Last year's thread: https://forums.nasioc.com/forums/sho....php?t=2860070
While Vettel looked like the front-runner for a good chunk of the first half of the season, after the summer break has been the Lewis Hamilton Show and he cruised to his 4th 5th World Driver's Championship, marking 4 5 straight years of Mercedes dominance in the V6 turbo hybrid era. Yep, that intro was copy/pasted from last year's thread as that's 10 out of 10 driver's/constructor's championships for Merc now.
Hopefully there is more action at the front next year as only one podium spot for the entire season did not belong to the top 3 teams. Next year's revised/simplified aero regs as well as consolidated Pirelli compounds could help close up the current 3 team domination of the sport with everyone else making up the numbers as a clearly defined "Formula 1.5."
Speaking of changes, this has been the silliest of silly seasons on record with only 2 out of the 10 teams keeping the same lineup as next year, drivers leaving the sport, coming back to the sport, changing teams and engine manufacturers changing as well.
2019 driver lineups:
Mercedes (Mercedes): Hamilton, Bottas
Ferrari (Ferrari): Vettel, Leclerc
Red Bull (Honda): Verstappen, Gasly
Renault (Renault): Hulkenberg, Ricciardo
Haas (Ferrari): Grosjean, Magnussen
McLaren (Renault): Sainz, Norris
Force India (Mercedes): Perez, Stroll
Sauber (Ferrari): Raikkonen, Giovinazzi
Toro Rosso (Honda): Kvyat, Albon
Williams (Mercedes): Kubica, Russell
Bottas will need a strong showing after an abysmal year which saw him finish 5th in the driver's championship with 0 wins to his name, albeit due to some team orders, punctures and bad luck. Still, Mercedes needs someone pushing Hamilton like Rosberg did and with Ocon out of a drive and serving as Mercedes reserve/test driver and their other junior Russell in at Williams, his 2020 seat is far from secure.
Vettel will have a new teammate in the hotshoe Leclerc who has mightily impressed in his rookie season with a surging Sauber team. Gone will be Vettel's quiet, reliable wingman of Raikkonen who took it upon himself to sign with Sauber after Ferrari released him, showing there is still fight in the old dog yet. He will team up with another Ferrari junior in Antonio Giovinazzi.
Ricciardo has taken the biggest gamble of all in deciding to leave the nest of Red Bull to join the works Renault team where he will pair the consistent Nico Hulkenberg. Regularly outqualified and outraced by Verstappen, Ricciardo has decided to take the plunge on the hopes of a factory works team coming good in several years' time. We'll have to wait to see how that pans out for him and how Red Bull fares with their new Honda engines. Christian Horner has been notoriously quick to point the finger at Renault over the years and Honda has already endured plenty of that with McLaren. Pierre Gasly has been called up from the junior Toro Rosso team to fill Ricciardo's shoes. Thankfully for Gasly, there hasn't been much champagne in them recently.
Sainz was surprised to find himself without a seat after Ricciardo's surprise Renault signing and with Red Bull opting to promote Gasly instead (as Sainz was still a contracted Red Bull driver), he ended up down at the struggling McLaren where his hero Fernando Alonso has finally tapped out of a long, painful stint at the back of the grid. Sainz will pair rookie Lando Norris in a totally new lineup after Stoffel Vandoorne was regularly thrashed by the veteran Alonso, failing to outqualify him even once over the 21 race season.
Racing Point Force India were bailed out of a potential administration by billionaire Lawrence Stroll mid-2018, saving the jobs of hundreds of team members and keeping them on the grid. In a total coincidence, he has taken the he money to provided to Williams where his son, Lance, was driving and given it to Force India where, wouldn't you know it, Lance will be driving next year. Amazing what duffel bags of cash can do for your career! He will partner Sergio Perez who will be his strongest teammate to date and will need some strong performances to shake the constant perpetuating of the view that his dad is paving the path up the grid for him in gold.
Sauber had a great 2018 and all signs point to an even stronger 2019 despite a totally new driver lineup. That's because they managed to replace Marcus Ericsson with Ferrari's veteran 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen and traded one Ferrari junior in Leclerc for another in Antonio Giovinazzo. With a strong Ferrari power unit, look for them to challenge even higher up the grid even more consistently.
Toro Rosso is yet another team with a totally new driver lineup in the form of former Red Bull journeyman Daniel Kvyat, everyone's favorite torpedo, and 2018 F2 3rd place finisher Alex Albon. The junior pipeline has dried up for Red Bull as they resorted to bringing in WEC driver Brendan Hartley last year to replace the demoted and booted Kvyat who is now being brought back in to the team for a 3rd time and Alex Albon who was dropped by Dr. Helmut Marko after a horrific rookie season in single seaters in 2012. I suspect the difference in experience will show in their results.
And finally, with yet another totally new driver lineup, Williams. Oh, Williams. What can you say about this dumpster fire of a season? The car was the worst on the grid, hardly ever making it out of Q1 or scoring any points. An inexperienced driver lineup of Lance Stroll and rookie Sergei Sirotkin were of little use as the team floundered at the back of the grid. With $troll moving up to Force India thanks to his dad's investment and rumors of Sirotkin's funding drying up, former F1 driver Robert Kubica is set to make his historic F1 comeback after a life-threatening and crippling rally accident in the winter before the 2011 season. 8 years later, he will be back in a full time race seat against Mercedes young gun and reigning F2 champion George Russell. While a rookie, he is highly rated and combined with Kubica's experience, they are a vastly superior lineup compared to this year. We can only hope the team can produce a car that can provide them with better results.
2019 F1 calendar:
17 March 2019 Melbourne Australia
31 March 2019 Sakhir Bahrain
14 April 2019 Shanghai China
28 April 2019 Baku Azerbaijan
12 May 2019 Barcelona Spain
26 May 2019 Monaco Monaco
9 June 2019 Montreal Canada
23 June 2019 Le Castellet France
30 June 2019 Spielberg Austria
14 July 2019 Silverstone Great Britain
28 July 2019 Hockenheim Germany
4 August 2019 Budapest Hungary
1 September 2019 Spa-Francorchamps Belgium
8 September 2019 Monza Italy
22 September 2019 Singapore Singapore
29 September 2019 Sochi Russia
13 October 2019 Suzuka Japan
27 October 2019 Mexico City Mexico
3 November 2019 Austin USA
17 November 2019 Sao Paulo Brazil
1 December 2019 Yas Marina Abu Dhabi
That's right, from St. Patrick's Day all the way to December!
2019 pre-season tests:
February 18-21 Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona
February 6 - March 1 Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona