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

Bottas wins the Australian GP in crushing manner. Literally destroyed the field. Hamilton second by sum 21 seconds and Verstappen third. Ferrari awful Vettel fourth and LeClerc fifth with some team orders.

Dreadful day for Gasly couldn’t pass Kvyat despite having fresher tyres for 25 laps.

Magnussen, Hulkenberg, Raikkonen, Stroll and Kvyat complete the points scoring positions.

Bottas also got the point for fastest lap. Who knew sporting a beard could change the fortunes

The "Bottas - Mercedes" team were a class apart today.   Hamilton had his ass served up on a plate to him today.   It seems news of Bottas special winter "training" is true and has paid off, while Hamilton tends to spend his time on other activities.  Early days but advantage Bottas & Mercedes.

Not sure whether the changes have made overtaking any easier?

Bottas being made out to be like Senna or something now  

Dominant win, but it’s just one race. It’s been confirmed by Mercedes on Twitter, that Hamilton had floor damage, so goes to explain his lack of pace today. Irrespective of that, not sure why Mercedes strategy guys decided they needed to cover off a slow Vettel with Hamilton, it pretty much compromised Hamilton, and made it a one-horse race. Ferrari absolutely nowhere, and sadly team orders already in effect, in denying LeClerc any opportunity to pass Vettel.

All in all a dull, dull race. Melbourne isn’t a overtaking track, so hopefully Bahrain can produce some much needed action. The highlight of the race was the battle for the fastest lap, which says everything about how unfortunately boring this season opener was.

Whether Bottas is Senna or not is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. But after yesterday’s qualifying, I thought the writing was on the wall for Bottas. I thought that if he struggled in the flyaways he could be sacked by the time the show hit Europe. No chance of that now. Which was evident from the rueful grin on Ocon’s face

Good to see my boy Lance with the drive of the day - yet again showing his potential to be one of the best drivers on the grid. Excellent stuff

More to the point though it is a huge slap in the face to Vettel who is deemed the greatest thing in F1 by some yet he had to resort to team orders to keep Charles LeClerc behind him.

As to the race it seemed (to me) even more difficult to overtake than normal. I know commentators were putting that down to the circuit but I recall more overtakes on the same circuit in the past.

CaledonianCraig wrote:More to the point though it is a huge slap in the face to Vettel who is deemed the greatest thing in F1 by some yet he had to resort to team orders to keep Charles LeClerc behind him.

Well, to be fair to Ferrari, they did make it clear that Vettel was going to be the #1 driver. I think Leclerc made his point though.


Disappointing race, all in all, with the gulf between Mercedes and everyone else seemingly wider than ever. Especially given that the gap could widen still further, as the season progresses.

Might just be me, but there did seem to be more close racing, more wheel to wheel action and attempted overtakes. Aussie GP is notorious for being a snooze-fest due to not being an "overtaking circuit" but there seemed more action, if not actual overtaking.

Think the new design regs are a definite step in the right direction, but needs more progress.

Great to see Valtteri get the jump on Lewis at the start, for once. Only 1 race, so we can't draw any conclusions yet, but just maybe he's rediscovered his mojo?

Ferrari, as with last few seasons, looking best of the rest and its worrying their design philosophy may cause them to struggle to close the gap. Early prediction: could be another season of frustration for them.

Red Bull looking pretty good with the Honda engine. Verstappen again looking like the opportunist pick-pocket. Will probably deprive Ferrari of a few podiums this season.

Haas, Renault, Alfa & Racing Point all looking very evenly matched. Could be some good scraps between them on better circuits.

Decent debut for Lando Norris. Spent a good part of the race in the top 10, before slipping back towards the end. Sainz's engine fire bit of a worry.


Really sad thing for me was seeing how much Kubica struggled...over 1m 30s behind George Russell. Hope things get better, but right now he's looking a long way off being ready for driving a full race distance.

Also rotten luck for Ricciardo, losing his wing at the start like that. Think these new, wider front wings are going to catch a few drivers out.

With regard to Vettel and LeClerc - it seems to me that if passing was very difficult in Australia - then Vettel wouldn't have allowed LeClerc to pass (he would have constantly blocked him) & this could have resulted in them colliding or damaging their tyres.  Vettel would say since he is fighting for the F1 championship he would not allow LeClerc to pass.

The issue then becomes was LeClerc in a better position / condition to attack Verstappen for a podium place.   That is to say would it have been better for Ferrari to allow a faster LeClerc to pass in order to allow LeClerc to challenge Verstappen (and maybe Hamilton).

Mick Schumacher will make F1 debut in the Bahrain test with Ferrari next week

Red Bull protégé Daniel Ticktum will make his F1 debut on Wednesday during the Bahrain test. Ticktum should all go well is the boy who will replace Gasly down the line.

Carlos Sainz Jr will take a fresh MGU-K in Bahrain after the failure he suffered in Melbourne.

Daniel Ricciardo has a new chassis after he trashed the original during his rally cross moment at the start.

Nathaniel Jacobs wrote:Red Bull protégé Daniel Ticktum will make his F1 debut on Wednesday during the Bahrain test. Ticktum should all go well is the boy who will replace Gasly down the line.

Yeah i think Pierre will be fine somehow since Daniel is a very much an immature d**khead at the best of times

Fernando Alonso will be doing the Pirelli tyre test during the Bahrain Test. McLaren are fielding two cars. Alonso is only doing the tyre test

Fernando wrote:

Nathaniel Jacobs wrote:Red Bull protégé Daniel Ticktum will make his F1 debut on Wednesday during the Bahrain test. Ticktum should all go well is the boy who will replace Gasly down the line.

Yeah i think Pierre will be fine somehow since Daniel is a very much an immature d**khead at the best of times

Granted Ticktum has a controversial history but I think he’ll turn the corner whilst competing in Super Formula in Japan. If he gets salty with Honda his career will pretty much be done.

Charles LeClerc in Pole by 3 tenths
Vettel in 2nd
Hamilton in 3rd
Bottas in 4th

Charles LeClerc on pole position with Sebastian Vettel locking out the front row. Ferrari had everyone on toast.

1. LeClerc
2. Vettel
3. Hamilton
4. Bottas
5. Verstappen
6. Magnussen
7. Sainz Jr
8. Grosjean
9. Raikkonen
10. Norris

Gasly continues to embarrass himself

Worrying for Vettel. Needed team orders to protect him from LeClerc in Aus, and now out-qualified by 3 tenths in Bahrain. Important for Hamilton to quickly halt that Bottas momentum, and putting him in fourth. Mercedes went from looking a second behind, to only 3 tenths in the end, so not too worrying. As for RB, they just don’t have the pace to challenge on Saturday, and it’s no surprise Gasly looks poor, he was being out-driven by Hartley at the back end of last season. Good to see McLaren’s resurgence continue.

The true gap between LeClerc and Hamilton was probably 0.5sec. LeClerc was pretty scruffy to the second attempt by he was always in the pound seat with the stunning first effort.

Hamilton’s better than Bottas so does he need to put a marker down?

Well done to Leclerc - I wonder if the Ferrari team will engineer a swap for Vettel to finish ahead - assuming Vettel is able to stay well clear of Hamilton.   Be interesting to see if Hamilton can get a good start and stay ahead of Bottas.  McLaren are showing some promise whilst Williams are rooted to the back of the field.

Some of the Vettel hot takes were probably saved in drafts since pre season I suspect...

Pretty good lap from LeClerc, probably underscores how much margin Ferrari had that neither driver nailed the lap and they locked out the front row.

Daresay Vettel probably could've beaten it but having to do an extra lap in Q2 meant he had to play it somewhat safe in Q3 on a single run. Nonetheless, as everyone expected, LeClerc presents a much bigger challenge than Kimi did.

McLaren probably the biggest winners so far, 3/4 attempts got into Q3 and the other Sainz met a limping William's on his last lap. Especially given the nature of this track. Renault haven't yet taken the jump expected.

Still early but by RB standards Gasly might start feeling the heat

Not a surprise Leclerc got pole one of his better tracks as seen by his F2 career when he pretty much battered everyone into submission

No name Bertie wrote:Well done to Leclerc - I wonder if the Ferrari team will engineer a swap for Vettel to finish ahead - assuming Vettel is able to stay well clear of Hamilton.   Be interesting to see if Hamilton can get a good start and stay ahead of Bottas.  McLaren are showing some promise whilst Williams are rooted to the back of the field.

I think thats pretty much a given, assuming Ferrari's race pace is similarly superior to Mercedes. Which is a real shame, but I guess they have to protect their #1 driver. Still, must be pretty galling for Seb, to have a relative rookie come into the team and be immediately on the pace and even quicker than him, in some circumstances. Could get embarrassing if this continues into the season.

OTOH it could just light a fire under Vettel's backside and get him to knuckle down.


Am I the only one who finds it just slightly suspicious how Ferrari are suddenly 2/10ths quicker than Mercedes, after being so far off the pace in Australia (again, assuming quali performance translates into race performance)? I get that Bahrain is more of a power circuit with big straights, but is their engine really that much better than Mercedes? Also, is their aero that bad that they suffer that much on tighter, twisty street circuits?

As Bertie said, great to see McLaren making some progress and at least getting into Q3 regularly. Seems those personnel changes are finally paying dividends.

Things still looking gloomy for Williams, but maybe not for much longer. Was both surprised and pleased to see during an interview with Claire, that (Sir) Patrick Head is back in the team. Okay he's an old-timer, but he does have a long history with Williams and was largely responsible for a lot of their title-winning cars. So hopefully he can help bring the feel-good factor back and get them headed in the right direction.

Supposedly Ferrari had a cooling issue in Melbourne that meant they had to turn it down and then encountered fuel burn issues in turn.

As anyone knows I love a good conspiracy theory. Ferrari's title sponsor is Philip Morris the tobacco manufacturer. They are currently in a high profile court case against the Australian government.

Ferrari could've ran their engines in lower modes in Melbourne to detract from the controversy surrounding the mission winnow livery which was promptly removed by Ferrari before the Australian GP.

Obviously no proof to this theory as Ferrari are very secretive.

Romain Grosjean three place grid penalty for impeding Lando Norris.

Poor start from LeClerc losing two places to Vettel and Bottas. Bottas makes mistake on lap 2 allowing LeClerc back passed and Hamilton as well

Hahahahahahahah Vettel. Superb pressure from Hamilton today.

LeClerc reporting engine problems

Con artist Hamilton steals another win. The pathetic hype job gets continually lucky. Talentless dick

Vettel mistakes, and Ferrari unreliability. Nothing new. Hamilton continually pressured the Ferrari’s today. You have to keep yourself in the race, and he’s been rewarded.

Without these Poopie regulations con artist Hamilton wouldn't be any record books. These crap regulations are masking how average Hamilton is. A no hoper that lost to Button and Rosberg. Talentless

You’re just embarrassing yourself, Nathaniel.

Hamilton will never surpass Schumacher, Fangio, Prost and Senna.

Hamilton lost to journeymen drivers Button and Rosberg. Argue that

Hamilton's delusional engineer 'great win Lewis' Merecedes the Poopie that keeps happening

Hamilton (in a slower car) got himself past Vettel legitimately. Unreliability got him from 2nd to 1st. To call him talentless is just childish mate

Marky wrote:Hamilton (in a slower car) got himself past Vettel legitimately. Unreliability got him from 2nd to 1st. To call him talentless is just childish mate

When you lose to third rate drivers like Button and Rosberg your true talent level is exposed.

Vettel cracks again when pressurised. Aside from LeClercs mechanical issue at the end that is the big story. He had second in his pocket and cracked under pressure. Just proves he is not in Hamilton's class.

CaledonianCraig wrote:Vettel cracks again when pressurised. Aside from LeClercs mechanical issue at the end that is the big story. He had second in his pocket and cracked under pressure. Just proves he is not in Hamilton's class.

Craig the comidian strikes again. Hamilton is a mediocre driver. Between 2007-2013 was his true level. A fluke title in 2008 and choking in 2007.

Without these terrible regulations the biggest con artist in f1 would probably be on the dole by now.

Nathaniel Jacobs wrote:

CaledonianCraig wrote:Vettel cracks again when pressurised. Aside from LeClercs mechanical issue at the end that is the big story. He had second in his pocket and cracked under pressure. Just proves he is not in Hamilton's class.

Craig the comidian strikes again. Hamilton is a mediocre driver. Between 2007-2013 was his true level. A fluke title in 2008 and choking in 2007.

Without these terrible regulations the biggest con artist in f1 would probably be on the dole by now.

Get a grip - your losing downforce and becoming detached from grounded reality.

Anyway - so although Hamilton wins, he got beaten yet again by Bottas at the start.  Hamilton started third and Bottas fourth - yet Bottas gets away better and takes him at the start.   This is beginning to look like the season when Rosberg won the title from Hamilton - which was characterised by Hamiltons poor starts.   Obviously not the same scenario as Ferrari are competitive and possibly the faster package when everything falls into place - but it is a little worrying for Hamilton supporters.

Wow - what a race! Thats the most drama and incident I've seen in F1 in a while. A few great duels, lots of overtaking, collisions, DNFs and a Safety Car.

Absolutely gutted for Leclerc...rotten luck to have that happen to him. On the plus side he got his maiden podium and will surely bag a load of wins in the future. Very classy from Lewis to acknowledge Charles' misfortune over the radio as he crossed the line...and offered some nice words in the drivers' room afterwards.

Not proud of it, but I laughed heartily as once again Vettel showed he doesn't like wheel to wheel racing. Decent recovery drive but its another blow to his title hopes.

Quite honestly gobsmacked that the team let Charles and Seb race...guessing they don't want Seb getting too comfortable. If he had any doubts about his team mate's ability before, he won't any longer.

Mercedes looked distinctly second best for the first half of the race, but seemed to get quicker in the latter half. Still debatable as to who has the best overall package. I think we're going to see the balance of power shift between Merc & Ferrari from circuit to circuit. At least we should get an interesting title race...provided Ferrari don't have many more reliability issues.

Routine 1-2 for Lewis and Valtteri. But F1 can be a cruel sport at times and you have to take the breaks when you get them.

Very odd double DNF for Renault...looks like the software shut the engines down on both cars at practically the same time.

Very handy (if furtunate) 6th place for Lando Norris. Was great to see a McLaren actually being able to fight with other mid-grid teams.

F1 is rapidly becoming like the Scottish Premier League - Mercedes being the Celtic, the rest being rubbish/awful. Lewis Hamilton is essentially the Leigh Griffiths of the racing world.

Also a shame to see my boy Lance's race ruined by Grosjean. I hope the man with the most potential on the grid can bounceback at the Heineken in a fortnight

Nathaniel Jacobs wrote:Hamilton will never surpass Schumacher, Fangio, Prost and Senna.

Hamilton lost to journeymen drivers Button and Rosberg. Argue that

Nathaniel Jacobs wrote:Hamilton's delusional engineer 'great win Lewis' Merecedes the Poopie that keeps happening

Please...stop embarrassing yourself. You're coming across as very sad and bitter.

Either that or a very poor troll...

Interesting start to the season for the top 2 teams:

Mercedes looked substantially faster in Aus, perhaps surprisingly given the pre-season test performance, which does suggest that Ferrari had to turn the engines down there. Bottas quite clearly better than Hamilton, with Leclerc pressuring Vettel.

Bahrain and Leclerc was in a class of his own pretty much all weekend (on a circuit where he has a good history). Ferrari looked to have the edge on Merc in terms of raw pace, and only a good Hamilton performance kept him in the race and forced Vettel into an error. Leclerc obviously deserved the win after fighting back from an iffy start, but it does raise the question of whether Ferrari are having to run their car on the edge of reliability to be so quick.
This time, Bottas was no-where in relation to Hamilton.

Be interesting to see which car proves to be dominant over the next few races. At the moment it looks like RB are best of the rest, but that the gap between them and Ferrari / Mercedes has widened and to the rest of the midfield has narrowed, Lots of teams close together in the midfield, with only Williams clearly being at a disadvantage.

Vettel fastest in FP1
Bottas fastest in FP2

Ferrari has replaced the control electronics on its works engines, as a result of the failure in Bahrain.

I wonder if the three engine limit is going to be a major factor in this years championship.

It seems that whatever issue that affected Leclerc in the last race in Bahrain may not be totally cured - or might have created weaknesses elsewhere.

It has also been said that the power in the Ferrari engine was reduced in the first race in Australia - and I assume that too would have been a decision made to reduce the risk of an engine failure.

Two races down and nineteen more races to go.

Comfortable win for Hamilton, after jumping Bottas at the start. LeClerc got bent over by Ferrari, as they favoured Vettel in prioritising his strategy. Pretty dull race, but Mercedes have now had three 1-2 finishes this season, and are looking dominant.

Hamilton obviously very very delighted to win the Chinese Grand Prix - probably because he was playing catch-up in the practice sessions and then the early stages of qualifying. Bottas was well ahead of him - but Hamilton's team found the set-up and then Hamilton did the rest.  Hamilton this time got a better race start than Bottas and then didn't have many problems staying ahead.   Bottas got second.  

Leclerc (who overtook Vettel at the race start) had to let Vettel overtake him early in the race (team orders), despite Leclerc complaining he had the faster car.  So Ferrari - as I suppose everyone knew - are strongly favouring Vettel from the start.  Vettel finished third.  Verstappen fourth - he had a go at overtaking Vettel - but this time Vettel held out and Verstappen was pushed on to the grass.   Verstappen finished fourth.  

Not sure why Leclerc didn't finish fourth - he ended up fifth - I think he also posted the fastest lap.  Gasly finished sixth - then Ricciardo was the best of the rest.  Everyone from 7th place down was lapped.

Two additional points.  Bottas said he lost the race at the start - he had some wheel spin - which was enough for Hamilton to get past.   Once Bottas was behind he said he couldn't overcome the dirty air (turbulence) from Hamilton's car - which caused him to lose enough grip so as not to be able to rechallenge  Hamilton.  Second point is - the halo frame has become part and parcel of the formula one car - no-one is talking about it anymore - and it makes the car a lot more safer.

ps: Pierre Gasly finishing in sixth ended up with the fastest lap.