement issued on Friday said it had concluded a “thorough technical investigation” into the Ferrari engine and that “the specifics of the agreement (reached) remain between the parties”.
The statement added that “the FIA and Scuderia Ferrari have agreed to a number of technical commitments that will improve the monitoring of all Formula 1 power-units for forthcoming championship seasons”.
The questions are, was the car legal at all times last year? If it was legal why was there a need and what was the ‘settlement’? and was the FIA able to conclude its investigation over legality?
Ferrari declined to comment beyond the specifics of the FIA statement. The FIA was not immediately available for further comment.
The issue arose when Mercedes and Red Bull raised concerns about the level of superiority of the Ferrari car in straight-line speed. This rumbled on throughout the season, then in Austin came to ahead following detailed questions for clarification of the rules by Red Bull.
These centred on whether it was possible to interfere with the mandatory fuel-flow meter in ways that made it bypass the regulation limit of 100kg per hour.
The FIA clarification made it clear that any intervention with the mandatory fuel-flow meter that could lead it to exceed the maximum permitted fuel flow would be against the rules.
Then following the clarification Ferrari’s run of six consecutive pole positions came to an end. The team did not set a pole position in any of the remaining two races in Brazil and Abu Dhabi either.
Russell downplays Williams chances
George Russel has played down the chances of Williams being able to re-join the midfield despite an encouraging performance in the Barcelona test.
Williams only managed a point last season, and only made it out of Q1 a few times. Despite a number of engine-related issues during the two Barcelona tests this year, both Russell and Nicolas Latifi set lap times which were faster than either of the team’s drivers managed in qualifying last year for the Spanish Grand Prix.
Russell pointed out that differing track conditions made comparisons virtually irrelevant, but wouldn’t dismiss the signs of improvement. He told Motorsport.com, “No doubt we’re in a better position. I think realistically, we are still the slowest car. We’re not going to get carried away with ourselves, but we’ve definitely reduced the gap.”
“That’s all we could have hoped for over, over the winter. We’ll go into Melbourne and see, but don’t expect to see us in Q2 or Q3. We’ve definitely improved but expectations are all under control.”
Russell is hoping that the team can take advantage when teams slip up, and that is where the teams’ opportunities lie. He knows where they have gained, but quantifying it versus the other teams is difficult
Renault close to maximum pace – Ricciardo
Daniel Ricciardo believes he was close to extracting the maximum pace from his new Renault car on the final day of pre-season testing. The Australian finished winter testing with the fourth fastest overall time, set on the final day of testing.
While the time was beaten by Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen in the afternoon, it was good enough to give Ricciardo the fourth-best lap of the winter testing programme. Ricciardo says it was difficult to read too much into the testing classification given the teams’ varying run plans but still felt his result was a boost to Renault.
He told Autosport, There’s the part where you’re reserved because it’s just testing and we had a C5. We know that we’re not as quick as Mercedes now, so I don’t know what they were doing, but I don’t want to get that ahead of ourselves.”
“I don’t necessarily get excited about the P1, but in saying that, if I put the C5 on and we were P6, for sure I would be disappointed. It is nice, at least we put in a good lap. We were able to use a good tyre relatively well. So there’s positives for sure.”
Ricciardo, however, warned that when they get into qualifying in Melbourne it would not necessarily be where they would start on the grid. He also believes he could have beaten Bottas’s overall winter benchmark, believing there was only a small amount of time he could have found to improve his lap.
Ricciardo added, “I made a good step from the first C5 to the second, I think I found two or three-tenths. Maybe I could find another couple with another set. We did OK for what we have.”
