The 2020 Formula One World Championship kicks off on Sunday with the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton are going to be bidding for his seventh title overall, which might put him level with Michael Schumacher’s record and be his fourth during a row. As usual, the F1 season will see the drivers competing in races across the world, with events in Asia, Europe, North and South America.
Following the coronavirus outbreak, the Chinese Grand Prix has been postponed indefinitely from its scheduled April 19 date. The Bahrain Grand Prix also will happen on March 22 without spectators, but the Australian Grand Prix is about to proceed as normal.
Formula One us Grand Prix Start Time & Scheuld:
- October 25, F1 US Grand Prix tickets , 2:10 p.m. local/7:10 p.m. GMT/3:10 p.m. ET
Mercedes will look to take care of their dominant streak in F1 within the 2020 season.
They’ve won every Constructors’ Championship since 2014, with Hamilton winning five of these six corresponding individual titles. In that time, they’ve had four one-two finishes within the Drivers’ Championship, last last year after Valtteri Bottas was runner-up to Hamilton.
Mercedes were in strong shape throughout testing, too, which is an ominous sign for the remainder of the sector. Between them, Hamilton and Bottas completed the foremost laps over the six days spent at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya:
The latter set the quickest time, too:
As for Ferrari, they seem to possess sacrificed some speed on straights—which was their biggest advantage over Mercedes last year—but have improved on slow corners, per Lawrence Barretto of Formula1.com reported on Tickets4Race.
Red Bull had many pace—only Bottas went faster than Max Verstappen in testing—but both Verstappen and team-mate Alexander Albon experienced spins on multiple occasions in Barcelona.
However, both drivers played down the difficulty, saying they were simply testing the bounds of their new cars. F1 journalist Chris Medland expects Mercedes to return out on top again supported their performances in testing: There might be a little ray of hope for the sector though.
Mercedes lost their penultimate afternoon of testing due to an engine issue, when Hamilton’s pack up as a precaution after on pressure anomaly. Williams, whose engines are supplied by Mercedes, also suffered four separate power-unit issues over the course of testing.
Given Mercedes’ recent superiority, reliability issues could be the sole thanks to beat them over the course of the season. On Sunday, Bottas are going to be the defending race-winner in Melbourne. Hamilton finished runner-up to his team-mate last year after starting it on pole.