Tales from the paddock: Formula 1 draws to a close as Formula E gears up for a new campaign

News snippets

Sprint to the finish: The final triple-header of 2020 in the premier class of motor racing got underway last weekend with the first of two races in Bahrain, to be followed by the season finale in Abu Dhabi. The drivers and teams were competing on the familiar layout of the Bahrain International Circuit. Lewis Hamilton booked the 98th pole position and the 95th victory of his F1 career. Next weekend, the teams will still be in Bahrain, but unlike the back-to-back races at Spielberg and Silverstone, they will be driving on a different track configuration. Instead of the 5.421 km Grand Prix circuit, they will be using the 3.543 km outer track – the shortest on this year’s itinerary. The teams will be clocking times of under one minute and driving 74% of a lap at full throttle. Sunday’s race will be over a distance of 87 laps, equivalent to almost 308 kilometres. Lewis will unfortunately have to miss out on the F1 debut for the new circuit, having tested positive for COVID-19 in the run-up to the event. He is currently in isolation in accordance with COVID-19 regulations and the requirements of the Bahrain public health authorities. George Russell has been released by our partner team Williams Racing in order to join Mercedes this weekend in Bahrain.

Preseason testing: While the 2020 F1 campaign enters the home straight, Season 7 in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship is building momentum. From Saturday to Tuesday (with a rest day on Monday), the Mercedes-Benz EQ Formula E Team were taking part in the official tests at the Ricardo Tormo circuit just outside Valencia. Nyck de Vries and Stoffel Vandoorne took turns in the cockpit of the Mercedes-Benz EQ Silver Arrow 02 over the course of the long test weekend, putting in a total of 509 laps (1,597 km) in preparation for the start of the season on 16/17 January in Santiago de Chile.

Titles for Mercedes-AMG Motorsport in Spain: NM Racing have secured further titles for the Mercedes-AMG Customer Sport programme, this time in the Campeonato de España Resistencia at Alcaniz. Jesús A De Martin Muñoz and Rafael Villanueva (both ESP) in the number 126 Mercedes-AMG GT4 registered a fifth class win of the season, which was enough for them to wrap up the drivers’ championship in the C3 class. Muñoz also won the Gentleman class in the series, for which he was awarded the Trofeo Juan Fernandez.

Further worldwide successes with the Mercedes-AMG GT3 and the Mercedes-AMG GT4: LEON RACING took fourth place with the number 65 Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the final round of the Japanese Super GT at the Fuji Speedway. The result was enough for Naoya Gamou and Togo Suganami (both JPN) to finish the season third in the drivers’ as well as the team championships.

In the Endurance Brasil, Andreas Mattheis, Xandy Negrão, Xandinho Negrão (all BRA) in the number 8 Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Mattheis Motorsport were overall runners-up in the four-hour race and first in the GT3 class for the third time in the 2020 campaign. Victory in the GT4 class went to the number 21 Mercedes-AMG GT4 driven by the Autlog Racing Team pairing of Cassio H Mello and André Moraes Jr (both BRA).

There were also class wins to celebrate in the Coppa Italia GT event at Misano. Luca Magnoni (ITA) driving the number 277 Mercedes-AMG GT4 of Nova Race finished top of his class in both sprint races. In the first race, team mate Claudio Formenti (ITA) in the number 207 sister car made it a class one-two as runner-up.  

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