Formula 1 - 2020 Season

Sort of F1 related
Esports Driver Wins Professional Racing Debut
James Baldwin won the opening race of this season's British GT Championship Series. This was his first professional outing, as competing in the real-world race was part of his prize for winning the World’s Fastest Gamer competition. To be clear this is a team competition where his teammate Michael O'Brien also drove the car, but that doesn't diminish this remarkable achievement. Here's a full account of the results and here's a recap of the action from the folks at World's Fastest Gamer:
British gamer James Baldwin has stunned the racing world by scoring victory in his first-ever real-world professional race.

Last October, Baldwin battled nine other gamers in a 10-day tour from Las Vegas through to California in a series of online and on-track racing tests to earn a real-world racing contract worth more than US$1 million.

The 22-year-old shocked the competition on Saturday when he recorded the fastest qualifying time – only to lose his fastest lap due to a track limits infraction. His second fastest lap was still fast enough to start from fourth on the grid aboard the McLaren 720S GT3 machine run by the team co-owned by 2009 Formula 1 World Champion, Jenson Button.

Baldwin made a strong start from fourth on the grid and spent his 30-minute stint pushing hard for third place. The Jenson Team Rocket RJN team gained a position on the pit stop when Baldwin handed over the McLaren to teammate Michael O'Brien.

Resuming in third spot, O'Brien gained a position on track, and the duo then took the lead when a rival received a penalty forcing them to the pit lane.

Despite a late-race full-course-yellow, O'Brien held the lead to earn him and Baldwin an incredible victory.

 

Bloody awesome I saw that happening this weekend. Reminded me of last years pitstop too.

 

Link?

 

https://www.bluesnews.com/s/213604/esports-driver-wins-professional-racing-debut
http://www.automobilsport.com/race-...T-Race-1-victory-at-Oulton---results,news.htm

 

Mercedes confirms Bottas will continue to drive for them next season

 

So Kvyats crash was caused by the inside bead of the right rear tyre letting go not a driver mistake.

They made some barrier/kerb changes to better protect drivers going off where Kvyat did & hopefully reduce tyre damage elsewhere.

 

yeah that kvyat crash did not look like driver error anyway

but that track will stress those 2019 tyres because the cars are just so insane now
and 70th anniversary gp will have softer tyres, but higher pressures and lower projected laps

 

RP is illegal, https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/6502...d-illegal-by-the-fia-15-points-deducted-.html

But they can race and aren't disqualified.

 

Oh wow, Renault protest on Racing Point got upheld.
They've been penalised 15pts & a bunch of $$$ but apparently can keep using the car.

Edit: oh snap, ninja'd

 

The brake ducts are deemed to be illigal, not the whole car.

It's also important to keep in mind they are deemed to have broken the sporting regulations, not the technical regulations (which usually results in disqualification).

As I understand the reason they can keep on using them is basically it's unrealistic to expect them to redesign them in any other way now they already know how the current ducts are designed (can't unlearn what you already know). On top of that the rules are apparently a bit arbitrary which was another mitigating factor.

So the idea is that point deduction and fine represent the "damage" over the whole season.

 

If that is true (Merc sent a complete set of brake ducts in 2020!) then the punishment is a joke. This means that it is an obvious rule violation and Merc should be punished to. God knows what else Merc sent to RP....

https://www.racefans.net/2020/08/07...ed-the-fia-to-revise-the-rules-on-clone-cars/
Apparently Merc also provided the CAD data for the ducts late last year (from late 2018 to late 2019) and they keep sending the data even after the ducts known to be in the listed parts for 2020. The stewards would have deemed it illegal if they know about it before.

Now I doubt if Merc only sent the CAD for brake ducts only..... And previously a lot of people still think that copying the whole car (and make it work great) is possible through pictures only.

 

The quote in the twitter post isn't quite accurate. The brakes only *arrived* at RP on or around Jan 6th 2020. Also, the stewards determined that what was sent was effectively information that they had already through the (legitimately obtained) CAD designs. The CAD designs were obtained as early as Nov 2018, were legal to have and use under the 2019 regulations, and were used in the 2019 Front Brake Duct design on the RP car. Them becoming protected for the 2020 season didn't prohibit them from using them in the 2019 car, so it is reasonable for the transfer of information to occur right up until the last race (1st December). The last BD CAD transfer was Oct 2019.

Merc sending *2019* brake ducts doesn't make it an obvious rule violation, as they weren't sending anything they hadn't sent before.

No data that was transferred has been shown to be sent illegally. The issue RP have is that it didn't make sense for them to use the Merc 2019 RBD designs on their 2019 car. They did, however, have a copy of that data. When RP designed their 2020 car, they based their 2020 RBD on Merc 2019 RBD, which has been deemed to violate the rules (although, again, Merc weren't breaking any rules by sending that data). The 2020 FBD designs were ruled to be legal because they are an evolution of the FBD that RP used in 2019.

Copying the aerodynamic surfaces of the car should be possible from photographs of the car, and it does appear that it is possible to produce a substantial copy of the 2019 car from either (legally) purchasing components or visual analysis. The reason the brake ducts are problematic this year is because of the transition to being designed fully in-house.

 

The tyres are pants. Red's are a joke. The yellows are holding up to around 15 laps. Leclerc's yellow tyres looked real bad a few minutes ago. Vettel just had an engine failure. Ouch! Oil spilling out.

Well at least there's going to be a lot of pitstops tomorrow.

 

Sky said Kvyat’s tire bead failed because the rim was too hot. I’m sure riding the curbs didn’t help, just like it was interesting timing that Seb’s engine grenaded itself just after he rode a curb.

Also, Seb took a ride in Otmar Safnauer’s car after last week’s race, breaking bubble rules and raising eyebrows for other reasons. Earlier in the weekend, the F1 cameras showed Seb giving Lawrence Stroll an elbow bump when walking by him last weekend.

Mercedes unhappy with the money they’re due in the new F1 contract talks. Per the Beeb:

 

Rooting for Hulk tomorrow. Let's hope he can finally get that podium.

 

I just hope they can get his car started.

 

The thing is when it became known that BD is in the listed parts, the knowledge transfer should have stopped, especially if it is obvious that they will only use it on 2020 car. Haas I believe asked about whether they can use Ferrari ducts ( I assume they want to get it before 2020 ended but after BD is known to be in the listed parts) and they were told they can't. Surely RP didn't simply buy something that they can't use? Also I haven't really looked where the info comes from, but some people are saying about they actually use the ducts that they received from Merc because they can't produce their own on time.
So for me, if Merc know that RP will only use the RBD for 2020 car, they should stop sending RBD related stuff to RP after BD is included in the listed parts. Failed to do that is basically conspiring to help RP copy their car parts which If RP asked FIA at that time (when BD is known to be in the listed parts for 2020) whether what they were doing is okay, FIA would say no.

The annoying thing is that the penalty is basically just a slap in the face and they can keep using the design for the rest of this season and next season and nobody else can do the same thing that RP did because the FIA want to ban RP style copying for 2021 so basically locking RP advantage in 2021. Of course it is only an advantage if others can't produce something that is close enough in performance to a W10.
Also I don't know how FIA can ban something that copied mostly from pictures since copying from just the visual information in F1 is actually normal, unless there are more behind just pictures.

The good thing for me personally is that Hulk can get P3 on qualifying because of it. Hopefully he can get a podium on the main race. It is a shame that such a good driver like Hulk can't get a drive in F1.

 

On the one hand being a transition of rules & the stuff being received before the rule change is mitigating.
On the other hand the fact they lied & claimed they developed stuff from photos is a highly aggravating factor.

As DiResta said: if the penalty is only 15pts + reprimands it sets a precedent that would allow other teams to do the same eg Redbull to give AT a bunch of stuff, take a one-off hit but come out with way more net points.

Yes, quite possible, he was going fast & gaining places.
But he initially thought it was from him being distracted changing settings -> lost control which is why he was so upset.

 

interesting grid for tomorrow