2020 race start time

[jimclark]

Did some October/November camping in my youth with the Army Cadets.
Not impossible if it's dry, keeping warm is quite easy, but if it's wet it's a miserable experience.

And with all the so called "climate warming" (oooopppsss, renamed for convenience in cases of the other way, now it's "climate change"), it should be warm as toast....... 

[Kev_mk3]

Not sure I'd want to camp that time of the year to be honest.

Did some October/November camping in my youth with the Army Cadets.
Not impossible if it's dry, keeping warm is quite easy, but if it's wet it's a miserable experience.

That is the main concern. Would you really want to sit while there like that, i wouldnt.

[Barry]

The other issue on holding LM is of course marshall's.
Without them it won't happen.
Not sure how many they need, but it's a lot and I believe they are almost all volunteers.
Apart from concerns about their own health, would they be willing to turn out in November?
And how do you keep social distancing when you are trying to extract a driver from a crashed car?

[Truck]

.....And how do you keep social distancing when you are trying to extract a driver from a crashed car?

Well they think they can do it for the British Grand Prix.

The mechanics can probably do it for a pit stop, but not for repairs in the garage, and I could go on, but we'll have a vaccine by November

[Rhino]

They will have some sort of check before hand. Whether a swab or temperature. You could not run anything assuming everyone would keep 2 metres apart.

[lofty]

September shouldn’t be too cold.at least I’m not doing the spa 24h this year.the new dates are the end of October brrrrrrrr.bollocks to spa in October  the cars will be running snow tyres.

[geoffd]

LM Temps in September should be about 1 degree cooler, certainly when we passed through last September they didn't seem a lot different to the average June temp, leaving aside any extremes. the only difference will be the hours of darkness, so it will get cooler earlier and warm up a bit later.

If the Spa 24 goes ahead at the end of October it'll be interesting to see how they (and the timing) handle the clocks changing!

[ewan]

https://www.sportinglife.com/other-sports/news/tour-de-france-in-doubt-again/179513

French prime minister Edouard Philippe said there could be no mass sporting events in the country until September due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In a speech on Tuesday ... the country's prime minister ... said that "events that bring together more than 5,000 participants...cannot be held before September".

OK, so the new Le Mans dates are 2¹/₂ weeks into Sept, but this feels like they're not about to say no to an event of 5,000 punters at the end of August, but say an event of 250,000 is OK to run 3 weeks later.
And the TV rights won't be anything like enough to cover the costs of running the race, I'd imagine. F1 could run with no spectators because they make so much from sponsors and TV, but I can't believe the ACO would be able to fund the race without revenue from the weekend.

[Kev_mk3]

I wonder if it will go ahead at all at this rate 

[Kristof]

French government slashed the possibility of the ELMS prologue and first race at Paul Ricard in July.  It's also likely that France won't let (many) tourists in during the summer.
All eyes now on the Belgian government for Spa in August, although no decision about large events will be made here before early June.   And even then it remains to be seen if they even will allow events behind closed doors.

From what I read/hear the ACO wants to have a race before Le Mans, so if Spa is out which options will be open?   Guess at the moment it's only Red Bull Ring which might be able to host ELMS test, first race and WEC race. 

Run Le Mans behind closed doors?  Don't see that happening to be honest.