2019 Bahrain GP report | A maiden victory snatched away

Posted on by James Mackenzie
Oh, Charles.
Charles Leclerc at the 2019 Bahrain Grand Prix.
Image credit: Ferrari/Colombo

Formula 1 can be such a cruel sport…and we saw it at its most callous on Sunday, as Charles Leclerc was denied a maiden victory at the 2019 Bahrain Grand Prix, with Lewis Hamilton picking up the spoils.

Leclerc had driven near enough flawlessly all weekend, barring maybe half of the first lap, and he looked to be heading towards his first victory in the sport, in only his second race for Ferrari. But then came a radio message. “There is something strange with the engine.” And so unravelled a fairy tale.

It wasn’t to be for Leclerc as his engine, down on power due to an injector failure, left him a sitting duck on the straights. Lewis Hamilton almost-apologetically passed him to take the chequered flag, as did Valtteri Bottas, before Leclerc was at least saved a place on the podium thanks to a late safety car caused by a bizarre, synchronised double-Renault-failure. The dignity and grace with which he took such a crushing blow was as impressive as his speed – an incredibly mature head on such young shoulders.

But the story of the day was clear: Leclerc is now undeniably a championship contender. As Sebastian Vettel’s chances slipped away with a spin reminiscent of his struggles last season, the young Monegasque kept his cool and sailed off into the distance. Ferrari have clearly fixed their issues from the first race and, whilst Bahrain has always been a strong track for them, this bodes well for a competitive season. The red cars had straight line speed that their competitors struggled to comprehend and, assuming there is nothing sneaky going on that will subsequently be banned, that is hard to fight against. I expect superiority to swing between Ferrari and Mercedes throughout the year, dependent on tracks and updates, but we now have enough evidence to believe that this shouldn’t be the year of Mercedes-dominance the opener hinted at. And that it could well be Leclerc taking the fight to them rather than his multiple world champion teammate…

The Heir to Hamilton’s Throne?

It is very early days, of course, but the start to Lando Norris’s F1 career has been very impressive. When I say ‘the heir to Hamilton’s throne’, I do not necessarily mean I expect him to be a future five-time world champion obviously – that’s just setting the kid up for a massive fall – but more that British fans will want a new home-grown star to cheer for in a few years, whenever the current superstar decides to hang up his racing boots.

That’s not to say that they shouldn’t be cheering for him already. Norris comes across as a very down-to-earth lad – I mean, he’s normally competing online with Joe Public on iRacing hours before a race – with a good sense of humour. Oh, and he’s pretty damn quick too. There have been many junior careers that have promised much but failed to deliver once at the very top table. Norris has won most series he has entered at the first attempt and, having been given his chance early, has taken very little time to appear settled in F1. Any left wondering about his racecraft or wheel-to-wheel credentials, after he spent a few laps stuck behind Antonio Giovinazzi in Melbourne, had their questions answered this race with both some great overtakes and defensive driving, keeping a former world champion (who is more than double his age) behind him to claim an excellent 6th place.

It should be noted of course that he was not the only young Brit to join the grid this year. George Russell even beat Norris to the F2 title last year. Unfortunately, he is currently hampered with an uncompetitive Williams and a teammate who, should he continue to stay in front of, will most likely be sadly written-off as too injured to to be considered a yardstick. But both he and Thai-British rookie Alexander Albon have been impressing so far. Time will tell who of last year’s F2 top three is really the biggest talent but, in the meantime, we can feel safe that the future of British motorsport looks rosy.

Is Dr. Marko Oiling Up the Guillotine?

Pierre Gasly has to find some speed, simply put, and pretty sharpish too. Max Verstappen on the other side of your garage would be intimidating for most on the grid, but currently he is making Gasly look decidedly average. We know about Red Bull’s – or rather Helmut Marko’s – history of impatience with underperforming drivers and there were the first few comments starting to appear over the weekend about it being unacceptable that they were fighting in the midfield.

Max Verstappen at the 2019 Bahrain Grand Prix.
Image credit: Getty Images

All that said, it appears Red Bull are still to fully understand the intricacies of their new car and it appears as if it may be a bit of a diva. So one would hope the Frenchman is given some time to find his feet. Another reassuring factor for him will be that there is not an obvious replacement – surely Daniil Kvyat’s rollercoaster of a career with the Red Bull programme wouldn’t see them rushing to put him back into the senior team and it is certainly too early for Albon at the moment.

I’d advise Gasly not to start watching the new series of Game of Thrones though…just in case…

The Bahrain Grand Prix in 60 Seconds

Answering the Burning Questions

Was Australia a blip for Ferrari or is there a more fundamental problem with this year’s car?Would appear pretty safe to say it was a blip.

Is Bottas really rejuvenated and now a force to be reckoned with? Jury’s out. Normal Hamilton dominance was resumed this race but apparently Bottas had a plastic bag stuck in/on the car for a portion of the race which hampered performance.

Will the new regulations provide better racing at a track with a better potential for wheel-to-wheel racing? That was certainly a great race and with a good amount of on-track battling. Looks promising.

Can Leclerc push on from a mixed first weekend for the Scuderia and properly take the challenge to Vettel? Yes. And then some.

Will the Ricciardo-Hamilton/Avocado&Ham bromance continue? Saw no evidence of any further bromancing.

2019 Bahrain GP preview

Posted on by James Mackenzie

On to Round Two…

The Burning Questions

Was Australia a blip for Ferrari or is there a more fundamental problem with this year’s car?

Is Bottas really rejuvenated and now a force to be reckoned with?

Will the new regulations provide better racing at a track with a better potential for wheel-to-wheel racing?

Can Leclerc push on from a mixed first weekend for the Scuderia and properly take the challenge to Vettel?

Will the Ricciardo-Hamilton/Avocado&Ham bromance continue?

The Track

The Stats

Track Length: 5.412 km

Laps: 57

Race Distance: 308.238 km

First Grand Prix: 2004

Race Lap Record: Pedro de la Rosa | McLaren | 2005 | 1:31.447

Outright Lap Record: Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 2018 | 1:27.958

Most Driver Wins: Sebastian Vettel | 2012, 2013, 2017, 2018

Most Constructor Wins: Ferrari | 2004, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2017, 2018

The Photos

The Predictions

Podium

Pole Position

Fastest Lap

Driver of the Day

The first tangent

Posted on by James Mackenzie

So, yes…the reason my post on the Australian GP was delayed is also the reason for my first official tangent.

And that is that I was skiing in Switzerland.

It has been a lifelong dream to experience a proper slope, having only ever been to indoor slopes in Tamworth and Milton Keynes…not the most glamorous of locations. Certainly not compared to Gstaad anyway.

The beautiful mountains of Gstaad.
A reasonable view, I guess

I have about 50 almost identical pictures of the surrounding mountains because every time you turn you around, you think you’ve seen the most picturesque section yet.

This isn’t a travel blog so I won’t go into too much detail but, in a nutshell, Switzerland is everything you will have heard before. It is beautiful. And it is expensive. Our bill at a local bar/restaurant which consisted of fondue (admittedly, a full kilogram of cheese between 4), a couple of desserts, a few drinks, and a round of shots (in honour of St. Patrick’s day) topped out at about 200 Swiss Francs – that’s over £150.

So, be prepared to have to steal a few bread rolls from breakfast to tide you over if you’re there for any period of time. Nonetheless, I would thoroughly recommend this trip or one similar to it. I was lucky enough to experience everything almost untouched as I was there during the working week and the end of the season.

A brief trip to Montreux, and its Freddie Mercury statue, also proved fruitful for my photo collection.

The dramatic backdrop of the mountains makes almost anything look spectacular and the beauty seems to produce an unavoidable air of relaxation. As the Queen frontman himself said: “If you want peace of mind, come to Montreux”.

2019 Australian GP report

Posted on by James Mackenzie

Apologies for this being a bit late – there will be another post later which will explain why. But yes, the first race of the season – the 2019 Australian Grand Prix – is done and dusted…and produced probably as many questions as it did answers. So, let’s get into it.

Bottas Victorious

Well then.

All the very clever people who thought they had cunningly deciphered pre-season testing would appear to be wrong. Obviously I’m not included in that… *Hastily deletes predictions post.* Ferrari certainly didn’t have the fastest car in Melbourne. There are rumours of an issue with the Power Unit but whether it was that or just not getting the set-up right all weekend, the red cars were nowhere. They were a similar distance from Hamilton’s pole lap last year and then only won the race due to some luck with the safety car, before turning up in Bahrain with the quickest car. Most fans will be hoping that they can get to the bottom of the issues so we can have a close season-long battle battle like last year.

It has since transpired that Lewis Hamilton’s lack of pace was at least partially caused by damage to the floor of the car. But either way, it was the Finn who got the better start and then didn’t put a foot wrong and deservedly topped the final results. The newly-bearded Bottas signed off his win by saying over the radio, “To whom it may concern…f**k you.” He really does have a new steel this year, to go with his new beard, and hopefully he can keep that going through the season to take the fight to his teammate and shake off the ‘wingman’ and ‘Robottas’ tags.

Charles Leclerc had a bit of a shaky start to his Ferrari career, nearly colliding with the sister car at the first corner and then running wide whilst chasing Max Verstappen. But came good towards the end of the race and gave Ferrari their first headache, that he had been hoping to cause them, as he was asked to stay behind Vettel after having closed on him rapidly, showing that he may well cause him some problems this year.

Honda on the Podium

I came across this photo comparison on Reddit and it does quite nicely illustrate the transformation of Honda in the last two years. They were a laughing stock in their time with McLaren…but redemption is sweet. The paddock now accepts that, whilst the Japanese company understandably had to play catch-up having started their engine programme years after the other manufacturers, the McLaren philosophies hampered them considerably.

They have joined up with Red Bull, after a successful trial period with their little sister team, Toro Rosso, and instantly flourished, gaining a podium at the partnership’s first attempt. Verstappen made mince meat of Vettel down the straight and, potential Power Unit issues for the Ferrari or not, that would have seemed incomprehensible as Alonso was ranting about his GP2 engine not all that long ago.

I’m happy for them. And glad that we now have four competitive engines in the sport.

The Midfield Order is Anyone’s Guess

It looks as if Haas may just have the edge. But they conspired to throw away a strong finish at Melbourne through failing to put a wheel on properly yet again! Will those kind of issues cost them the privilege of claiming best of the rest, as they did last season? They were also quicker at Melbourne than most other tracks last year. The rest of the midfield was covered by a few tenths in qualifying and formed a nice train for much of the race too. Lando Norris was unfortunate to get stuck behind the long-running Alfa Romeo of Antonio Giovinazzi, which cost him his shot at breaking the record for the youngest debut points-scorer. Kimi Räikkönen put in the experienced, solid performance you’d expect and Nico Hülkenberg did what he does and finished higher up than his car probably belonged (and not on the podium obviously). Renault have some work to do on this year’s car but it would appear to have potential. It was a real shame to hear the clearly-audible groan of the crowd as Daniel Ricciardo fell down a gutter and destroyed his front wing mere seconds into the Grand Prix. The Aussie home race curse might just be real.

The Hulkenberg train at the 2019 Australian Grand Prix.
Image credit: Formula 1

Have the Regulation Changes Actually Made a Difference?

As Norris sat stuck behind a visibly-slower Alfa Romeo lap after lap, even with the new, more powerful DRS, you started to wonder if these new regulation changes, aimed at reducing ‘dirty air’ and making it easier to follow and thus pass the car ahead, had actually done anything. The midfield train, shown above, then added to those doubts. But I will withhold judgement for now as the traits of the Melbourne circuit have always made it one of the hardest to pass on. It is a street circuit with a layout that doesn’t lend itself to much overtaking and the many support races mean the F1 rubber that would normally be laid down over the course of the weekend is removed ahead of race day. Some of the drivers have made comments indicating an improvement so let’s see how things shape up after a few different circuits.

The Australian Grand Prix in 60 Seconds

Predictions that I’ll probably regret making

Posted on by James Mackenzie

As I said, I had planned to do this post on Thursday but delayed it after the news about Charlie Whiting. But with only two practice sessions gone (and Ferrari potentially keeping their true pace under wraps), I think making some F1 2019 predictions for the entire season is still probably fair game… No? Well, I’m doing it anyway.

World Drivers’ Championship Top 5

1st: Sebastian Vettel

I just have a gut feeling that Ferrari are finally going to pull it together this year and that Vettel’s experience in the end will be enough to see him to the title. The Ferrari has been behaving very nicely in pre-season and we know from his Red Bull years what he can do if he’s in a car he likes, leading from the front.

2nd: Lewis Hamilton

Whilst I believe Ferrari will have the better car this year, I also believe that Hamilton is the better driver and that he’ll push Vettel all the way. He won’t be in a hurry to give up the mantle of being the most successful active driver (at least in terms of championships) and he overcame the odds in, arguably, a slightly slower car last season. But it may end up too big a challenge to conquer this year.

3rd: Charles Leclerc

I can see Leclerc surprising people early on and matching Vettel’s pace; potentially leading the championship after a few races (à la Hamilton in ’07). But ultimately I think a bit of inconsistency will creep in and he’ll slip back as it gets to the sharp end of the season. We saw those rookie mistakes in the shape of a few spins last year – not that that couldn’t also be said of Vettel – and I think the unbridled passion of the tifosi weighs on even the strongest of shoulders. Leclerc has remained realistic about this season and finding his feet so, whilst he may not come out on top this year, I expect great things from the young Monegasque.

4th: Max Verstappen

As I have said previously, I think Red Bull will be there or thereabouts this season – snatching the odd win and getting on the podium a fair bit. They’re unlikely to be in a position to challenge for titles in the first year of their partnership with Honda, but I think Verstappen will continue to channel his speed into more consistent results and less crashes this year. And end the season with a repeat of last year’s respectable 4th place.

5th: Valtteri Bottas

It’s very much make or break this year for Bottas. ‘Valtteri, this is James’ became one of the most overused memes of last season and that is how the F1 world now sees him – as the ‘wingman’ he so didn’t want to be. Ironically, his disapproval of the term is what made a headline out of it and caused it to stick. But sadly, excellent new facial hair or not, you just can’t see him posing much more of a challenge to Hamilton this year. It can’t be easy going up against an all-time great but after three years in his shadow, and with the highly-rated Mercedes protégé Esteban Ocon waiting in the wings, will it be the Finn’s final year in a Silver Arrow? I think so.

World Constructors’ Championship Top 5

1st: Scuderia Ferrari

As stated above, I think the Scuderia will finally get it right this season and come out with their first Constructors’ Championship in over a decade. After a lot of pain and a fair few near misses during that decade, it would be a poetic result and a fitting tribute to their former chairman, Sergio Marchione, who died last year.

2nd: Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport

Mercedes equalled Ferrari’s record of five consecutive double World Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championship titles last year and they would love to make that record their own. But it appears that the team they are trying to prise that record from have produced the best car and the toughest challenge that the German team have faced since they began their domination of the sport in 2014. They’ll push them all the way but maybe six in a row will be just too big of an ask.

3rd: Aston Martin Red Bull Racing

Come 2021, with a couple more years’ experience and integration for Honda and new regulations for Adrian Newey to get his teeth into, I think Red Bull could well end up the team to beat again if they play their cards right. But for now I don’t see them challenging the top two on a regular basis and probably having a few more retirements than them as well. Obviously no one looks close to challenging them for third though.

4th: Renault F1 Team

The midfield pack is already widely-accepted as very, very tight this year. But if I have to pick someone to finish best of the rest then I’m going for Renault. They probably have the best driver line-up of the group and clear long-term aims of making the top three into a top four, towards which they have been making steady progress in the last couple of years. And being a works team never hurts.

5th: Alfa Romeo Racing

I struggled to decide between Alfa and Haas for fifth place. Both the effective Ferrari B-teams have shown some good form and put forward a good case for being in the top five. Haas produced what some believe to be the second-quickest fuel-corrected run in pre-season testing. But I fancy the Italian team to edge it over the whole season, based mostly on the impressive progress they made through 2018 with their new funding.

Best-Placed Rookie

Lando Norris

I may have gone with Antonio Giovinazzi but he doesn’t count as a rookie, having competed in two races at the start of 2017. So of the three true rookies – Britons, Lando Norris and George Russell, and British-born but racing under a Thai flag, Alexander Albon – my choice would be Norris. Sadly, it looks a lot like Russell’s Williams will be struggling with the 107% rule and, whilst their two teams look finely balanced, Albon has looked a little shaky in testing. Norris also beat him in F2 last year.

Most Exciting Race of the Year

Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Aside from the bizarre aesthetics of Baku itself, as the cars flash between backdrops of castles, Renaissance architecture and new, futuristic towers, the last two races have been absolute corkers. 2017 had Vettel deliberately driving into Hamilton under the safety car and Bottas passing Stroll on the line for 2nd place. Then fast-forward 12 months and we had that Red Bull crash and Bottas this time picking up a puncture whilst leading with a few laps to go. The Azerbaijan GP just seems to have a knack for unpredictability and drama, so it’s where my bet for the race of the year goes.

Craziest Driver Move of Silly Season

Fernando Alonso to Red Bull

If this prediction comes true, then I will quite rightly gloat for the entirety of 2020. Let’s say that… Gasly gets trounced by Verstappen. Helmut Marko refuses to re-promote Kvyat to the big team and Albon hasn’t shone. The Red Bull junior programme has run a little dry. Alonso has won the Indy 500 at his second attempt and, with the Triple Crown under his belt, is now interested in F1 again. Christian Horner picks up the phone…

Will Nico Hülkenberg Finally Get a Podium?

NO

Charlie Whiting, 1952-2019

Posted on by James Mackenzie

I was halfway through writing a predictions post when I heard the news about Charlie. And he is absolutely worthy of his own post rather than any kind of footnote.

Charlie Whiting has been a name synonymous with the sport throughout my time following it. Growing up, I remember classing him, along with Professor Sid Watkins and of course Bernie Ecclestone, as the ‘important grey-haired men’.

He started in the sport over 40 years ago as an engineer at Hesketh Racing, before becoming chief mechanic for Nelson Piquet during his title-winnings years of 1981 and 1983 and then moving into various roles within the governing body – culminating in his most famous, long-term position as Race Director.

Jake Humphrey shared a touching story about his first day in the F1 paddock – Charlie had come over and introduced himself, whilst reassuring him that ‘this place is known as the piranha club…but it’s also a family’. Bernie was probably the godfather of that family, but Charlie was the dad.

You can hear that in the hundreds of radio messages every season, if not race, where the drivers will address him by his first name, whatever the situation.. In the few behind-the-scenes clips of driver briefings that we outsiders get to see, the respect that every driver had for him was plainly obvious.

For this to have happened on the very eve of a new season is particularly shocking and his absence will overshadow the weekend, along with leaving a giant hole in the sport in general. The show will go on, but it won’t be quite the same.

I’d like to think he can now join Professor Sid and Ayrton Senna on that fishing trip in the sky.

Rest In Peace, Charlie.

Charlie Whiting, RIP.
Image credit: AFP

Let’s act like we know what’s going on in testing, pt. 2

Posted on by James Mackenzie

In this post I will, for the most part, stick with my modus operandi of not granting the 2019 F1 testing times too much significance. But it’s no fun to entirely ignore them so let’s allow ourselves to read a little into them, especially when it comes to the headline news of the front-runners.

Let me pose some questions.

So, Were Mercedes aCTUALLY Sandbagging Then?

The Mercedes cars did finally unleash a bit of speed but they left it until the final hour of the final day of testing. Ferrari had already packed up, after Sebastian Vettel was left stationary at turn two with an electrical failure an hour or so earlier. That quick run on the softest tyres left him just 0.003 seconds shy of Vettel’s test-topping time of 1:16.221 which, even by Formula 1 standards, is very close. Fuel-and-tyre-corrected lists have put the Ferrari around half a second ahead but I’m not totally convinced; the apparent differences between the tyre compounds always appear to be overestimated in my experience. And will the Silver Arrows still have their infamous ‘party mode’ once it comes to the serious business?

The Mercedes and Ferrari at F1 2019 testing.
The two teams have gone in noticeably different directions with their aero philosophies

From on-board footage, the Ferrari looks by far the easier of the two to drive – very balanced; equally happy in different corner types – and has done so since the first day of testing. An impressive feat with new regulations and a brand new car. My gut feeling is that Ferrari have the edge currently. Lewis Hamilton is unmatched when it comes to throwing a car round Albert Park on a Saturday, so he could well pull yet another pole out of nowhere, but I think by race day the red cars will be on top. One thing to bear in mind, though, is that Mercedes’ Achilles’ heel in recent years has been dealing with the dirty air when following another car. If the regulation changes have done their job, they may now be able to put up more of a fight when not in the lead. The rest of the season will be a story of who wins the development war and whether Ferrari can solves the operational issues that have plagued their last two championship campaigns. Of course, Helmut Marko would have you believe it will be Red Bull bringing the fight to Ferrari…which leads me nicely to my next point…

Where do Red Bull Stack Up?

Dr. Marko says a lot of things. And you get the impression a lot of them are just to stir things up – he’s quite similar to the ex-Godfather Bernie Ecclestone in that way. He has made a lot of ambitious claims of Red Bull’s impending success in the recent past which have not really come to fruition. But in fairness, this time round, the RB15 is looking pretty promising. It is a little harder to compare them with the other two of the ‘big three’ as they did not do any qualifying runs, but their long-run pace has been looking pretty good. Unfortunately, Pierre Gasly put paid to one of those on Thursday with a fairly hefty trip into the barriers. And it wasn’t his only one either. The young Frenchman will need to iron out those mistakes if he is to truly challenge Max Verstappen on the other side of the garage. He may be a year older than his teammate, but he has far less experience in the sport and the consensus seems to be that Verstappen has now added much-needed maturity to his undeniable speed.

Image credit: Getty Images

If my hand was forced, I would say I can see Red Bull matching up roughly where they did last season – nicking the odd win whilst also having some off days and a fair few retirements. Whilst their relationship with Honda has certainly started smoothly, Red Bull cars tend to ask a lot of their power units and I can see a few teething issues appearing once everything gets turned up to 11. Nonetheless, I think the Honda deal is a good move in the long-term and could see Red Bull as genuine championship contenders again given time.

How Close is the Midfield Battle?

Very. In a word. Renault, Haas, Toro Rosso, McLaren and Alfa Romeo all appear to be within a couple of tenths of each other, whilst Racing Point were openly running a very basic car for these tests, with many new parts coming for either Melbourne or the first of the European races – the return to Barcelona in May. With all the variables, I don’t think there is a lot of point in dissecting such similar times to try and figure out who is looking the favourite for 4th place. Just rest assured that the ‘Formula 1.5‘ championship, as it has been christened, looks like being even more closely fought than last season. And it seems they have all closed the gap to the front-runners a little, so we may see the odd podium position being stolen more often.

Image credit: Motorsport Images

That just leaves Williams, who are as off the pace as expected after their late arrival. The car has, commendably, not suffered any obvious issues and the team have amassed a fair amount of laps. But Robert Kubica admitted that he had not done a run longer than 15 laps so we will have to see how they deal with a full race distance in two weeks time. It is a real shame to see Williams just making up the numbers.

And Finally, How Quick Are the Cars in General?

This year’s regulation changes were expected to result in a drop in performance and a rise in lap times. But that hasn’t really happened. Whilst some of the lap time can be accounted for by, amongst other factors, more favourable conditions than at last year’s test, the headline time ended up just shy of a second quicker than last year’s. It would appear, as ever, that the brainboxes behind the scenes have found ways around the rules to exploit loopholes and make the air go in exactly the directions around the car they so choose. And they certainly have the potential to go much faster at this stage of development.

Overall, this season has the makings of a fantastic one. Let’s hope that’s still the case come Abu Dhabi in around 9 months time.

Alonso made McLaren ambassador

Posted on by James Mackenzie

Just a quick post on a new McLaren role for a certain Fernando Alonso.

Alonso has become an ambassador for McLaren and it is planned for him to test the car later in the year. He isn’t participating in the pre-season tests to ensure that the new drivers can familiarise themselves as much as possible with the new car. Very decent of him.

There has been a lot of speculation as to whether this is the Spaniard keeping his options open in case this year’s car is as much of a step forward as McLaren hope – and that has looked the case so far in testing – with a view to maybe worming his way back into a seat in 2020. But this is far from a unique situation. Jenson Button was given an ambassadorial role in 2017 and, beyond PR appearances and so forth, that only amounted to one fill-in drive at Monaco when Alonso decided to swan off to the Indy 500. And it would take either Carlos Sainz or Lando Norris being considerably off the pace for them to bump one of them down at the start of a promising new relationship.

Alonso said the role was ‘a true honour’ and ‘just the beginning’. Whether he’s referring to McLaren or F1 in general, it’s far from the beginning of his story… But if this move keeps one of the sport’s greatest characters in and around the paddock for a bit longer, that can only be seen as a good thing.

Fernando Alonso taking a break from his trying time at McLaren with a spot of sunbathing.
Alonso will have a bit more spare time in which to sunbathe this year.

Let’s act like we know what’s going on in testing, pt. 1

Posted on by James Mackenzie

Every F1 publication will at this point deliver the usual caveat of pre-season testing times being unreliable, misleading and generally useless for forming opinions…and then proceed to do so anyway. In this post, I will attempt to stick to things that we can hopefully establish from this first week of 2019 F1 testing.

(And then maybe make some wild, sweeping statements and predictions at the end if I feel like it.)

McLaren’s Reliability Has Improved

I think that is fair to say. McLaren have spent the pre-season tests of the last few years in varying levels of crisis. Infamously so with Honda, completing only 425 laps in 2017 and 380 in 2015 whilst generally blowing up every time they left the garage. Fernando Alonso covered almost as many miles on foot as he did in the MP4-30. And then even with Renault last year things weren’t much better. A wheel fell off after literally 6 laps… Whilst things had then started to look more promising to the outside world, the team knew that their times were flattering to deceive and that their lofty aims of returning to the podium were not to be realised. And that maybe it hadn’t been Honda’s fault all along…

Lando Norris at 2019 F1 testing.
Image credit: DPA Picture Alliance

But this year things have been going far more smoothly. They have been quietly getting on with things – under the radar, running through programs without the need to chuck on the softest tyres and jump up higher in the timings than is representative – and have finished the week without any major dramas, solidly in the midfield when it comes to laps completed.

The team abandoned development on last year’s car early on in order to focus on this year’s and thus have far more stable foundations to build from than some of the other teams. The paddock has apparently been impressed by some of their aero ideas. Zak Brown has realistic aims of a ‘step forward’ and it’s looking like that may well have been achieved.

Alfa Romeo Have Improved Massively Since Last Year

Whilst the steady improvement of the Alfa Romeo Sauber was clear to see through last season, the difference between this and last year’s testing times is quite something.

They are very nearly five seconds better off. In cars that were supposed to be around a couple of seconds slower after these regulation changes, remember? Admittedly, the track had been resurfaced last year and conditions were far colder, hence the improvement from all teams, but the Alfa has clearly taken the biggest step. Having been scraping together pennies just a couple of years ago, the team now has enough of a budget to make one-off Valentine’s Day liveries and hire a former world champion. It will be interesting to see where they can push on to from here.

I get the impression Ferrari have somewhat shunned Haas as their little sister team in favour of Alfa Romeo and you wonder if that might have a similar adverse effect on the American team as it is a positive one on the Italians. Haas were the surprise package of 2018 and many in the paddock were suspicious of their relationship with Ferrari. But with those at Maranello now less reliant on them, will they revert to the also-rans that joined the sport in 2016?

Teams Have Gone In Different Directions With the New Front Wings

The main aim of the new regulations was to aid cars in following each other closely and to help produce better wheel-to-wheel racing. But also to potentially mix up the pack a bit. And whilst the effectiveness of the former is certainly still up for debate, the latter appears to have worked. The teams have gone with visibly different approaches.

The Mercedes front wing is the only to have its endplates angled inwards. They and Ferrari have gone in highly different directions, which is often the case, and time will tell which of them has got it right. For the moment, with Ferrari and Alfa Romeo performing very well at the first test, it is looking more likely to be their philosophy that is the way to go. If that is the case, then will Mercedes (and some of the others) concede defeat and attempt to fit a Ferrari-style wing to their car? History has often proven that just whacking on someone else’s car part isn’t very effective…

Williams Are Somewhat in Trouble

This once legendary team are struggling. They were reduced to a day and a half of shakedown drives as they tried to get to know their new car. Whilst British rookie George Russell appeared excited just to be part of it all, Robert Kubica, who has been there and done it with established teams in the past, appeared visibly frustrated already. And that coming from a man who has finally achieved his incredible goal of returning to the sport after suffering life-changing injuries eight years ago. There are rumours circulating of unrest within the team and questions being asked of Paddy Lowe – the man brought in from all-conquering Mercedes to restore the plucky British team to their once-obligatory place near the front of the grid.

I will say that the times laid down by Russell and Kubica were really not bad considering how far behind the others they started this week. I hope there is more to come from the car as it would be a real waste of a promising, young Brit (and reigning F2 champion) and a walking fairy-tale to be circulating at the back of the field, slowing down for blue flags all year.

And Finally, a couple of Wild Predictions

Because, why not?

  • The Alonso Curse to take full effect and McLaren to dominate the championship, wrapping up both titles by Hungary.
  • Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly to get into a full-blown fistfight that gets Gasly demoted back to Toro Rosso and Daniil Kvyat reinstated to Red Bull, who then proceeds to wipe the floor with Max and reduce Helmut Marko to a quivering mess.

See you for week two!