The Bloke and A Bird Show Episode 192

We open this week with a reminder that we’re really not a NASCAR podcast, even when a NASCAR story is all over the main stream media.Imola says that they would be willing to try and hold a replacement race for the Chinese Grand Prix.Could the Chinese Grand Prix weekend get moved to November and shortened to two days?Racing Point’s 2020 car was revealed - and it looks less like an evolution of their 2019 car and more like an evolution of Mercedes 2019 car.Winter testing got underway last week - and for the first time fans could watch each session live via F1 TV Pro and SkySports F1. Thanks to that live broadcast the world learned of a new steering mode on the Mercedes which has the paddock buzzing.Mercedes Dual Axis Steering (DAS) was already approved by the FIA as in compliance with the Technical Regulations before testing, and it’s also been certified as being safe by the FIA. However, is a steering mode as Mercedes claims - or a change in suspension settings - which would put it in violation of Parc Ferme and other rules?Either way - it’s already been banned for 2021.Most of the teams were optimistic about their performance in the first test sessions. Mercedes were faster than everybody, Red Bull was just behind them, and Ferrari appears to be down with the back markers… Or are they?Pirelli has developed a special tire construction for Zaandvort even though they said they wouldn’t.And the Miami GP continues to lurch towards the 2021 schedule.