Indholdsfortegnelse for March 2020 i AUTOSPORT

Welcome to the very first issue of GP Racing, the magazine formerly known as F1 Racing. That’s right, we’ve had a facelift (see page 69 for details) and now we’re roaring into the 2020s with a new name (and subscription offer, see page 126) in time for this new Formula 1 season. And what a season we hope it will be! Ah, hope… the thing that – in clichéd football parlance – ‘kills you’. Better to hold no expectations than have them dashed horribly on the rocks of reality, right? But this is the time of year for such fancy. Will Lewis Hamilton have it all (largely) his own way again, or is this the season Ferrari finally gets its act together and sustains a title challenge all the way…

WHY THE GAPS WILL CLOSE THIS YEAR Such is the relentless pace of Formula 1 that even as the flag dropped in Abu Dhabi on 1 December 2019, senior engineers were steering their thoughts towards the first test of 2020, a mere 80 days away. The design ‘freeze’ for that test would be around Christmas, although many of the larger and more complex parts would be well into production by then. The monocoque, for example, would be nearing first-stage completion to allow enough time for the rigorous impact and strength tests that must be passed before the car hits the track. Since the biggest technical changes in decades are coming in 2021, the regulators rightly decided on continuity for 2020 and as such the cars we will see this season…

CHATTING TO ANTHONY DAVIDSON at Daytona back in 2013, I asked him for his thoughts on the coming Formula 1 season. He didn’t hesitate: “Sebastian Vettel will win his fourth world championship – I’d bet my house on it, and why? Because the rules haven’t changed, which means you can still have a blown diffuser – Adrian Newey is the master of designing it, and Vettel’s the master of driving it. “If we were talking a year from now, when the rules change hugely, I wouldn’t have a clue about the season to come, but for now I think there’s no way Vettel and Red Bull will lose…” Davidson was spot on. Although Sebastian won only four times in the first half of the season, after the summer break he…

When GP Racing first learned of Racing Point’s plans to photograph its new car livery at an Austrian mountain lake location, our thoughts naturally turned to the film Fitzcarraldo, the plot of which revolves around a man’s doomed attempt to physically haul a paddle-steamer over a steep and forested hill from one Peruvian river to another. In a case of life imitating art, stories abound of this troubled production: several extras died during filming, a labourer is claimed to have amputated his own foot with a chainsaw after being bitten by a poisonous snake, angry locals burned down the set, and director Werner Herzog later confessed to plotting to murder lead actor Klaus Kinski. “ FINISHING SEVENTH LAST YEAR, WE DO HAVE A MOUNTAIN TO CLIMB – BUT WE’RE UP…

While George Russell feels he arguably spent too much time in the simulator last year, the sim continues to play a vital role in supporting the team’s efforts to get the most out of the car. Williams already had W Series champion Jamie Chadwick on the books as a development driver, juggling a trackside role on race weekends with simulator work, but has boosted its arsenal of young talent. Macau F3 Grand Prix winner Dan Ticktum – the 2017 McLaren Autosport BRDC Award winner – joined the Williams Driver Academy and will race in F2 . Despite the roller coaster nature of his career – he was dropped from Red Bull’s young driver programme mid-way through his Super Formula season last year – Ticktum has not only won races, he’s…

Haas will beware false promise at the start of the 2020 season, following a chastening experience for its technical team last year. If pre-season testing form was to be believed, Haas seemed set to build on the steady progress of 2016-18, but just two rounds into the 2019 campaign, the VF-19’s fundamental issues were unmasked. Subsequent upgrades aiming to alleviate those woes unusually only compounded the team’s misery. Crucially, neither Romain Grosjean nor Kevin Magnussen could keep the Pirelli tyres within their working range for a sustained length of time. In an all-or-nothing qualifying lap, the two were quite comfortable in pushing for Q3. In race trim, the pair could hang on for a handful of laps before plummeting down the order and falling out of the points. Haas threw…

THE SEASON AHEAD Round 1 AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX Albert Park March 13-15 Round 2 BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX Bahrain International Circuit March 20-22 Round 3 VIETNAM GRAND PRIX Hanoi Street Circuit April 3-5 Postponed CHINESE GRAND PRIX Shanghai Circuit Date to be arranged Round 4 DUTCH GRAND PRIX Circuit Zandvoort May 1-3 Round 5 SPANISH GRAND PRIX Circuit de Barcelona -Catalunya May 8-10 Round 6 MONACO GRAND PRIX Monaco May 21-24 Round 7 AZERBAIJAN GRAND PRIX Baku City Circuit June 5-7 Round 8 CANADIAN GRAND PRIX Circuit Gilles Villeneuve June 12-14 Round 9 FRENCH GRAND PRIX Circuit Paul Ricard June 26-28 Round 10 AUSTRIAN GRAND PRIX Red Bull Ring July 3-5 Round 11 BRITISH GRAND PRIX Silverstone July 17-19 Round 12 HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX Hungaroring July 31-August 2 Round 13 BELGIAN…

Max Verstappen Age 22 Debut Australia 2015 Starts 102 Wins 8 Podiums 23 Best season 3rd (2019) Is this the year Red Bull gives Max Verstappen a car that can genuinely challenge for the world championship? Up until now, its chassis have been typically strong on certain types of highdownforce circuits, such as Hungary, but weak on power circuits where a premium is put on straight-line speed (think Spa or Monza). But as Honda reaches parity with its engine rivals, the Milton Keynes outfit should be in a position to challenge. Verstappen has been rewarded with a new long-term deal, so the path is set for Red Bull to return to the top. GP RACING VERDICT Although he remains a hard, exciting racer, Max has lost some of the over-exuberance…

Daniil Kvyat Age 25 Debut Australia 2014 Starts 93 Best result 2nd Podiums 3 Best season 7th (2015) Just as he was expecting his first child with Kelly Piquet (daughter of three-time world champion Nelson), Kvyat was also putting in one of the best drives of his career. In a chaotic 2019 German GP, Kvyat made a slick-tyre gamble work and he took a well-earned podium. However, it was team-mate Alex Albon who also impressed in that race (but was out-foxed late on) and, according to Red Bull’s bosses, did enough to warrant a promotion. That must have been tough for Kvyat to take, but he’s been here many times before… GP RACING VERDICT It would be unfair to describe Kvyat as a journeyman, but it’s difficult to see how…

George Russell Age 22 Debut Australia 2019 Starts 21 Best result 11th Podiums 0 Best season 20th (2019) Flying beneath the radar because of the problems at Williams, George Russell had a very impressive rookie season in 2019. Not only did he outqualify the veteran Robert Kubica at every race and finish behind him just twice, he unlocked performance Kubica couldn’t from the recalcitrant Williams car. Still, it was Kubica who nabbed the team’s only point, in the chaotic German GP. Russell will be hoping the problems Williams suffered last year (late start, shortage of parts, plus on-track inconsistency) can be eliminated in 2020; on his side, he perhaps needs to be less cautious at race starts. GP RACING VERDICT The biggest challenge for Russell is to carry on excelling…

ANDREW BENSON BBC Sport's chief F1 writer weighs up Lewis Hamilton's career against the driver he may surpass as the G.O.A.T this season (p38) GLENN DUNBAR Besides photographing George Russell (p82) and Guenther Steiner (p98) for us, Glenn also shot Racing Point's new livery in Austria (p72) ROBERTO CHINCHERO Motorsport.com Italy contributor Roberto knows Ferrari inside out. Turn to p50 for his view on the Scuderia's tough task ahead this season BEN EDWARDS Channel 4 F1 lead commentator Ben Edwards is our new columnist (p24). He's also pretty handy in a Formula Ford 1600……

Q1 What was the highest position a Williams car ran during a grand prix in 2019? Q2 Three drivers have won the Hungarian Grand Prix for two different teams. Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton are two but who is the third? Q3 How many races did Lando Norris score points in last season: nine, 11 or 13? Q4 When and where was the Brabham team’s last win in Formula 1 and who claimed it? Q5 The 21 extra points for fastest laps available in 2019 were shared between Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull and which other team? Q6 In 1990 Olivier Grouillard was the last driver to race for which Italian Formula team? Q7 Jordan famously finished 1-2 in the 1998 Belgian GP, but who took the final podium slot? Q8…

2020 IS PEAK TIME FOR THE LEGAL EAGLES An important season lies ahead and one which should keep the lawyers happy, as the Formula 1 grid deals with a tidal wave of driver negotiations thanks to so many contracts coming up for renewal. Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen announced either side of the Christmas holidays that they are to remain with their teams until the end of the 2024 and 2023 seasons respectively – basically forever in F1 terms. Mark McCormack, founder of sports management giant IMG, once said if someone gave him a five-year plan he’d “toss out pages detailing years three, four and five as pure fantasy. Anyone who thinks [they] can evaluate business conditions five years from now, flunks.” Nevertheless it’s done, and the post-2020 jigsaw is…

When Lewis Hamilton sealed his sixth world drivers’ championship at last year’s United States Grand Prix, he was asked what he thought about the prospect of equalling Michael Schumacher’s all-time record of seven. “It is all about how you position your thought process,” Hamilton said. “I have always said reaching Michael’s [tally] was never a target for me. I am not really one to think of records and those kinds of things. “I definitely thought getting anywhere near Michael was so far-fetched. And I remember having my one [championship] for a long period of time, then getting a second one. It was so far away and now it seems so close, yet it is so far away that I still can’t really even comprehend. “The challenges that we’ll face in…

“ I AM VERY HAPPY AT THE MOMENT WHERE I AM BECAUSE I think it’s a very exciting project. Everybody is looking in the same direction, everybody wants the same thing – everybody wants to win, everybody in the team are winners. You can feel that mentality is there. I think the team is definitely coming on very strong.” When Max Verstappen spoke these words to us in late August, 2019, it seemed like the sort of carefully considered banality you would expect any contracted Formula 1 driver to say about their current team. At the time, speculation Max would refuse to see out the final year of his Red Bull contract and make a sensational switch to Mercedes had just been quashed by Toto Wolff’s decision to retain Valtteri…

With the experience of last year, what would you say you’ve learned and how has that informed your preparations this season? Just being in a familiar environment, it’s made [me]… I’m going to say the word relaxed, but not in a lazy way. I haven’t been kind of running around like a headless chook, trying to have meetings with my engineer and trying to understand each other’s lingo and remember each other’s names and all these sort of things. I’ve established relationships. Was there a process of getting your feet under the table before introducing ideas for change? After Melbourne last year, I remember sending Cyril [Abiteboul, team boss] quite a long email with a whole list of things that we can do better, but it’s not going to turn…

The 1961 Monaco GP was memorable and not just for eccentric marshalling. In the first race of the new 1.5 litre engine formula Stirling Moss claimed a surprise victory in his woefully underpowered - and breezy - Climax-engined Lotus 18 The 1968 season kicked off on New Year’s Day at Kyalami with the next race not scheduled until 12 May. Sadly, South Africa turned out to be the scene of Jim Clark’s last F1 victory as he would perish in an F2 race at Hockenheim on 7 April Ayrton Senna was in demand at the end of 1983 but it was with the unfashionable Toleman team that he would make his F1 debut at the first race of 1984. And where better for the Brazilian to start his glittering career…

OLD-SCHOOL. That’s the compound adjective that crops up time and again when racing people describe Zandvoort, no longer the former home of the Dutch Grand Prix but, from 3 May and against all the odds, once again a contemporary Formula 1 venue – for the first time in 35 years. The comparison to the other calendar addition for 2020, a new hybrid street circuit in Hanoi (see sidebar), could not be more stark. Vietnam? Really? Why on earth…? But Zandvoort: orange-hued Max Verstappen mania, a rich motorsport heritage stretching back to 1939, slap-bang in Formula 1’s European heartland. Yes, that makes more sense. It is, as they say, old-school. Except, from the air-brushed perfection by which modern F1 tends to live by, Zandvoort is surely not only old-school but sorely…

Lewis Hamilton Age 35 Debut Australia 2007 Starts 250 Wins 84 Podiums 67 Titles 6 After Lewis Hamilton won his sixth world championship in Austin last year he reflected on his career and spoke of creating a “masterpiece”. He added it wasn’t quite finished and there were still more “pieces of the puzzle to add”. While the metaphor could do with some refinement, one of those pieces would be a seventh world title, to equal the record set by the great Michael Schumacher. Not only is Hamilton on the verge of matching that feat but he has time on his side to eclipse it too. And like the greatest athletes, he just keeps getting better. GP RACING VERDICT There’s a chance Hamilton might strike bad luck, or a run of…

Carlos Sainz Age 25 Debut Australia 2015 Starts 102 Best result 3rd Podiums 1 Best season 6th (2019) Last year Sainz was one of the stars of the midfield and clearly relished the comfort of having a two-year contract in his pocket. It meant he didn’t have to look over his shoulder for the first time in his career, and that allowed him to flourish on the track. Sainz is an intelligent, strategic racer who has a clear understanding of what he needs to perform. He was probably surprised by his rookie team-mate’s speed last year, especially in qualifying, and needs to ensure Norris’s growing popularity doesn’t turn Sainz into a support act. GP RACING VERDICT If McLaren’s return to form continues, the podium Sainz took in Brazil last season…

Sergio Pérez Age 30 Debut Australia 2011 Starts 176 Best result 2nd Podiums 8 Best season 7th (2016, 2017) After a sequence of single-year deals, Sergio Pérez recently committed his long-term future to Racing Point, the team he has been with since 2014 (in its previous incarnation as Force India). It’s a comfortable environment for the Mexican. Popular within the team and a steady pair of hands, adept at securing whatever points are on offer, he shuns internal politics. Pérez knows he’s unlikely to get a shot at a top team again and would be delighted to help lead Racing Point back into the position of ‘best of the rest’. He’s the perfect mentor for team-mate Lance Stroll. GP RACING VERDICT Pérez can be relied upon to bring the car…

VALTTERI HAS TO… EAT MORE PORRIDGE! “There comes a time,” argued Richard Nixon in a famous phone call to then-US Presidential candidate Dwight Eisenhower, “when you’ve either got to shit or get off the pot.” Differing circumstances aside, for Valtteri Bottas that time is swiftly approaching. Long contract extensions for Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc at Red Bull and Ferrari respectively have inked in the identities of those teams’ lead drivers for the foreseeable. Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton, having “left each other in peace” over the winter according to team boss Toto Wolff, are about to begin their protracted dance towards agreeing a new contract for 2021 and beyond. They are, as Wolff also said, “the obvious pairing going forward”. Assuming Hamilton is a given at Mercedes for at least…

First day, final corner Testing runs until 6pm every day so – provided the weather stays on your side – there’s a variety of light to play with. Here at the final corner of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, the angle of the sun late in the afternoon helps to pick out the front of Lewis Hamilton’s car as well as the colours on his crash helmet. This is a tricky shot to get sharp in the right places because you’re using a long lens (600mm) with a slow shutter speed. The aim is to have it relatively sharp in the centre, with enough of a blur at the margins to give an impression of the speed of the car – helped here by the red and white strips on the…

THE MAKING OF CARLOS SAINZ The Sainz family has spanned the recent transition between decades in dynamic style. In Adu Dhabi Carlos snatched sixth in the Formula 1 world championship by a single point at the 2019 season finale; seven weeks later his 57-year-old father scored his third victory on the Dakar rally raid. A potent combination of talent and professionalism is clearly hard-wired into their DNA, and the McLaren driver continues to be inspired by his dad, who was working out in a sauna at 7am each day in the build-up to competing in the desert. The younger Sainz has focused on playing squash and on boxing to further improve his physical and mental skills, but will we ever see him emulate his father’s greatest achievement in becoming a…

Last year Formula 1 reached its 1000th world championship grand prix. Amid much pageantry and retrospective brouhaha at the race in question – China – the commercial rights holder also paid tribute to the grandee storytellers of the paddock, awarding one of its newly minted celebratory precious metal coins to the journalist who had covered the most F1 races. That record belongs, indisputably, to Giorgio Piola, for whom China 2019 was his 811th working grand prix. Drawing has been among Piola’s passions from an early age. In his teens he adopted cars as his preferred subject and went to college to study engineering but, at the age of 18, having fired off a collection of his illustrations to the Italian magazine Autosprint, Piola received a letter that would change his…

ALL THE FORMULA 1 TEAMS, and especially the top ones, face the challenge of engaging on two fronts this season: with the championship that’s about to begin, and with the massive task that is the 2021 car project. It’s likely that in each factory there will be two discrete working groups as resources are juggled, but for the frontrunners there will be nothing less than maximum effort to secure both the drivers’ and constructors’ titles. In the case of Ferrari, a team that hasn’t won either championship since 2008, to return to the top is the absolute goal, and in 2020 the route is clear: nothing will be left on the table until the last chequered flag. It’s likely to become brutal. TOTAL CONFIDENCE IN BINOTTO? THE SEASON THAT’S ABOUT…

You said you were going to be a bit less jokey as we go into 2020. How is your personality going to change and how is that going to affect your racing going into the new season? It won’t affect my personality at all. I’ll still be who I am. I’ll still have fun, make jokes and do what I do. But there’s times when things can get portrayed quite differently from what I know. A lot of people see me make jokes and whatever and therefore they turn and put a lot of blame for mistakes on me having fun, and seeing me look like I’m not focused compared with other drivers. I don’t want me being portrayed in that way basically, but I’m not gonna change a lot.…

Williams likes to keep its past tidily separated from its present. Past glories – plus a few historic mis-steps – live in the Conference Centre, a short walk from the bustling hive of industry that is the Formula 1 facility. Once a factory itself, home to the touring car and sportscar programmes of the late 1990s, it now serves as a peaceful repose for engineering marvels, including a Le Mans 24 Hours winner as well as several championship-winning F1 cars. The exhibit George Russell makes a beeline for, though, contains a spread of close-but-no-cigar machinery from the early 2000s, a period of hairy-chested V10-powered ground-pounders tamed only occasionally by traction control. Guided by Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher, the Williams-BMWs of the day came up short against the might…

GUENTHER STEINER wields a torque wrench rather like you would expect a lumberjack to handle an axe. In short, with total, natural ease. Big metal tools are simply second nature to a man who spent his formative motorsport years fixing battered World Rally cars and then engineering Colin McRae and Carlos Sainz Sr to WRC success. Steiner knows cars from the ground up, and he also knows a thing or two about handling big personalities: Sainz and McRae, then Niki Lauda and Eddie Irvine, as part of Jaguar’s F1 works team of the early noughties. Shrinking violets they were none. Looking for a no-nonsense, take-no-prisoners leader for your Formula 1 team? You could do a lot worse… That said, last season could not have gone much worse for Haas. After…

Sebastian Vettel Age 32 Debut USA 2007 Starts 240 Wins 53 Podiums 67 Titles 4 Sebastian Vettel is a complex soul. The private Seb is a thoughtful family man who shuns social media and takes great pleasure from the simple things in life. He also has a great passion and knowledge for the history of F1. Sometimes the serene Seb is in the cockpit and he appears totally in command. Then there are other occasions when he puts a crash helmet over his head and becomes a different animal: someone who isn’t afraid to disobey team orders or criticise race control, or get involved in wheel-to-wheel contact with his team mate. Which Seb will we see in 2020? GP RACING VERDICT Vettel has to fight his inner demons if he…

Daniel Ricciardo Age 30 Debut Great Britain 2011 Starts 171 Wins 7 Podiums 22 Best season 3rd (2014, 2016) 2019 was a sobering year for Ricciardo. After Renault finished fourth in the 2018 constructors’ championship, he was hoping his switch would coincide with the French team closing the gap to the top three. Instead it slipped down the pecking order. The former Red Bull man was 12th in the standings with four races to go before a late rise to ninth. Since it took a while to adapt his style to the Renault, frustration led to mistakes and scrappy on-track indiscretions in France and Mexico. But there’s no doubt Ricciardo is still a class act. GP RACING VERDICT Ricciardo has got to prevent his new French team-mate from being the…

Kimi Räikkönen Age 40 Debut Australia 2001 Starts 312 Wins 21 Podiums 82 Titles 1 Now the oldest driver on the grid, Kimi Räikkönen is into the second year of his two-year deal with Alfa Romeo. The evergreen fan favourite is set to break a record in 2020 as the driver with the most grand prix starts. Currently, Rubens Barrichello holds the record with 322, while Raikkonen is on 312. If he competes in every race he’ll break the record at the 2020 British Grand Prix. But don’t forget to leave him alone – he knows what he’s doing… GP RACING VERDICT With his experience and a reliable and decent car beneath him, expect Kimi to bring home another decent haul of points. Antonio Giovinazzi Age 26 Debut Australia 2017…

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