F1 2019 season

First topic message reminder :

Felt like a new season deserves a new thread...

It's reported in Italy that Maurizio Arrivabene has been fired. His strained relationship with Ferrari's prized asset Sebastian Vettel and cost him his job. Arrivabene got one last dig at Vettel though by replacing Raikkonen with LeClerc.

Mattia Binotto will be confirmed as new team boss

Assessing what happened in qualifying and using Verstappen as a sort of benchmark, it seems clear that if Leclerc didn't breakdown in Q3, then he would either have been pipped to pole by Hamilton or would have finished marginally ahead.  Vettel could have been anywhere from third to fifth. It is all indicative that Ferrari and Red Bull have closed the gap to Mercedes in terms of their single lap pace.  I should add Raikonnen showed good pace throughout qualifying - and was the best of the rest.

Anyway tomorrows race may be affected by rain which means the race could be a lottery.

It is being reported that Hamiltons race weekend has been affected by him having some sort of illness (common cold or influenza).  It is sort of a reminder that all drivers have to be very careful with regard their health - with all the travelling around the world they could be potentially picking up various bugs.  I assume they have to drug themselves up and keep hydrated to keep going whenever they do come down with an illness. ps: Hamilton reported that he has had to more or less miss most of the team meetings and sleep/rest only coming out to prepare himself for the free practices and qualifying.

Yikes! Epic Ferrari fail in qualifying. Vettel not even making Q1 due to a power loss issue, (suspected turbo failure) and Leclerc unable to take part in Q3 due to a fuel problem.

Looks like another walk in the park for Mercedes, unless Verstappen can back up his qualifying pace in the race.

Then again, if Hamilton really is feeling that unwell, there is a chance he could make a make a serious error, or even crash out.

Surprisingly good 5th place for Kimi...most of the Ferrari-powered cars seemed to do better than usual. Somehow don't see him staying there.

Potential for rain could see changeable track conditions & throw a lot of team strategies into the bin. We can always hope...

Wet race, complete lottery.

Pony, if it’s a safety car start.

SC starts are real BS. 20 premier drivers in world racing should be screaming for a proper start.

Looking good for LeClerc after that VSC stop for new inters. Should of had a time penalty though for an unsafe release, instead of a team fine. Shocking call from the stewards.

Time for softs/mediums

Leclerc crashes, and throws away a great opportunity. SC

Hamilton crashes, front wing damage. All on wrong tyres.

Hamilton what a cheat. Pits by cutting the corner and ignores the bollard

Verstappen leads. Hamilton missed the bollard, but let’s see if the stewards are as lenient as they were when not giving LeClerc a time penalty

Hamilton should get 10 second penalty. Same cheat as last year

Five second penalty

FIA going easy on Hamilton again. Once a cheat always a cheat

Nathaniel Jacobs wrote:FIA going easy on Hamilton again. Once a cheat always a cheat

Going easy? He’s under investigation for further stuff, going slowly behind the SC.

Hamilton cheating under the SC as well.

Absolute shocking pace from Bottas right now, allowing that gap for Max to gain a free stop

Hulkenberg bins it. What a surprise. SC

How did Verstappen get a free stop in there? He was only about 9 seconds ahead before the accident?

I imagine Bottas was asleep, I can’t think of anything else.

Track drying now

Think Hamilton must have damaged his car when he nudged the wall. He doesn’t seem to have the pace to catch the midfield guys.

Gasly is wasting a Red Bull seat. Toro Rosso coming alive

Somehow FIA still hadn't given Hamilton penalty for cheating behind the SC

Hamilton has no pace, and nursing a damaged car. Gone off at T1 now. Race a write off.

Hamilton the dosser

German fans show they don't care whether Hamilton is driving a Mercedes. Cheering wildly

Hahahahah Bottas you’re sacked. That’s Ocon confirmed

What a result for Hamilton

Hamilton the embarrassment will be seeing Max as world champion

Hamilton keeps his 39 point lead over Bottas as Bottas slides off into the wall. Verstappen is heading into a solid third place in the overall standings.

Verstappen is in first and Gasly is in seventh - another indicator of how much better Verstappen is over his team mate. Vettel could get third.

Gasly getting embarrassed by Albon in the sister team

Vettel shows what a real champion is

Gasly race is done - no points for him. Gasly could be losing his place at Red Bull.

Vettel gets second place - from last to second - sort of a redemption for him - exercising the demons from last year.

Max is 62pts behind Hamilton. Max will make Hamilton give like the dosser he is.

With Hamilton it was a combination of errors from him and his team - but he didn't really suffer because Bottas crashed out - so maintains his championship lead.

Hamilton still not receiving a penalty for slowing down behind the SC. fIA corruption is pathetic

Nathaniel Jacobs wrote:Max is 62pts behind Hamilton. Max will make Hamilton give like the dosser he is.

Well first up for Max is Bottas who is 23 points ahead.

No name Bertie wrote:

Nathaniel Jacobs wrote:Max is 62pts behind Hamilton. Max will make Hamilton give like the dosser he is.

Well first up for Max is Bottas who is 23 points ahead.

I'm disregarding Bottas he's a journeyman

Vettel shows Bottas how to overtake - Bottas failed where Vettel succeeded.

No name Bertie wrote:Vettel shows Bottas how to overtake - Bottas failed where Vettel succeeded.

Vettel has 4 championships whilst Bottas will be going back to Williams in 2020. #levels

Unforgivable mistake from Bottas, the week when your boss says the next two races will decide his fate. That all but confirms Ocon next year.

So there is one more race before the summer break.  11 races gone 10 races remain.   Mercedes say they may be making a decision over the summer break over their driver line up.  Red Bull are maybe losing patience with Gasly.

Bottas isn't elite. He knows it and the rest of the grid knows it. Hamilton well and truly got humiliated today.

No name Bertie wrote:So there is one more race before the summer break.  11 races gone 10 races remain.   Mercedes say they may be making a decision over the summer break over their driver line up.  Red Bull are maybe losing patience with Gasly.

Kvyat or Alonso should be Horner's only two options

It is the impact of the young drivers - Leclerc, Norris and Albon - that is really giving the idea to Mercedes to add a young determined driver to their line up (Ocon). Verstappen is only 21 but he continues to get better and better - and there is a good shout that he may be the best driver in the field.

I think it's relative with Max. He had a lot of crashes when he first started at both Toro Rosso and Red Bull.

LeClerc getting a lot of stick of social media but people are forgetting his is his second season in F1 - Max is in his fourth season.

It seems clear that Verstappen (Red Bull) and Leclerc (Ferrari) are the future in Formula One. Mercedes must be thinking they need to get a young driver in as number two - who will become the future for them competing with Verstappen and Leclerc for championships.

No name Bertie wrote:It seems clear that Verstappen (Red Bull) and Leclerc (Ferrari) are the future in Formula One.  Mercedes must be thinking they need to get a young driver in as number two - who will become the future for them competing with Verstappen and Leclerc for championships.

The best young driver in terms of marketability is Mick Schumacher, but he’s a Ferrari junior.

Mercedes will have to promote Ocon who’s pretty average

It was embarrassing today, but that’s what F1 can do to you. It’s happened to Ferrari numerous times this season, and will happen to RB, when they actually have something to lose, and the pressure mounts up. I actually think Mercedes’ eye was off the ball this weekend, especially with the silly 50’s outfits, the changed livery, and then once Ferrari blew up in Q, I think they thought the weekend was wrapped up.

As for the Championship, I doubt Mercedes are too worried right now. The constructors is already in the bag, and 63 points to Hamilton is still huge. Tracks like Hockenheim, Austria, and Hungary do suit RB, so not surprised to see them flourishing right now.

As for Mercedes’ long term vision, it’s quite clear they want Verstappen to succeed Hamilton in a couple of years.

Mercedes shouldn’t be counting any chickens just yet. Red Bull are in the mix at Hungary, Singapore and Mexico. Ferrari will think they can get into the winners circle at Monza, Belgium and Brazil with their straight line speed

Hamilton had some sort of fever - which affected him strongly yesterday - not sure what it was like today and how that impacted on him.  However it was mistakes by him and his team that cost him - for example not pitting for tyres and taking the 5 second penalty during the safety car period following Hulkenberg crashing out - that would have left him in about fourth - rather than twelfth.  There was a succession of mistakes that caused Hamilton to finish pointless.

Alfa Romeo pair Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi summoned to the stewards after it’s suggested they both started the race with outside assistance eg some form of launch control

ps Also when Hamilton pitted following damage to his front wing - the Mercedes engineers were clueless as to what tyres to give him - at one point he had a combination of slick tyres and intermediates on his car ...

So overall Hamilton made some mistakes but they were redeemable - but his team messed up twice badly (embarrasingly).  

Bottas seemed to make two mistakes - one was allowing Verstappen to build a gap so that Verstappen was able to pit and maintain first place following the safety car deployment when Hulkenberg crashed out.  Then he couldn't get past Lance Stroll for third place - and crashed out in the process.

Bottas is just very inept at overtaking. IIRC Bahrain vs Vettel 2018 he was way fastest yet couldn’t get it done. Today the whole world and their dog knew Stroll was using all of his kinetic energy on the straight. So Bottas should’ve been getting closer in the technical parts of the track. He couldn’t stay close enough.