The 2020 Formula Virtual season saw Nathaniel Powers and Downton secure their second championship double. After a season-long battle against the now Porsche-backed Mathershaw outfit, defending champion Enrique Ruiz leading their charge, Powers was crowned Drivers' Champion for a record fourth time, and Downton became only the second team in the history of the sport to successfully defend their Constructors' Championship title. Behind the high-profile headlines, however, were a litany of battles up and down the field. Nine different drivers from six different teams stood on the podium across the season. Both Lopez and FIRST secured their first race victories, the latter with Felix Pérez who, in turn, secured his first race victory at the same event. Twelve teams scored championship points, while seven teams took part in Q1 across the season, six of them failing to qualify on at least on occasion. The numbers, though, continue to go deeper. Independent FV analyst Ken Heasman has taken a look at the trends, performance and reliability across all fifteen teams on the grid to find out who the best and worst performers were across 2020. Race-By-Race Performance The graph above shows each team's percentage deficit to the overall pace in qualifying sessions over the course of the 2020 season, the wet Saturday in Germany a significant outlier. At the head of the grid, we see a season of two halves: Porsche Mathershaw had a solid lead in the early part of the season, helped by Enrique Ruiz's record-setting five consecutive pole positions between Australia and Spain, though only managed to secure four victories in that time. From the German V-Prix onwards, however, Downton were only shown the way on two occasions - Canada and Turkey, en route to eight pole positions and seven victories. While the season opener in Japan saw eleven teams within 1.5% of the pace, the fierce championship battle pushed both Mathershaw and Downton well ahead of the field, over 1.2% clear of every team bar FIRST by the time the season reached the final round in Brazil. The midfield battle was as hotly contested as ever, with Lopez, Ocelot, North Star, Ingram, Westwood and Phoenix all taking honours as best of the rest at least once across the season. Of these, it was North Star who ultimately came out on top, despite typically starting further down the grid as the season wore on. Both Lopez and Ocelot likewise saw their qualifying performance diminish over the season, while Lucas, Franklin and Westwood all made significant gains toward the latter stages, leading to a midfield battle in the final few rounds that was balanced on a knife edge. The Q1 battle was trickier to call in the early going in terms of pace, with Westwood and Cheema initially appearing to be the obvious choice to make the races, though Beckenbauer missed out in South Africa, as did both Cheemas the round prior in Australia. A fortunate point for Franklin in Britain courtesy of Nick Addison kept them clear, but only as far as Canada. By this stage, though, the former champions had unlocked enough speed to get both cars through Q1 in every race, and moved clear after further points in Belgium. Lucas only failed to qualify once over the three rounds they took part in Q1, while Cheema got both cars into ever race following Australia despite dropping back into Q1 on two further occasions. Arrow performed admirably in their debut season with a 50% qualifying rate, whereas Meteor and AMR often brought up the foot of the times, with 44 DNQs between them. 2019 vs. 2020 This graph shows the performance of each team relative to the 2019 season, excluding Arrow and Westwood, neither of whom was on the grid in 2019. Phoenix gained the most compared to last year, but finished two places lower in the standings, falling from 7th in 2019 to 9th in 2020, with Lopez, Ocelot and Ingram also each gaining over 1.5% and finishing ahead of the Manchester-based team. AMR also made gains of 1.2%, but this still wasn't enough for them to avoid finishing last in the standings, and a third consecutive pointless season. Cheema and Lucas made strong strides forward after (re)joining the grid in 2019, while North Star and FIRST both continued to close up on the frontrunners of Porsche and Downton, the defending champions setting the pace once again. Only two teams fell back from the pace compared to 2019: Meteor, in very much a transitional year following the sale of the team midway through the previous season; and Franklin, who entered 2020 with an Enrique Ruiz-shaped hole in their driver lineup and a severely depleted sponsor portfolio. Retirements Here we tally the number of occasions each team had a car fail to reach the checkered flag during a race. This includes occasions when the driver was still classified, such as Powers retiring on the final lap in Spain due to engine failure, and still securing eighth place. That, however, proved to be Downton's only mechanical retirement of the season, with Klaas van Snelheid's collision in Belgium the only other time a Downton failed to make the race distance, no doubt contributing greatly to their championship success against Porsche Mathershaw's five DNFs in total. The Porsche engine appeared fast but fragile during pre-season testing, and Porsche-powered teams suffered thirteen mechanical DNF's between them across the season, with Westwood having it the roughest in their return to the sport, six mechanical retirements being the most of any team on the grid. Arrow, meanwhile - with the exception of AMR who only have four race starts to draw data from - suffered no reliability issues over the season at all, a credit to the series newcomers when Q1 battles often meant track time and data gathering was at a premium. In terms of driver error, Phoenix recorded a remarkable six non-mechanical retirements between their two drivers. Sergio Álvarez and Thierry Xylander were involved in race-ending incidents three times apiece, the nadir coming when both drivers crashed out during the French V-Prix. At the other end of the scale, Both Johan Halvosen and Gabriele García kept their noses relatively clean, as North Star completed every race in the 2020 season without any driver-related retirements. Likewise, when Meteor and AMR got onto the grid and the cars remained healthy, they were able to steer clear of trouble and make it to the flag. Performance vs. Reliability This graph shows the gap between teams' performance on the horizontal axis, plotted against the number of technical retirements each team suffered on the vertical axis. Here, perhaps, we see most clearly where the 2020 championship was won for Downton, setting the outright pace and backing it up with strong reliability. While FIRST and Porsche Mathershaw were able to challenge during races, neither had that combination of both to topple Downton over the full season.
We also see that Ingram held a slight advantage over North Star across the season as a whole, at least in terms of qualifying performance, but failed to convert that into race results, particularly in the early rounds. Similarly, Phoenix held a slim pace advantage over both Westwood and Ocelot, but their numerous collisions allied to some excellent races from Puccio Giodano and Hunter Ryan saw Phoenix slip behind both teams in the final championship standings. Lucas is possibly the team that most overachieved compared to what their position on the graph would suggest. After scoring just a single point in the opening twelve rounds, Marcus Thunder suddenly found form from Belgium onward, peaking with an inspired strategy call from the team to finish fifth in Mexico, the team ultimately securing tenth in the Constructors' Championship, ahead of the comparatively faster Franklin and Cheema.
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