Formula One In Brave New World As Max Verstappen Seeks Repeat Austria Triumph | Formula 1 News

Max Verstappen will search a hat-trick of residence wins for Red Bull and an early lead within the drivers championship at this weekend’s delayed and considerably surreal season-opening Austrian Grand Prix. For everybody concerned, the race shall be an unprecedented expertise – the calendar is unknown past the primary eight races in Europe in 10 weeks, all to be run behind closed doorways and extreme limitations launched with a brand new paddock protocol forbidding conferences. As racing returns, the COVID-19 virus stays in circulation, which requires all members to be examined earlier than journey to Austria on non-public chartered jets, ongoing checks, the separation of groups and automobile crews into “bubbles” and managed inns.

Teams are reduce to a most of 80 workers, all in protecting gear, there shall be no sponsors, no friends and solely a restricted variety of accredited broadcast and written information media.

Journalists, restricted to a dozen as a substitute of 300 or extra, need to move a take a look at inside 72 hours upfront of arrival and won’t be allowed to depart the media centre. 

All interviews and information conferences will happen by video.

The groups shall be stored remoted, based mostly in tents with awnings as a substitute of their typical grand motorhomes – and there may be anticipated to be a synchronised taking the knee by the drivers on the grid, to assist Black Lives Matter, forward of Sunday’s race. 

Afterwards, there shall be no podium ceremony.

When the race begins, it can finish the longest hole between races within the sport since 1962, however with two successive races in Austria after which one in Hungary, the strain shall be speedy and intense.

Red Bull crew boss Christian Horner mentioned: “There’s been a long drought. We all do this because we love it. We’ve missed it, so we can’t wait to start.”

“It’s going to be exciting and intense. The races come thick and fast.”

Dutch driver Verstappen, who bullied his well beyond Ferrari rival Charles Leclerc to triumph in entrance of a mass of his “orange army” of followers final yr, says he’s unfazed by excessive expectations or the absence of spectators on the Red Bull Ring, a distant and compact circuit within the Styrian Alps.

“I am not thinking about a hat-trick,” he mentioned.

“The most important thing for me is to have a competitive car and to perform at my best.

“I by no means take into account myself as a favorite as a result of, truly, whenever you have a look at the observe, it is not even our greatest one, however final yr it was very heat and we have been good at maintaining the engine cool.

“So I don’t expect an easy win – I think Mercedes will be very strong again and they are the ones to beat.”

Verstappen, who has stored a low profile throughout the lockdown, delivered three wins and eight podiums final yr as Lewis Hamilton claimed his sixth title with Mercedes, who this yr search an unprecedented seventh constructors’ and drivers’ double in succession.

Verstappen and team-mate Alex Albon may have an upgraded Honda engine bundle, developed for the reason that coronavirus lockdown ended, to spice up them on the contest within the Styrian Alps the place the 800-metre altitude can have an effect on engine efficiency.

Mercedes may even have an up to date bundle whereas Ferrari, struggling to match them in pre-season testing, introduced Tuesday that they’re updating their automobiles for the third race in Hungary.

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Hamilton this yr bids for a record-equalling seventh drivers title as he campaigns passionately for higher variety, and towards racism, within the sport.

“We are preparing the best way we can for what is going to be the most difficult season that F1 and all of us have experienced,” he mentioned in a video from the crew, which – at his prompting — is working black livery this yr to assist equality and variety.