This season should have been the longest season in history – 24 stages, but after the cancellation of the Chinese Grand Prix due to the effects of the racing pandemic, 23 remained, and now the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix had to be canceled after the flood – and 22 stages remained – as in the past and the penultimate season. Apparently, the record has been postponed until next season. Many believe that 22 stages is the absolute maximum, and so far it turns out that it is impossible to surpass it.
The Monaco Grand Prix opens the European part of the season. It has never happened before that the teams spent five races in a row on street circuits, but now they do. After the stationary circuit in Bahrain, we saw stages in Jeddah, Melbourne, Baku and Miami. Against the background of these bright tracks, the race in Monaco may turn out to be boring, but the forecast promises precipitation, which will cause intrigue.
Many were preparing serious updates for the Imola round, as it was held on a stationary track, but after the cancellation, almost everyone decided to postpone the debut of new products to Barcelona, where it would be useful to to test them. But Mercedes will show the updated car as early as this weekend to gain some experience with new products next week.
It is clear that no one will overtake Red Bull this year. Adrian Newey “saddled the air again” and achieved a much greater reduction in drag when activating DRS. His cars fly past rivals, and when you have that speed advantage, the starting position doesn’t really matter.
However, in Monaco this rule may not work – only here the result of the race almost always copies the line-up at the start. Only Red Bull cars have won in the past five Grands Prix, but in Monaco rivals have a chance if qualifying, which can take place in the rain, develops in their favour.
Turning the tide will require a new rule change, which will take place in 2026 – or sooner, if Formula 1’s US owners grow tired of one-team dominance. They sell shows, “gladiator fights” that lose their appeal if the winner is known in advance. This has affected both ticket sales and interest from promoters, who had promised a brilliant spectacle after the rule change, but what happened.
Liberty Media wants more diversity, for this they changed the regulations, took over the FIA function and convincingly prove to everyone on the presentations that the battle will become sharper, more fierce, more active, it will be easier to overtake and everyone will have incredible see battles. And so it happened – in the middle group of teams. But the best engineers have always been smarter than the rules. Newey took over, the rest understand that this year just has to be experienced, even though the season has just started.
Violation of financial regulations by Red Bull and the subsequent sanctions will not change that. The RB19 concept is so good they don’t need to spend money refining the car – no one can repeat it this year anyway. As it was in 2009 with Brawn GP and a double diffuser. But if earlier wealthy teams had the opportunity to develop and build a second version of the car during the season, now everyone’s financial condition is about equal, and “whoever gets up first gets the slippers.”
The history of Formula 1 has always been one of dominance – cars, engines, technical solutions and ultimately on the track – teams and drivers. So it was and will be, as if Liberty Media didn’t want to change it. Is it possible to transfer everyone to the same chassis, but then it won’t be Formula 1.
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
