Grand Prix 2020 70th Anniversary Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

So, for round 5 of the championship F1's global travelling circus rolls into...wait, what? Ah yes, we're back at Silverstone, the airfield circuit generously hosting the second race of a double-header to help the sport's owners deliver a full 2020 championship (and fulfil their broadcast obligations) in spite of the challenges of Covid-19.

Disdaining more obvious geographical or historical alternatives, such as English Grand Prix, Northamptonshire-Buckinghamshire Border Grand Prix, Towcester Grand Prix, Mutton Grand Prix, Stirling Moss Trophy or Daily Express International Trophy, this race has been designated the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix to celebrate 70 years of Formula One in this, the 71st season. The location is apt, since the first Formula One World Championship race was held at the same venue back in 1950 - albeit not in the same month. Things were very different back then: the reigning monarch was in attendance (Silverstone making its usual impression on posh visitors, neither the King nor Princess Elizabeth returned in subsequent years); Alfa Romeo dominated the event; Ferrari decided not to show up at all; and there were around 200,000 more spectators than will be present this Sunday.

The pre-race buildup will surely be focused on Pirelli, who are investigating after three drivers suffered tyre failures in the latter stages of the British GP. All three were attempting ambitious stint durations, and it's worth noting that the planned allocation for this weekend was for all three tyre compounds to be a step softer: so this week's "Hard" will be the same as last week's "Medium". On the face of it, this makes a one-stop race out of the question, and creates the possibility of some strategic variety.

Mercedes will be looking to make it five wins out of five of course, and it looks as though they will only be beaten this year if they beat themselves, as was nearly the case last time out. Perhaps Max Verstappen can put enough pressure on them to force some kind of mistake? In the midfield, Racing Point will be looking to bounce back from a disappointing home race, and Nico Hulkenberg will hopefully get to properly test his supersub credentials this time. Is he a Mika Salo or a Paul di Resta? Home hero Lando Norris was in the thick of a turgid midfield non-battle, but finished close enough to eventual podium finisher Charles Leclerc to think a place on the rostrum could be his this weekend. Meanwhile Ferrari's other driver is in dire need of a strong race and will be looking, at a minimum, to get ahead of Italy's other team. Romain Grosjean will hopefully have a good night's sleep and get out of bed on the right side on Sunday morning.

Hopefully this race will be a cracker. But if the event fails to fully hold our attention, it is traditional at a 70th anniversary race - I have decided - to look back on the history of the sport and our engagement with it - the drivers and teams we've supported, the races that have thrilled us, drama that left us breathless and, perhaps, those moments when we've had to look away.

It is in that spirit that I humbly present Galahad's 14 milestones of F1's first 70 years:

70_anniversary_composite_2.png


1955 Le Mans disaster causes 4 races to be cancelled; Mercedes to withdraw
1958 Moss takes the first rear-engined win for Cooper in Argentina
1967 The Ford Cosworth DFV debuts at Zandvoort
1968 Full commercial sponsorship is legalised
1968 Ferrari and Brabham debut aerodynamic wings at Spa
1970 Chapman's Lotus 72 sets the template for modern F1 design
1977 Renault's RS01, the first F1 turbo, debuts at Silverstone
1981 The first Concorde Agreement establishes the commercial framework of F1
1984 Senna nearly wins the wet Monaco GP in the uncompetitive Toleman
1993 Max Mosley bans artificial driver aids
1994 Senna and Ratzenberger die in separate accidents at Imola
1996 Schumacher, Brawn and Byrne join Ferrari from Benetton
2007 McLaren implode at the Hungarian Grand Prix
2014 Radical turbo V6 hybrid engine regulations are introduced

Finally some historical precedents that may be of interest to the superstitious:
  • The 70th anniversary Le Mans 24 Hours was won by an Australian at the wheel of a French car
  • The 70th anniversary Monaco Grand Prix was won by a German at the wheel of a Ferrari...
Please gamble responsibly!
 
The impact of the dirty air on Hamilton's race and the tyre wear of attempting to pass for the first couple of laps should not be discounted.
 
  1. Why was Hulkenberg pitted, allowing the owner’s son to finish ahead of him?
  2. why was Hamilton given a different tyre strategy to Bottas?

absoultely bemused at the hulkenburg pitstop. but thats the hulkenburg luck for you. he wouldve need to take 5 secs a lap out of rivals to get back to where he was. very strange. so mustve been tyre related

hamilton i dont think it was pre determined i think this was spur of the moment, they tried to 1 stop then realise it wasnt possible on them tyres in such a bad way. bottas were in similar bad way losing a second a lap to max
 
Last edited:
i quite liked it it was no Austria. this is race was nearer the Austria but this wasnt spectacular but was decent is what an average F1 race should be than stryia hungary & britain that was 49 laps of nothing. it was engaging & the winner was up for grabs throughout it couldve been any of 3. but how much of was because mercedes had led all but 1 lap this season, which i had mention on lap 4 because it was unlikely but i couldnt remember anybody else leading going through the grand prixs in my head & this was only 2nd time since vettel won in singapore that mercedes hasnt won. so if that was in competitive F1 would it be the same but thats all hypothetical but i felt for a while F1 doesnt need huge changes on track because all we need a more than 1 team that can win a race & rivarly that we have lack over a full season since probably 2010

Verstappen outstanding, again the guy is something else, he is a 3 or 4+ time world champion in waiting. his teammate had a great race 14th after the 1st lap to 5th which some great moves at copse. Vettel proving my adage fromwhen supporting sheff utd in league 1, never say scraping the barrel because there are always new lows. spinning on his own, 12th place thrashed by his teammate, there might come a point that racing point wont want him. Bottas i know its extremely early at round 6 of potiential 17 equilvant of monaco. talking about a must win race but he must win he cant go 41 points behind lewis.

small one on pirelli, it was 1 of my most annoying things to the famous max team radio quote, is 1 of the things that infurated me about pirelli or who ask for pirelli to make them this way. how can you build a tire for a race that you have social distance from. this is a race we want close racing but this is another thing in its 11th season. pirelli cant handle
 
also probably wishful thinking but 30c all weekend next weekend could be a similar race. Spain could be interesting which almost never happens. but id be highly shocked id we had a title battle anything other than the 2 Mercedes
 
Interesting that when Mercedes are not winning Hamilton assumes that the opponents are cheating.

I had a friend who used to gamble on cards. He almost always won, when he lost one time he moaned that hos opponents must have been cheating: I asked him how he knew, it was because the car he had fixed to be dealt to him had gone to someone else.
 
Interesting that when Mercedes are not winning Hamilton assumes that the opponents are cheating.

I had a friend who used to gamble on cards. He almost always won, when he lost one time he moaned that hos opponents must have been cheating: I asked him how he knew, it was because the car he had fixed to be dealt to him had gone to someone else.
 
absoultely bemused at the hulkenburg pitstop. but thats the hulkenburg luck for you. he wouldve need to take 5 secs a lap out of rivals to get back to where he was. very strange. so mustve been tyre related

hamilton i dont think it was pre determined i think this was spur of the moment, they tried to 1 stop then realise it wasnt possible on them tyres in such a bad way. bottas were in similar bad way losing a second a lap to max

I am going to say this that Racing Point appears to have good 1 lap speed which suggests they can get the tyres up to temperature very quickly strangely enough like a Mercedes but they have very average race pace . For 5 races we have been told it's a fast car that should be challenging the podiums but it has not delivered one. Hulkenberg was robbed of a good finish but he said his tyres would not last. When will people learn they have got an average driver in one of the cars currently
 
I remember a race back in the days of the Ferrari dominance where Takuma Sato ran really high up on 3rd. Great performance. But he didn't finish there because he chucked it off the road.

One of the pundits said that Sato was driver of the day because his drive was perfect until he threw it off the road.

It's things like that where everyone has missed the point of F1. Results are results. You can do the fastest lap of all time but if you finish 20th then it means nothing.

Hulkenberg screwed his tyres and was beat by his team mate. All this woulda shoulda coulda is just talk.
 
Read the article.

As he clearly states, everyone starts with the same pressures - that is mandated.

He was referring to the fact that RB managed to keep the temperature under control better, which results in lower pressure.
 
It did at the time sound an awful lot like an accusation though, so I don't really see the problem with Red Bull thinking it was an accusation. If he clarified what he meant afterwards then fine.
 
Back
Top Bottom