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

GSC wrote:wouldnt have kept Grosjean but not sure Hulkenburg is a must have driver anymore.

Hulk is far superior to the mediocre drivers like Stroll and Ocon

stroll is only there because daddy pays for the entire team though.

Ocon is 22 and French which is a plus for Renault, while also probably subsidised by Mercedes. Hulkenburg is 32 and expensive while the team is also paying Ricciardo

Bottas destroys his car in FP1 - amateur crash

LeClerc gearbox fails

Perez wrecks this car in FP3 and Kvyat suffers engine failure

Kyvat confirmed at Toro Rosso for 2020

Leclerc has pole

Hamilton in second and Vettel in third. Those Ferrari updates working well. Verstappen in fourth and Bottas in fifth

Wonder if Hamilton fancies putting some manners on LeClerc after the allegations of rough driving in Italy...

Doubtful, if it’s 50/50. He’s thinking purely of the WDC now, and his primary focus is still beating Bottas. Merc has superior race pace, so likely to play the long game.

Ferrari’s race pace is unknown, they’ve been adding bits and removing bits. Seemed clueless until qualifying. Ferrari probably hoping it’s very hot

Ferrari have had issues with tyre wear, which is worrying around here where the rears tend to let go pretty quickly. But race pace is also kinda irrelevant here because overtaking is going to be pretty difficult, especially when the Ferrari gets more power than Mercedes.

Nonetheless, the update has delivered a big gain in performance. Ferrari would've been nowhere here.

Daniel Ricciardo excluded from qualifying for a breach of MGU-K power limit. Will start last.

Was very surprised and quite worried after the first runs in Q3, when Ferrari were over 1sec quicker.

But even Leclerc admitted he was on the absolute ragged edge to get that pole lap, losing control of his car 3 times.

Wish they'd shown Hamilton's lap to see if he found it any easier. Did well to get within 2/10ths of Leclerc.


Looks like Ferrari are the kings of qualifying for now, but as GSC said, they seem to have tyre management issues over race distances and Singapore has a lot of slow corners, meaning a lot of braking.

Expecting a similar race to Monza...only difference here being that there are no gravel traps and few run-off areas. Lose a wheel-to-wheel contest here and you could end up in a wall.

Bottas is a cuck

Vettel looking good here. Merc strategy balls up

that's why Bottas keeps the 2nd seat.

Suspect Merc rolled the dice on a safety car. Long way back through 2 RBs and 2 Ferraris now

SC thanks to a brain fade by Grosjean

Vettel should see this out in all honesty. Problem with Singapore is a SC overkill just ruining the entire spectacle. Dull stuff.

Second half of this race has been completely ruined

this one might not go the distance

Vettel 'The king of Singapore' doesn't make up for the 2017 meltdown but the German will enjoy it. 

Ferrari should be targeting another 3 wins this season

LeClerc might not like it but Ferrari converted a 1-3 into a 1-2. That's life sometimes.

Merc with the kind of strategy you employ when you have both titles in the bag. Suspect they were just praying for a SC after Vettel undercut Lewis.

Other than the SCs arrived too late to make it interesting.

Ferrari should be able to back this up in Russia, the new package is much stronger through slow corners and Russis is much more power dependent to boot

Ferrari's new aero upgrade must be turning Adrian Newey green with envy. Whatever they've done, it looks like they've finally tapped the car's full potential. No longer just a straight-line beast, it also does the business in slower corners.

That, plus a good strategy call (for Vettel, if not Leclerc) made it a fairly comfortable, if not exactly dominant 1-2. Charles understandably not chuffed about Vettel making the undercut work, but he's enough of a team player to take it in his stride. Or at least like someone who knows they will have more chances to win.

Mercedes must be sweating just a little now, knowing there are more tracks where Ferrari can dominate, unless they can find more performance. Both Leclerc & Verstappen are only 31 points behind Bottas in the drivers' standings. Unlikely as it seems, another three 1-2 finishes would get them uncomfortably close in the constructors' standings too.

A lot of idiotic driving on display - notably Grosjean and Kvyat. Even Ricciardo was showing his more reckless side today. Hope this isn't a sign of things to come, following the apparent relaxation of driving penalties.

That said, the 3 safety cars did keep things fairly interesting. Plenty of wheel to wheel racing and overtaking in the lower-mid grid, on a circuit not known for it. Did stretch the race out though...only beat the time limit by a couple of minutes IIRC.

Bottas 5th since Germany, Hamilton only 2nd and ahead of Vettel by 2 points. Quite the turnaround, Bottas' 2nd place isnt secure by any means.

It’s a turnaround, but the damage has already been done. Not really sure anyone at Mercedes will be losing any sleep, with regards to Bottas’s finishing position in the Championship.

Ferrari’s late surge, won’t alter the fact that their Championship drought will continue, due to their chassis and driver’s incompetence, during the first half of the season. No chance of overturning a 130+ points deficit. Hamilton has Bottas in full support now, and Ferrari have the issue of their drivers squabbling for race wins, instead of one driver focusing on chasing down Hamilton’s 96 point lead.

I would add, that Mercedes will need to put some pressure on Brixworth over the winter, as this engine deficit is clear, and Ferrari’s incompetence won’t last forever.

I think it means more than youd think, especially in the context of retaining Bottas for another year, and the alternatives for 2021. If (big if) Ferrari and Red Bull can keep pace in the winter, it becomes a headache for Merc if Bottas cant hold up.

Verstappen, Albon & Gasly will be getting a 5 place grid penalty for new internal combustion engines for Sochi. Kvyat is changing all elements & will be starting from the back of the grid.

Vladimir Putin has also revealed he wants to ditch the bland event at Sochi, and move it to, St. Petersburg. Makes sense.

McLaren poised to use Mercedes engines in 2021. Call me silly, but they ditched the then class leading engine to waste vast sums of money firstly with Honda and latterly Renault. Subsequently lost their superstar driver Alonso.

So after all that nonsense they finally admit they made an error ending the relationship in the first place.

probably but needs to be looked at in the proper context that at the time it looked like having a dedicated engine supplier was the only path to escaping the midfield. Even now the 3 best teams all have a dedicated supplier. In hindsight it didnt work out but that doesnt mean it was a bad decision at the time.

McLaren made many mistakes outside of that also.

the other question then becomes who's dropping. You can only supply 3 teams with engines, Mercedes arent likely to be buying engines for their works team so Williams or Racing Point are likely going to be looking for a new supplier.

Of the two, given the links between Williams and Mercedes, and Williams happiness to be a feeder team, suspect Racing Point will need new engines

Williams extended their contract with Mercedes engines, until, 2025.

Surely the sole purpose of Racing Point is to get Lance Stroll into a better team? I mean if he where to end up elsewhere, Laurence Stroll would no longer need to bankroll a team for his son. So in theory RP might not be around in 2021.

dont think Lance is getting a better drive unless his dad can buy Ferrari.

It could all depend on how Haas' relationship with Ferrari pans out. Haas retained Grosjean as his Swiss backers cough up a big amount of sponsorship money for Haas. 

Naturally Stroll snr could probably acquire a seat at Haas, if Gene Haas decided that he happy with that. 

And despite all of Stroll snr's money, Lance - former Ferrari junior - isn't getting a seat at Ferrari or Alfa. Ferrari have Schumacher, Schwartmann and Fittipaldi waiting in the wings

Nathaniel Jacobs wrote:So in theory RP might not be around in 2021.

Of course RP will be around in, 2021. That’s the mistake people make, and the impression the media make, that RP is owned by Laurence Stroll, when in reality, it’s owned by the ‘consortium’. Their future is not dependent upon the Stroll’s presence, that’s what must frustrate the consortium, which consists of, André Desmarais, Jonathan Dudman, John D. Idol, Michael de Picciotto and Silas Chou. Even John McCaw is involved, having sold his family Telecoms business to AT&T, for $12.6bn.

The Stroll’s presence, will be a short venture at RP. I’d imagine by the time their new £25m headquarters and factory is completed at Silverstone, the Stroll’s would have already departed, not only the team, but F1 too.

GSC wrote:probably but needs to be looked at in the proper context that at the time it looked like having a dedicated engine supplier was the only path to escaping the midfield. Even now the 3 best teams all have a dedicated supplier. In hindsight it didnt work out but that doesnt mean it was a bad decision at the time.

McLaren made many mistakes outside of that also.

Exactly. The whole team was a mess at the time, including the design department.

Also (and I know my memory is lousy) but I seem to recall McLaren weren't happy at having customer spec engines after being used to works spec ones. There was some argument over the works engine having a better "quali mode" or something. Whatever, they felt they were getting a raw deal from Merc, for the money they were paying.

The other engines were a known quantity, so the only other course was to get a new supplier. They had a very successful history with Honda, so while it was a big gamble, there was method to the madness. Though subsequently David Coulthard's saying that "past performance is no guarantee of future success" was proven all too true.

The switch back to Merc has also been done for financial reasons, as apparently they can supply them cheaper than Renault.

Toro Rosso intend to change their name for the 2020 season, to AlphaTauri. It's pending approval from their rival teams in the Formula 1 paddock. AlphaTauri is a fashion brand, that was founded in 2016 as a brand extension of Red Bull into the fashion industry.

Sounds horrible, and too similar sounding to, Alfa Romeo.

Ferrari seem to have 3 tenths over Mercedes. Mercedes probably will be happy with the second row, and try for a tow into T1.

If Mercedes couldn't get passed with DRS in Belgium, Italy or Singapore - don't see them drafting passed in Russia.

Albon bins it in the wall and out of Q1

Russia turning out to be very painful for Red Bull, Kvyat and Albon at the rear. Gasly off the pace. Only Max saving face

Four consecutive poles for Leclerc. Hamilton does Vettel for 2nd, but I’d imagine he’ll pass Lewis before T1

Just John wrote:Toro Rosso intend to change their name for the 2020 season, to AlphaTauri. It's pending approval from their rival teams in the Formula 1 paddock. AlphaTauri is a fashion brand, that was founded in 2016 as a brand extension of Red Bull into the fashion industry.

Sounds horrible, and too similar sounding to, Alfa Romeo.

Ferrari seem to have 3 tenths over Mercedes. Mercedes probably will be happy with the second row, and try for a tow into T1.

Ugh...thats as bad (and unimaginative) as Racing Point... Why not think up a decent-sounding team name and just have Alpha Tauri as the main sponsor?

Quali following a very predictable pattern now. What made me laugh was how disappointed Leclerc sounded...even after being told he had P1, while Hamilton was positively jubilant at getting P2. Just shows you how the balance of power has shifted.

Seems Mercedes have accepted their lot for the remainder of the season. But they're going to have to stay right on Ferrari's tail. Any DNFs or finishes outside the points and things could get very interesting.

Absolute scenes at Ferrari. Ferrari asking Vettel to let LeClerc passed when the German is fastest man on track.

we'll see what happens later in the race, Vettel claiming Hamilton was too close to do a swap wont hold up later

that said LeClerc isnt getting a swap from 4 seconds back so he needs to close it

somewhat predictably, LeClerc gets the undercut

LeClerc behaviour is embarrassing. If he was as quick he as he thinks he was why was he slower on every single lap?

Vettel out MGU-K. Mercedes need to pit under VSC

sometimes you just get lucky. Looking like that today

Mercedes 1-2 in Russia. Lucked in to the result, but that’s sport. A worry for Ferrari in the reliability department, and Ferrari fighting themselves, likely to cost themselves going forward. Both WDC & WCC both in the bag for Mercedes now.

be queuing up to criticise Ferrari but not entirely sure they did much wrong.