Mercedes screwed the pooch. Lewis Hamilton is that valuable after all. Ferrari is woeful at pit stops. This Formula One season produced another unfathomable, yet popular result. Bahrain might have a new layout it should use permanently for its grand prix. Formula One's class of 2021 left an impression on their final Formula Two weekend. Super Formula had some big accidents in its penultimate round of 2020 from Suzuka. Monza hosted the World Rally Championship finale and the title flipped on the penultimate day of the season. Here is a rundown of what got me thinking.
How Did We Complete This Year?
There are less than three weeks to Christmas, and we have completed basically 98.9% of the motorsports season. I sit back and think, "Holy cow."
The whirlwind nature of this year makes March simultaneously feel like yesterday and another life. We were ready for the season to take off. A handful of endurance races were in the bag, Formula E was in the middle of its season, and NASCAR had started. IndyCar, Formula One and MotoGP were about to start. We were going to have the 12 Hours of Sebring and the sports car season was going to get rolling. In a snap, all those plans were halted, and we didn't know what this year was going to look like.
The seasonal landmarks vanished. No Long Beach in April or Indianapolis in May. Monaco disappeared. Le Mans was put on hold. Instead of branching out with the start of spring, we all remained bunkered down and attempted to stay busy while staring into a great unknown.
We all wanted normal to return. We all hoped it would be two weeks or three weeks or a month and then life would resume, but it was not going to be that easy.
Normal was not going to happen, but we had to learn to live with the virus. We had to find a way to continue, but also keep the risk low.
Each series found a way to restart. Schedules were pieced together. Some races returned, some were dropped, some races were moved, some kept their usual spots and some places came out of nowhere to host an event. Everyone knew this year was going to be different. We could not get too hung up following past protocols. There had to be flexibility and compromises for this year to happen.
Creating a schedule on the fly was fun. Though through unwanted circumstances, we got to have a fantasy season in many ways. NASCAR ran on the Daytona road course! Formula One returned to Imola and Nürburgring and Turkey. We had the Portuguese Grand Prix for the first time in 25 years. Formula One even tried a new layout at Bahrain. IndyCar had doubleheaders at Road America, Iowa, Gateway and on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in October. IMSrevived the Paul Revere 250 on July 4 at Daytona, ran a sprint race at Sebring and had a GT-only race n the Charlotte roval.
We got to have an Indianapolis 500 in August and a 24 Hours of Le Mans in September. The 12 Hours of Sebring ended the IMSA season in November.
Drivers found a way to crisscross the world. Some had difficult choices to make and had to turn down work in one part of the world to compete in another. Some lost drives, opening opportunities to others.
Everything has been cautious, for the most part. We started with events behind closed doors, but things opened up. We didn't have 100% capacity crowds, but there were plenty of events that saw some lucky individuals fill grandstands and line fences. Organizers did it as safe as possible, keeping numbers low and spreading people out. Some did better than others.
When presented with obstacles, humanity finds a way. In these circumstances, we found a way while trying to protect the health of thousands of people. For the most part, this could have been done poorly. A lot of people could have gotten sick. We could have seen many innocent people get ill who otherwise did not need to take that risk.
At times, it felt silly to try. There were more important issues than making sure a motorsports event took place, but we lost a significant part of our recreational lives. We needed something, even at the most basic level. By working with health officials and implementing safety measures, most series put on a respectable championship. Adjustments were made. This was a year where everyone was losing something. We had to trade a lot to have races this year. It was difficult but necessary.
The pandemic will continue into 2021 and into the seasons for practically every series. Restrictions remain in place for an indefinite period of time. There are signs of hope with vaccine developments and hopefully soon it will start to be delivered to healthcare workers and the elderly. We are not going to have six billion doses overnight. This will take months, if not another full year.
During this period of time, events will continue with limited or no spectators. Some events will be postponed or cancelled. We may need to find alternate venues in some cases. Participants must continue to be vigilant. Positive tests could force drivers and crew members to miss events and it could flip a season. We have been fortunate so far that no driver or crew member has missed significant time and had a long-haul battle with the virus in 2020, but that risk will remain into 2021.
We are hopeful next year will be different. After all we went through, how could it be the same? But progress will be incremental. The doors will not swing open allowing life to resume as we were once comfortable with. The limits will remain for the next few months. Hopefully, next spring allows responsible-sized crowds to return at every event no matter where it is held. Maybe in summer, those crowds can get bigger and maybe it is foolish to dream this, but perhaps when the season changes to autumn we will be back to 100% capacity with everyone feeling comfortable or at least be close to that.
We all want to get there. We just don't know when we will reach that dream. We were hopeful this March it would be a few weeks or two months top and summer would be normal. We never got close to normal. I think we are realistic that we will see out a full year of pandemic restrictions. If we think this will continue into March, why should we think next April or next May will be different? What's another year of waiting when we have already been sheltering for ten months?
The best thing to do is practice patience and make the best of what we have. We made it through this year. If we made it through this, we can make through whatever comes next. For all that we lost, there is plenty we stand to gain in 2021. We just have to be patient and accept what we receive.
Champions From the Weekend
Mick Schumacher clinched the FIA Formula Two championship with finishes of sixth and 18th in the Bahrain season finale weekend.
Sébastien Ogier clinched his seventh World Rally Championship with a victory in ACI Rally Monza.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Mick Schumacher and Sébastien Ogier, but did you know...
Sergio Pérez won the Sakhir Grand Prix, his first career victory.
Yuki Tsunoda and Jehan Daruvala split the Formula Two races on Bahrain's perimeter circuit.
Naoki Yamamoto and Toshiki Oyu split the Super Formula races from Suzuka.
Coming Up This Weekend
Formula One ends its 2020 season at Abu Dhabi.
The Kyalami 9 Hours ends the Intercontinental GT Challenge season.
