Revised F1 Calendar for 2020

[dr-baker]

Given the nature of the current crisis, and the need to get a nominal number of races in before the year is out, the FIA and Liberty have decided that the first few races will be behind closed doors. To ensure that this happens, the races will be on remote islands which will be hard for the general public to access. These will begin, it is thought, in around July. To this end, the following island nations will hold the first races of the 2020 season away from trackside viewers (Having 8 races will also ensure that the minimum number of races for a full championship will be obliged):

1. the Isle of Man (history of motor racing, easy to access for British teams, few flights from elsewhere in the world)

2. Vanuatu (remote location east of Australia and north of New Zealand, hard to access for general public, a favourite of our former forum overlords on their F1 Rejects podcast)

3. Sealand (again more accessible for European teams, this time lacking any space at all for anybody not directly involved in the F1 circus, thereby preventing the spread of the disease)

4. Tropico (have a permanent race track, no spectators have a clue where it is, yet has recent motor racing hosting experience.)

5. Limberwick (remote island in the Artic Circle between Greenland and Norway.)

6. Bandiaterra (based in Indian Ocean and at the whim of its 4-year-old Prime Minister. Being Danish-speaking means it may be a nominal first home race for Kevin Magnussen.)

7. & 8. The Narnian Crown Dependancies of the Lone Islands and Duffers' Island (The local units of measurement do not have an established conversion rate to other units. Therefore, it is unsure whether the track on Duffers' Island, consisting of two long straights connected by two hairpins, is 1.049km long and resembling Martinsville, or is 10.49 miles long and resembling AVUS.)

[dinizintheoven]

I think you forgot San Seriffe in that list of remote islands.

And to make up the Formula E calendar, I propose a race around the streets of Trumpton.

[dr-baker]

I think you forgot San Seriffe in that list of remote islands.

And to make up the Formula E calendar, I propose a race around the streets of Trumpton.

How could I forget San Seriffe?! I also forgot to make the Isle of Man a double-header with the Island of Sodor, where there would also be a Starlight Express event with the trains on the island.

[dinizintheoven]

On a side note, you'll be as aware I am - though not everyone else will be - that the Snaefell Mountain Railway is as good an approximation as it's possible to get of a real-life experience of the Reverend Awdry's world. Certainly, if the age of the trains and the carriages are anything to go by...

[dr-baker]

Last August, I actually rode that very railway up to the peak of Snaefell so we could watch the classic TT from a high vantage point. Trains and motor racing, what more could you ask for?! (Don't look at my signature below...).