F1 | The procedures for the starting grid and the Drivers' parade will be modified

The 2020 Formula 1 championship will kick off next month with a double-header in Austria on the Red Bull Ring track. However, the season that is about to begin will be, in many respects, different from those we have been accustomed to up to now.

Postponed start of the championship, modified calendar, canceled or postponed Grands Prix, double races: these are just some of the points that Formula 1 and fans will have to deal with, but there will also and above all be the safety issue to take into account . For this reason, some of the procedures of the traditional format will be modified, such as the starting grid and the Drivers' Parade.

A few minutes before getting into the car to wait for the start, all the drivers are forced by the regulations to position themselves at the front of the grid to listen to the national anthem, together with children chosen from the karting schools and similar in the relevant localities. Naturally, however, with social distancing procedures this will no longer be possible, as explained by Ross Brawn: “Things like the national anthem, you can't have all the drivers grouped together and you can't have the starts of the future of in front of them. The FIA ​​Future Stars will still be part of the show virtually. They will have uniforms that have been sent to them and they will send us videos with messages that we will then show, so there are many things we can do to entertain with this procedure", declared the Englishman during an interview with the site of Formula 1. The same goes for the procedures on the grid, where we see the mechanics, broadcasters, journalists and guests of the teams walking, making the starting straight particularly crowded, which will require several changes in order to respect the distancing rules.

The Drivers' parade will also see some changes: in fact it will not be possible to continue with the classic procedure, i.e. all twenty drivers on the back of a specially modified truck. For this reason the drivers will be interviewed in front of their respective garages: “The Drivers parade will not take place, as we cannot put 20 drivers on the back of a truck and take them around the track, so instead we will interview them in front of their garages. There are many ways we can integrate everyone without compromising health and safety,” Brawn added.