Motorsport Reviews

The 2020 Formula 1 season will indeed happen this year with the first eight races confirmed by the organisers. F1 chief executive Chase Carey outlined the first part of a revised calendar of races, all of which will be held in Europe. Originally intended to begin on March 15 in Australia, the world championship was hit hard by the Coronavirus pandemic that forced several rounds to be either delayed or cancelled. The revised calendar now marks July 5, 2020, as the start of the 2020 F1 season with the Austrian GP at the Red Bull Ring and will be followed by another round on July 12, 2020, also held at the same circuit. The second round in Austria will be called the Steiermark Grand Prix.

The Federation of Motor Sport Clubs of India (FMSCI) has announced the names of motorsport athletes CS Santosh and Aishwarya Pissay for the 2020 Arjuna Award - the highest civilian honour for sports in the country. Both the Santosh and Pissay have made great strides in the world motorsport, more specifically rallying. CS Santosh is part of the Hero MotoSports Team Rally and has participated in the challenging Dakar rally for the past five years, along with a number of Indian and international rallies since 2013. Aishwarya Pissay is backed by TVS Racing and has been made her international debut in 2018. She won the 2019 FIM Bajas World Cup in the women's juniors' category, becoming the only Indian to win a world title in motorsport.

The sixth round of the formula E Race At Home Challenge concluded over the weekend and saw Mercedes-Benz EQ driver Stoffel Vandoorne bag yet another win, his fourth of the season. The driver was challenged by Mahindra Racing's Pascal Wehrlein who finished second, a tenth-of-a-second behind the race leader followed by Maxmilian Guenther in the BMW Andretti machine in the third place. Vandoorne successfully managed to convert his pole position into a win, but it was Wehrlein's run from P7 on the grid to P2 on the podium that impressed many. The sixth round saw the drivers compete on the New York e-Prix circuit in the virtual eSports challenge.

The Formula 1 community has been largely silent about the death of African American George Floyd in a case of racial profiling. Reigning F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton recently took to his social media handle to talk about the issue and also call out his F1 colleagues who chose to stay silent during this time. Hamilton said he "stands alone" at this time, while his contemporaries refrain from conveying anything on the matter.

Silverstone will be allowed to stage back-to-back races in the Formula One world championship later this summer despite British government plans to introduce a coronavirus quarantine period.

The final round of the Champions Yacht Club FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) concluded on Sunday bring an end to the action-packed season. India's ace rally driver Gaurav Gill won the 2019 Popular Rally, dominating the rally for the fifth time. However, making a storming comeback was Chetan Shivram who returned to complete the rally after a crash on Saturday and claim his maiden INRC crown. Shivram along with his co-driver Dilip Sharan was one of the casualties of the multiple crashes on Saturday but worked on his rally-spec Volkswagen Polo overnight to stage a strong return on Sunday.

The Buddh International Circuit (BIC) has been hit by issues once again as the Yamuna Expressway Authority cancelled the allotment of 1000 hectares of land in Greater Noida to the Jaypee group on Saturday. India's first and only F1 track is located in this land as part of the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority's (YEIDA) special economic zone. The cancellation arises due to the promoters' non-payment of dues across multiple projects that prompted the authorities to take the action. The decision was taken in YEIDA's 66th board meeting.

Andrea Iannone's test sample taken from the Malaysian GP earlier this year was found positive for an anabolic steroid, according to the FIM.