MY F1 2020 SEASON SUMMARY!
It has been a long time since I last blogged on my own personal website, but I love Formula One so here it goes.
This year’s Formula 1 season has really been something we all didn't see coming, well I mean that's partly true. We all knew the Mercedes team and Lewis Hamilton would go on to dominate, but we thought it would be on a world known 22 race schedule pre-covid.
The week before the Melbourne GP was about to go ahead, I was down at Phillip Island racing in Formula Ford Classic's, which had to be one of the best race meetings of my life. I finished 4th/50 in Formula Ford's, amongst the best Aussie locals and international drivers that weekend. After I'd crossed the line in the final race, I got offered a UK entry into the British Formula Ford festival by one of the UK team owners, which I was stoked about.
Anyway back to the Formula One 2020 season!
As the Grand Prix started down in Melbourne, I'd just arrived home that week. Within the second day some of the Mclaren F1 team members had caught the virus and the GP was cancelled. I was absolutely shattered the event had been called off.
However, soon after that I realised this year was going to be like no other. In short, Formula 1 cancelled their original 22 race schedule over a period of a month or so into lockdown.
I was thinking in my head "the more this lockdown goes on, will Formula 1 even race in 2020." Sure enough, it did and boy did we have a crazy fluid schedule lined up. Double headers were set for Austria, the UK and Bahrain, whilst nostalgic circuits were brought back onto the calendar.
Oh yeah, I nearly forgot...what about the Pink Mercedes! The Racing Point F1 team had copied Mercedes IP from the 2019 season! To make things even more interesting, silly season was kicking off with an absolute bang with Ferrari giving their superstar Sebastian Vettel the boot and replacing him with another ex-RedBull driver Carlos Sainz.
This then played a monopoly on the rest of the grid with Renault's marquee signing & Daniel Ricciardo moving over to Mclaren in 2021 (who's bringing Mercedes horsepower back).
It gets even better!
Not only did F1 bring back nostalgic tracks onto its schedule, but Renault then changed its name to AlpineF1 team and brought back Fernando Alonso to the grid!
Shit I totally forgot!
Whilst that was happening, billionaire Lawrence Stroll was fighting off every F1 team in court because of a copycat car. He then kicked Sergio Perez out of his team and brought in Ferrari reject, Sebastian Vettel, in to partner with his son Lance Stroll! And to top things off the team was rebadged as ASTON MARTIN!
Ok now that was a mouthful and we hadn't even started the 2020 Formula One season yet. We begun this year in Austria-twice (because f**k it, why not it's 2020)!
Anyway, Valterri Bottas claimed the first win of the season, whilst Lewis Hamilton collided with RedBull driver Alex Albon. Lewis was given a penalty, which allowed Formula 1's meme lord, Lando Norris, his first ever podium.
At this point we're all thinking "mmm yeah I guess this year Formula 1 could be exciting?" Well the very next week we got the, "HAM-BOT-VER", on the leaderboard, at the very same circuit we had the week before. Something that would become a regular occurrence during this year's championship.
As the season moved onto Hungary and the COVID-19 pandemic was still engulfing the world, we saw Lewis Hamilton clean up back to back race wins. Actually, make that 3 wins in a row because he'd also taken the crown at the British GP the following week winning with a flat tyre.
Oh I nearly forgot!
Sergio Perez was the first driver to contact COVID-19 during the season and got bed-ridden with the disease for the next week. He was replaced by his former Force India team mate, Nico Hulkenburg, who'd been rejected by Renault the year prior. Hulkenburg had unfortunately failed to make the start due to engine issues and would sit out his first GP, after what was meant to be his gap-year.
By the time the 70th Anniversary came around it was Max Verstappen's turn to break Lewis Hamilton’s winning streak. However, the results looked very different.
"VER-HAM-BOT"
Same-same, but a slightly different order. Meanwhile, at the same GP, super-sub Nico Hulkenburg had qualified 3rd in his Pink Mercedes.
We then finished the rest of August thinking Lewis Hamilton was just going to walk away winning everything in sight as he won the following Spanish and Belgium GP's. However, September got a lot more interesting.
Introducing ITALY, the next location to hold multiple GP's in the same country. Imola was brought back later on in the schedule as the second track Italy would host for 2020.
"The temple of speed", as the italian and whole motor racing fan base likes to call it, was up next and this is when Red Flag city began! Hamilton was cruising out in front before Charles Leclerc hit the barrier in his Ferrari. Shuffling the pack right up, as they all used the opportunity to change tyres during the red flag. This led fellow 2019 RedBull reject and now AlphaTauri saviour, Pierre Gasly, to take home the victory in a hard fought battle with Mclaren's Carlos Sainz and Lance Stroll, who rounded out the podium for Racing Point. Stroll had started in pole position, but during the second restart he had lost traction off the line, which then led to Pierre Gasly taking the checkers in a chaotic grand prix.
The Tuscany GP (this race was also celebrated for the Ferrari Scuderia team) was up next in the landscape of Mugello, Italy. I loved this circuit! , It was a fast flowing circuit and created excitement at all turns. Yes I know, I know...Lewis Hamilton did win once again for the 14.5 millionth time in his career. But, we had three restarts and multiple red flags in this race. Williams F1 driver, George Russell also nearly got his first F1 points at this track, but it wasn't to be as he got out-raced by Sebastian Vettel in his Ferrari tractor (I mean Ferrari SF1000). RedBull’s Alex Albon also scored a podium for RedBull, but the former Toro Rosso graduate didn't really show that star power this year alongside Max Verstappen.
At least, the son of 7-time world champion Michael Schumacher, Mick, was out on track with his dad's car during the weekend, so that was a plus for them, right, right...right? Let's be honest, you can never get tired of hearing those old school, screaming, jet-blasting F1 cars.
A boring Russian Grand Prix was next, but this time, the order was...BOT-VER-HAM. Ideally it was pretty much a snore fest. Around this time though daddy Mazepin was interested in buying his son the HAAS F1 Team from team owner Gene Haas. Now the whispers really started to circulate throughout the paddock.
We then headed to Germany for the Eifel GP and the highlight was meant to be for the two youngsters Callum Iilott and Mick Schumacher to debut for both HAAS and Alfa Romeo, unfortunately that didn't pan out as it rained the whole day. A few things happened during that race. Aussie, Daniel Ricciardo, scored his maiden podium for his Renault team, whilst RedBull driver Alex Albon complained on the radio that everyone was racing him sooooo hard. He especially had a go at the AlphaTauri RedBull sister team of Danill Kvyat and Pierre Gasly.
Portugal was up next! A lot of fans were excited about this circuit as it created great racing in the lower levels of motorsport including MotoGP. It was a cool track don't get me wrong, but again we got another Lewis Hamilton win followed by his team-mate Valterri Bottas and Max Verstappen.
The final and last Italian Grand Prix on Career mode F1 2020, I mean COVID-19, was at the old school circuit of Imola. This didn't create any real passing opportunities, but it did give Daniel Ricciardo his second Renault podium...Holy Mac & Cheese Balls! That's two podiums for Dan The Man!
We then had the Ice Skating Grann....I mean Turkish Grand Prix, where Sir Lancelot, aka Lance Stroll, scored his first ever Pole Position for Racing Point. Stroll was quite dominant at the start of the race as he led a shit load of laps. Then, the insanity unfolded and everyone couldn't decide what tyre's to be on...intermediates or intermediates? This created chaos throughout the whole field, as some drivers changed tyres and some didn't. Lewis Hamilton drove the race of his life and won his 7th World Championship, equalling the great Michael Schumacher! Meanwhile, Sergio Perez stayed out when his team mate Lance Stroll pitted and came 2nd, whilst the out-going Ferrari man Sebastian Vettel got his one and only podium for the season.
At this point it seems like I'm writing a dramatic racing movie, but it was just 2020! Bahrain was up next! The first of the two grand prix locations to be hosted by Bahrain, which had already had a chaotic race weekend the week prior.
The race proved to us all how dangerous F1 can be (or any motorsport for that matter) as we witnessed Romain Grosjean’s car burst into flames. This was a moment that not only F1 fans would never forget, but was witnessed around the world on replay. Grosjean, thankfully, came out alive and despite some serious injuries is still with us today and hopefully racing again soon. It was a very scary event to say the least, as all drivers had their say on the red flag crash involving Romain Grosjean.
Lewis Hamilton went on to win yet another Grand Prix ahead of the RedBull drivers, Max Verstappen and Alex Albon (at this time, he knew he was in danger of losing his RedBull seat). One week later, this chain of events would create a grid re-shuffle for Bahrain 2.0.
So here we are now at the The Outer Bahrain layout and it was extreme to say the least. Before the weekend had even begun, Sir Lewis Hamilton caught COVID-19 and Mercedes replaced him with Williams driver, George Russell. That's not all though, Pietro Fittipaldi replaced the injured Romain Grosjean and F2 hot shot Jack Aitken replaced George Russell at Williams.
Little did George know that his replacement, Jack Aitken, would pretty much lose him his first ever Grand Prix victory or was it Netflix who was filming Mercedes that night? We'll never know as they stuffed up both Mercedes pit stops and pretty much lost George Russell his first ever GP Victory (....pain).
Out of all of this though, Racing Point's Sergio Perez would win his first ever Grand Prix, which then eventually led him to getting a seat at RedBull a week later. Racing Point team mate Lance Stroll finished second, whilst Esteban Ocon finished 3rd aboard his Renault.
FINALLY, we then had the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with Max Verstappen taking charge all weekend beating both Mercedes drivers, Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton. I'd write more about Abu Dhabi, but it's not worth it as the track is boring as hell and most of us fell asleep during this round.
What are your thoughts on last year’s (2020) F1 season? And what do you think we are in for the 2021 Formula 1 Season? I would love to hear your thoughts, opinions and general banter in the comments.
Thanks for reading, I hope to be back on track soon in some capacity.
Catch you soon, Hooly.