Autosport Plus

Why the necessary axing of an F1 icon is painful nevertheless

OPINION: When Formula 1 action returns in Austria next month, the pre- and post-race spectacle is going to look very different. Such changes are completely correct in these upsetting times, but we can still look forward to joyful scenes returning one day

Alex Kalinauckas Jun 14, 2020, 3:19 PM

Motorsport is a contest where the main exertions go largely unseen. Whether it's the long hours designing and building the cars away from the track, or a driver's true effort at the wheel, understandably concealed by protective kit and safety structures. In many forms of racing there is a roof and windscreen to consider, in single-seaters there is now the halo.

Perhaps the pitstops are the closest outsiders get to seeing absolute effort - unencumbered by obstructions. In modern Formula 1, a sub-two-second pitstop is, frankly, art.

Share Or Save This Story

Author Alex Kalinauckas

Alex Kalinauckas is Autosport's Grand Prix Editor, covering every Formula 1 race since the start of 2020. After completing a master's degree in journalism at Goldsmiths College University of London in 2014, he worked for a range of motorsport and technology publications while covering national racing as an Autosport freelancer.

A lifelong motorsport fan - no one in his family can explain quite how or why such a development first occurred - Alex joined the Autosport staff in April 2017 as the magazine’s Assistant Editor covering Formula 2 and GP3, before being made Formula E correspondent and Autosport.com’s Plus Editor in March 2018. He lives in north-east London and is constantly frustrated by the Central Line.