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  • F1 Winter Testing: Day One Round-Up

    F1 Winter Testing: Day One Round-Up

    Barcelona enjoyed the dulcet tones of multiple V6 engines today, as the first session of winter testing finally got under way.

    Alfa Romeo were awake bright and early to reveal their car and livery – becoming the final team to do so – before Kimi Raikkonen took it out for a quick spin (literally), getting stuck in the gravel in the first 15 minutes of the session.

    Red Bull’s social media team were also up early do a second ‘reveal’, showing off the traditional matte livery they have used over the past four years and disappointing fans that had grown fond of the shakedown livery they had initially debuted.

    Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari began taking the challenge to Mercedes early doors, putting in an impressive number of laps and topping the timing sheet with an eyebrow-raising 1m18. The same success could not be said of Ferrari’s sub-team Haas; Romain Grosjean was forced to pull over on track, causing a red flag after a couple of successful installation laps due to fuel pressure loss. At least Haas’s mechanics weren’t short of work to do!

    At the lunchtime break, Vettel remained at the top of the timesheets with a 1m18 and an impressive 72 laps. Just behind him was Perez in the Racing Point car with a 1m19, and Bottas with a 1m20. While Ferrari seemed keen to display their might early on, Mercedes clearly felt no pressure to respond so early in the session.

    Ferrari Media

    The session recommenced at 2pm and although some teams chose to test with the same driver, others decided to make the swap and we saw five-time world champion Lewis Hamilton take the wheel for the first time since the shakedown at Silverstone last Friday.

    Hamilton put in a healthy number of laps, most of them running in the 1m20 range, once again feeling absolutely no pressure to be topping the timing sheets just yet.

    There was a slightly hair-raising moment for McLaren when Carlos Sainz’s car stopped at the end of the pit lane causing the third red flag of the day. McLaren were quick to redeem themselves though, managing to run an impressive 119 laps, staying comfortably in the 1m20s, and even managing to come second to Vettel’s Ferrari with a respectable 1:18.5. It’s an optimistic start for a team that has suffered a great deal of disappointment in previous seasons.

    On the theme of disappointment, more sad news came from the Williams garage. After being unable to complete a planned shake-down on Saturday, and announcing they would not be taking part in today’s testing, a further announcement came after lunch confirming they would not be able to take part in testing until Wednesday ‘at the earliest’.

    Deputy team boss Claire Williams described the delay as ‘extremely disappointing’, and indeed with Robert Kubica taking a seat this season after an eight-year hiatus from F1, it is disappointing to delay his anticipated return even further.

    Daniel Ricciardo made his debut for Renault this afternoon after his teammate Nico Hulkenberg had a positive morning, describing the car as “the best I’ve seen at Renault”, which is a promising hint for what is to come. Both commentators and fans are slowly getting used to seeing Danny in a black and yellow race suit, this didn’t faze Danny who put in a respectable 44 laps, making Renault one of five teams that have surpassed the 100-lap milestone today.

    Daniel Ricciardo (AUS) Renault Sport F1 Team RS19.
    Formula One Testing, Day 1, Monday 18th February 2019. Barcelona, Spain.

    There was an interesting moment in the last hour of the session between Hamilton and Kvyat in the Toro Rosso, as Kvyat pushed Hamilton to work to overtake him. After a couple of laps and pointing out the nose of the Mercedes car, Hamilton was forced to back off as he was unable to complete the manoeuvre, which begs the question: do the front-wing changes help or hinder Mercedes performance?

    Kimi Raikkonen was his usual charismatic self before completing 114 laps in the freshly unveiled Alfa Romeo car, going into the test with the aim of getting a ‘more real picture of the car’, but with the unintentional aim of causing the final red-flag of the day, one minute before the end of the session.

    Today was unquestionably Ferrari’s day with Vettel putting in a whopping 169 laps and remaining quickest throughout the whole session with a 1:18.1. Second came Carlos Sainz in the McLaren with a 1:18.5 and Grosjean with a 1:19.1 in spite of only completing 65 laps before stopping on track earlier in the session.

    Overall though, the theme for today was getting a feel for the car and putting the laps in; no exciting racing just yet, but it’s a promising start for the 2019 season.

     

    [Featured image – Dan Istitene/Getty Images]

  • WorldSBK Testing: Bautista Dominates Phillip Island Day One

    WorldSBK Testing: Bautista Dominates Phillip Island Day One

    The first day of the final 2019 preseason test for World Superbike took place in Phillip Island today, just a handful of days before the championship heads out on track for the first round of the season at the Australian circuit next weekend.

    The times were topped by Alvaro Bautista in both sessions, the Aruba.it Ducati rider claiming he had never had a better bike at Phillip Island than the Panigale V4R he piloted today. Bautista was not only impressive in the one lap speed, but also in the longer “race” pace, setting nearly three times as many laps in the 1’30s as four-time champion Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK). Of course, it is important to view these statistics with a degree of scepticism, since we don’t know which tyres were used to set the times, but either way the early signs for the 2006 125cc World Champion are positive for next weekend.

    Bautista was making a lot of his lap time in the final sector of the lap, where the Ducati’s RPM advantage is most noticeable (the V4R currently has 1750 revs more than the new Kawasaki ZX-10RR), and where the Panigale’s wings can make the most difference, helping keep the front end down on the exit of the fourth-gear final corner. The advantage the Spaniard has in this part of the lap could prove crucial come the end of the races on Saturday and Sunday.

    Another reason for hesitation when it comes to Bautista’s Monday performance is Jonathan Rea’s crash in the morning. Combined with the increased wind in the afternoon, and the curtailment of the reigning champion’s morning running meant we did not get to see the full potential of the Northern Irishman today.

    Alex Lowes rider for the the Pata Yamaha WSBK team. Image courtesy of Yamaha.

    In between Bautista and Rea in the morning, was Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team), who continued his positive 2019 preseason. At the Portimao test a few weeks ago, Lowes was the only rider who looked capable of challenging Rea and the Kawasaki, and whilst Bautista seems to have joined the fray, Lowes is still in the mix. He dropped to fifth in the afternoon, 0.649 seconds shy of Bautista’s table-topping time in the second session, but nonetheless the Englishman looks strong at the moment.

    Marco Melandri (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK) was the second-fastest Yamaha in the morning, fourth overall, as he continues to make his adaptation to the R1. Behind Melandri was another duo of YZF-R1s, with Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) and Sandro Cortese (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK) in fifth and sixth respectively.

    Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) was seventh in the morning, the last rider within a second of Bautista, but it was in the afternoon that the Brit impressed the most aboard the S1000RR, finishing the second session as the second-fastest rider and just 0.151s away from Bautista. It is still early days with this new BMW project, but already the package is looking competitive in the hands of the 2013 WorldSBK Champion.

    Sykes improved his time by four tenths in the afternoon, compared to the morning, and it was a similar case for Leon Haslam (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK), who dropped his time by 0.487 seconds to finish third in the second session, in front of his teammate, Rea.

    The second BMW of Markus Reiterberger was ninth in the morning as the final Superstock 1000 FIM Cup champion continues to adapt himself back to the Superbike-spec machinery. The German improved his time by three tenths in the afternoon, despite dropping to tenth.

    Toprak Razgatlioglu saw a four-tenth improvement from morning to afternoon on the Turkish Puccetti Racing Kawasaki rider, as he moved from tenth to eighth.

    Whilst one Ducati was dominating, four tenths clear of the field at the top of the standings in the morning, and a tenth clear in the afternoon, the other Panigale V4Rs struggled to match the pace set by Bautista.

    The second-fastest Ducati in the morning was Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati), in fifteenth, 2.461 seconds off his teammate, whilst Eugene Laverty (Team GoEleven) was sixteenth, 2.610 seconds off and Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Barni Racing Team) was seventeenth, 3.100 off. Things improved for Davies and Laverty in the afternoon, as they wound up twelfth and thirteenth, respectively, but they were still over a second shy of Bautista.

    We finally got to see the new, full factory Moriwaki Althea Hondas out on track today, too, after they conducted their winter testing privately in Japan. Neither Leon Camier nor Ryuichi Kiyonari could manage to break into the top ten, or within one second of Bautista in either session, but the project is still in its early days.

    Alvaro Bautista at Phillip Island WSBK 2019 testing. Image courtesy of Ducati Media

    The second and final day of the Phillip Island WorldSBK test will get underway at 22:00 GMT, tonight (18/02/2019).

    Featured image courtesy of Ducati Media

  • Hamlin takes the win in wreck-filled race: Daytona 500 Report

    Hamlin takes the win in wreck-filled race: Daytona 500 Report

    Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin took his second Daytona 500 win in what proved to be a crash-strewn and highly attritional race. Hamlin was one of only three drivers to not be involved in any incidents at all, with the other two drivers being second-place finisher Kyle Busch and Ross Chastain, who finished in tenth. There were signs of trouble throughout the race, but ‘The Big One’ only came with nine laps left in the race, and, from there all hell broke loose!

    Of the 22 cars running at the chequered flag, 14 were still on the lead lap, which is rather surprising given the sheer number of cars involved in one wreck or another. Before the Lap 191 monster wreck, there had already been a number of crashes, including one on pit road, in which the eternally unlucky Jimmie Johnson got caught up in, amongst others.

    All in all, 21 cars were damaged in the biggest wreck, which was caused by Matt Di Benedetto, who had, up until then, been having a very good race, and Paul Menard, who was part of the cause in The Clash’s wreck last weekend. However, even after a crash that involved more than half the field, there was still more trouble to come…

    In the last nine scheduled laps, there were two more cautions for two further wrecks – the latter of which pushed the race into overtime, just to get a result. But, after all that, it was Hamlin who kept it together and fended off teammate Kyle Busch for the win, despite a very close final lap and a late challenge from Joey Logano.

    Hamlin didn’t, by any means, lead the most laps and he didn’t finish that high in either of the stages; he was down in 21st by the end of Stage 2, but that didn’t really matter by the end of the race. He played his cards better than teammate Busch in the final laps, correctly choosing the outside lane to take his first win in 47 races.

    The race started very well for Kyle Busch who took the first stage win of the season, despite starting the race down in 31st position. By the end of Stage 2, the younger Busch brother had dropped to twelfth, but he made his comeback in the final stage and looked set to take his first ever Daytona 500 win before what proved to be the final restart. He was, however, outmanoeuvred by Hamlin, meaning Busch will have to wait another year to try and fill the Harley J. Earl Trophy sided gap in his trophy cabinet. 2020 will be Busch’s 15th attempt at the Daytona victory… who knows if he’ll finally be successful then!

    Ryan Blaney was the man to take the Stage 2 victory, and he looked to be the class of the field for a long time, but, like so many others, it all came crashing down for him when he got caught up in The Big One and his #12 received terminal damage, forcing the Penske driver out of what could’ve been a very promising race.

    Another driver who’s race turned into a story of what could’ve been was Johnson, suggesting that his luck has not turned for this season and taking his winning-less streak in points races up to 60 races. As was the case so many times last season, Johnson got caught up in a crash through no fault of his own, which subsequently compromised the rest of his race. The #48 Hendrick driver sustained a fair amount of damage in the pit road wreck, which was caused by Cody Ware spinning and hitting a line of slower moving cars who were coming into the pits. He also got tangled up in the Lap 191 wreck, eventually finishing the race in ninth place.

    Last year’s Cup Champion, Joey Logano, looked to be in contention for the victory in the closing stages of the race but, after working so well with teammate Blaney throughout the race, he was hurt badly when he was left isolated after the wreck – meaning he couldn’t quite take it to the Joe Gibbs drivers, who were themselves working very well together. Erik Jones managed to sneak past Logano on the last lap, meaning the Penske driver finished the race in fourth – behind all three Joe Gibbs cars.

    The 61st Daytona 500 was certainly a tale of two races, with the first 190 or so laps being fairly calm, by NASCAR’s standards at least, and the last ten (plus the six overtime laps) being absolute carnage; an hour passed between the yellow flag flying for The Big One and the chequered flag emerging, showing just how chaotic those last ten laps were!

    But, after all that, it was Hamlin who came out victorious and he’s the only one who will have his name engraved onto the Harley J. Earl Trophy. NASCAR returns next weekend at Atlanta where Hamlin will be looking to make it two from two, and everyone else will be trying to stop him…

    DAYTONA BEACH, FL – FEBRUARY 17: Denny celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series 61st Annual Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 17, 2019 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

    Top Ten Finishers:

    1. Denny Hamlin
    2. Kyle Busch
    3. Erik Jones
    4. Joey Logano
    5. Michael McDowell
    6. Ty Dillon
    7. Kyle Larson
    8. Ryan Preece
    9. Jimmie Johnson
    10. Ross Chastain

    Championship Standings:

    1. Denny Hamlin
    2. Joey Logano
    3. Kyle Busch
    4. Ricky Stenhouse Jr
    5. Erik Jones

    (Featured image credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

  • Madness in Mexico! Di Grassi clinches win in last minute thriller

    Lucas di Grassi kickstarted Audi’s campaign to reclaim the constructor’s title by snatching victory in an action-packed Mexico City ePrix on Saturday. Despite leading for the majority of the race, there was heartache for Mahindra once more as rookie Pascal Wehrlein was literally pipped at the post after a sprint to the finish line.

    Photo by Sam Bagnall / LAT Images

    Antonio Felix da Costa took first blood in qualifying as his championship rivals struggled in the unfavourable early track conditions. Championship leader Sam Bird was forced out of qualifying early, stopping at the side of the track with mechanical issues before he had even set a lap. Virgin Racing’s nightmare continued as Robin Frijns was handed a three place grid penalty for blocking Jerome D’Ambrosio in the confusion. Wehrlein showcased his improving form, snatching P1 away from da Costa. The track conditions continued to improve, allowing stalwart di Grassi to join the fight. Massa also put in an impressive lap to claim his debut in superpole. However, it was Nissan rookie Oliver Rowland who took bragging rights, taking the coveted P1 slot from di Grassi and Wehrlein in the last few seconds, cementing his place in superpole alongside Sebastien Buemi, Massa and da Costa.

    Superpole certainly showcased the rise of the rookies as Da Costa set the bar with a time of 59.819, a feat that Buemi could not challenge. Continuing on from his superb qualifying form in Santiago, di Grassi put in an impressive lap to snatch the top spot. It fell to the three rookies remaining to oust di Grassi from pole. Massa and Rowland both fell short, slotting into P3 and P4 respectively. Wehrlein, however, managed to continue his electric form and claimed the three points and Mahindra’s second pole at the circuit in the last two years.

    Photo by Zak Mauger / LAT Images

    Wehrlein started strongly from pole as Rowland managed to sneak into P2, leapfrogging Brazilian compatriots Massa and di Grassi in the opening stages. However, as the race heated up, Nelson Piquet tangled with Jean-Eric Vergne in a nasty accident which left the Jaguar driver in the wall at turn 13 and subsequently out of the race. BMW’s Alexander Sims suffered a repeat of Marrakesh as he was tagged by a out-of-control Piquet going into the final corner. Due to the damage, the race was immediately red flagged with just nine minutes on the clock. Whilst in the pits, Vergne and Sims were able to repair the damage caused by Piquet’s accident.

    As the race got underway once more, everybody armed themselves with their attack mode, forcing di Grassi to pressure Rowland for P2. However, the Brazilian could not find a way past and had to settle for P3. Da Costa picked up damage as a result of his duel with Buemi for P4, forcing the Portuguese driver to back off from his attack. Vandoorne’s bad luck continued as he was given a penalty for using his fanboost too early, whilst Lopez was hit with a double penalty for overuse of energy and pitlane violations. Vergne too had another nightmare of a race as he was tagged by Mitch Evans in the stadium section, leaving the reigning champion in a lowly P17.

    Photo by Sam Bloxham / LAT Images

    It was in the latter stages that the race came alive as Rowland, despite occupying P2 for the majority of the race, misjudged the corner when under pressure from di Grassi and had to concede the podium spot to the Brazilian. His luck went from bad to worse as he made contact with teammate Buemi, and Nissan’s miscalculations on energy use left both drivers dropping down the order and out of the points. Di Grassi continued to press Wehrlein for the lead, forcing the rookie to fight against the attack instead of saving his energy. Di Grassi scooped victory at the last gasp overtaking a energy-depleted Wehrlein just before the finish line to score Audi’s first win of the season ahead of da Costa and Venturi’s Edo Mortara, both promoted by Nissan’s failure to finish.

    Formula E will return in Hong Kong on 10th March.

  • RB15 racing livery revealed ahead of first test

    RB15 racing livery revealed ahead of first test

    It’s business as usual in the Red Bull garage as they have finally unveiled the racing livery for the RB15 ahead of the first session of winter testing which began in Barcelona this morning.

    After an exciting week of livery reveals, Red Bull were the talk of the pit-lane by unveiling an unusual geometric livery ahead of the official ‘shake-down’ and filming day at Silverstone. It was made clear from Red Bull’s press release that the livery being displayed wasn’t set to last: “In recent years, we’ve chosen to kick off the year with some memorable paint jobs – but we revert back to our well established racing colours pretty quickly”.

    The clarifications did not prevent fans disappointment as many had hoped the livery would have at least lasted until the end of pre-season testing, which begins today.

    Thomas Butler / Red Bull Content Pool

    The traditional matte colour scheme remains, with the trademark charging bull along either side of the car. The livery has been updated slightly to reflect their partnership with Honda, however it doesn’t create much of a difference to the design overall.

    Although it would have been nice to see Red Bull really shake things up with their livery, it doesn’t stop them shaking things up on the grid this season. The Red Bull has put on its racing suit – bring on 2019!

     

    [Featured image – Thomas Butler / Red Bull Content Pool]

  • It will come to an end, but not yet

    It will come to an end, but not yet

    Valentino Rossi turns 40 today, and in a few weeks will embark on his 24th season in Grand Prix racing, his twentieth in the premier class. Since 1996, Rossi has won 115 Grands Prix, 9 world titles, ridden for four different manufacturers, raced in each of the four iterations of the premier class (500cc, 990cc, 800cc, 1000cc), seen regulations change and evolve, and witnessed the entire face of racing morph into a wholly professional franchise which is as much a business as it is a sport.

    In spite of the vast changes which have occurred in the racing scene in the past quarter-century, Rossi has managed to maintain his grip on the top of two-wheeled sport, both on track and off it.

    In 2013, Valentino Rossi moved back to Yamaha after a couple of difficult seasons with Ducati, in which he managed only three podiums aboard the Desmosedici, and no wins. The first season back with Yamaha was mostly disappointing, scoring only one win – at Assen – and consistently being the slowest of the four Japanese factory riders, behind teammate Jorge Lorenzo, 2013 World Champion Marc Marquez and one of the first riders to receive some sort of racing tutorage from Rossi, Dani Pedrosa.

    Valentino Rossi with his 2019 Yamaha YZR-M1. Image courtesy of Yamaha

    This sparked a revolution for Rossi. The then-35-year-old decided to formalise his rider training with fellow Italians Franco Morbidelli and Andrea Migno into what is now the VR46 Rider Academy, and to it he signed many more riders, such as Lorenzo Baldassarri, and Romano Fenati and Francesco Bagnaia, who would be the riders in the Sky Racing Team VR46 squad for its maiden campaign in the Moto3 World Championship.

    The Doctor also underwent a transformation on track, himself. From 2014 preseason testing  it was clear that the Italian was playing with his riding style, moving his body around the bike in a way more associated with the young riders – like the ones he was signing to the Academy – not one who had nine world titles and a thirty-five-year-old body. In addition to this, there was a new crew chief in the #46 box, as Silvano Galbusuera replaced Jeremy Burgess, who had been ever-present in Rossi’s garage since the Italian’s debut in the premier class in 2000. It was this on-track, in-garage transformation that catalysed Rossi’s impressive 2014 season, in which he won two races – Misano and Phillip Island – and finished second in the championship behind a dominant Marc Marquez.

    2014 lay the foundations for what was a spectacular title fight in 2015 between Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo, who went head-to-head for the first time since 2009 for a MotoGP World Championship title. Whilst the final result of the championship did not go the way of the Italian – thanks to a situation which occurred largely of his own volition – 2015 showed Rossi still has the capability to fight for a World Championship.

    2016, ’17 and ’18 followed similar paths, with Rossi evolving his style each year and, whilst he went winless last year, he ended the championship in third place behind champion Marquez and Andrea Dovizioso, both of whom had unquestionably superior machinery.

    With Rossi now into his fortieth year, and 24th of racing grand prix bikes, it remains to be seen whether he can muster another championship assault, but there is little doubt that The Doctor will have been working on evolving himself over the winter in preparation for this season to remain in the front fight. Forgetting numbers, Rossi’s ability to stay competitive year on year, suffering few injuries and seemingly ignoring age, is perhaps his greatest achievement.

  • Daytona 500 Preview

    Daytona 500 Preview

    After a week of qualifying, non-points races, duels and a fair few crashes, it’s finally time for the big one; the Daytona 500. At 7:30 pm GMT on Sunday, the 40-car field will take the green flag for the 61st running of the event – and what an event it promises to be!

    Qualifying last Sunday only allocated the front row for the 500, with the Hendrick Motorsport duo of William Byron and Alex Bowman taking those two places. The rest of the grid was determined by Thursday’s two ‘Duel’ races, which both took place over 60 laps. Stewart-Haas’s Kevin Harvick took the win in the first race, giving him third on the grid, while Penske’s reigning champion, Joey Logano, won the second, placing him in fourth.

    In some slightly unfathomable but typically NASCAR way, qualifying determined which duel each driver raced in, then the results of the Duel 1 decided the inside row of the grid and the results of Duel 2 did the same for the outside row.

    Put simply, the top ten starters for the 500 are:

    1. William Byron
    2. Alex Bowman
    3. Kevin Harvick
    4. Joey Logano
    5. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
    6. Clint Bowyer
    7. Paul Menard
    8. Aric Almirola
    9. Matt DiBenedetto
    10. Denny Hamlin

    If you want to see where the other 30 drivers are starting from, click here.

    (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

    One driver who is starting out of the top ten is the winner of this year’s Daytona Clash, a certain Jimmie Johnson. The Hendrick driver will be starting down in 17th after finishing in eighth in Duel 1, but his Daytona build-up has not been without incident. Luck was far from with Johnson last season as he seemed to spend more than his fair share of time in the wall and, for the majority of those incidents, he wasn’t to blame. During ‘The Clash’ Johnson was again involved in an incident, with all but three drivers in the 20-car field caught up in it. Many looked to blame Johnson for the wreck, which started with him and Menard coming together, but no official action was taken on it and Johnson was free to take the win.

    As it was not for points, The Clash was seen as more of a test session by many teams, so the single-file train of cars seen during it shouldn’t be something that we see too much of during the 500.

    Last year’s 500 winner, Austin Dillon, with start the race from 20th after finishing ninth in Duel 2, but given he started 14th last year, he shouldn’t be too fazed by that and will be looking to repeat his 2018 glory, though the other 39 drivers might just have something to say about that!

    The 2019 Daytona 500 will get underway at 2:30 pm ET (7:30 pm GMT) on Sunday and will be broadcast on Fox in the States. In the UK, Premier Sports have the coverage, but if you don’t have access to that, there will be live timing on nascar.com and race commentary on our Twitter channel, so you won’t miss out on the action!

    Let the season begin…

    (Featured image credit: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)

  • Ferrari launch their 2019 campaign at Fiorano

    Ferrari launch their 2019 campaign at Fiorano

    Ferrari launched their 2019 contender this morning at a car launch event at Fiorano. 

    In attendance was Scuderia Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto, Sebastian Vettel, and Vettel’s new team-mate Charles Leclerc.

    With the updated regulations in force, the stunning SF90 sports a freshly designed matte-finish red and black livery, with several technical tweaks – most noticeably on the front wing – having been put in place in the hope of making Formula 1 races more action-packed and competitive, with more overtaking and smaller time margins between the teams.

    CEO of Ferrari Louis Camilleri said, “The car embodies the latest state of the art technology, reflects the new regulations for the coming season and is the fruit of the combined enormous work and talent of everyone in the Scuderia.”  

    Ferrari Media

    With the last Ferrari champion being Kimi Räikkönen, the team have high hopes that their two drivers will be fighting for race victories and both the drivers’ and constructors’ Championships. 2019 marks Sebastian Vettel’s fifth year with the Italian team, whereas rising star Charles Leclerc will be making his Ferrari debut in just his second year in the premier class.

    The Monégasque and the German will be fierce competition for their rivals over at Mercedes, who have retained their 2018 line-up of five-time drivers’ champion Lewis Hamilton, and Valtteri Bottas. There is much speculation regarding how Red Bull will fare having dropped Renault as their engine supplier in favour of Honda, however with winter testing coming up in Catalunya, there should be a clearer idea as to how competitive each team will be. With an experienced champion in Vettel, and with Leclerc’s natural talent, the duo will undoubtedly have starring roles in the forthcoming season. 

    Daniel Ricciardo’s surprise move to Renault caused a knock-on effect in the drivers’ market which has produced one of the most exciting line-ups in recent memory. Robert Kubica will return to the sport after a prolonged absence due to sustaining injuries in a 2011 rallying accident; Brits Lando Norris and George Russell will race with British teams McLaren and Williams; Antonio Giovinazzi will take part in his first full Formula 1 season at Alfa Romeo Racing with Kimi Räikkönen as his teammate; and at Red Bull, fan-favourite Max Verstappen is paired with Pierre Gasly.  

    Pre-season testing is set to get underway on Monday, the 18th of February, with the first race scheduled for the 17th of March. An unpredictable year lies ahead, however one thing is certain – the 2019 F1 season is shaping up to be a thriller.

     

    [Featured image – Ferrari Media]

  • On The Rise – Pierre Gasly On Joining Red Bull And His Hopes For F1 2019 | M1TG

    On The Rise – Pierre Gasly On Joining Red Bull And His Hopes For F1 2019 | M1TG

    Check out the latest Mobil 1 The Grid video in which Pierre Gasly discusses his move to Red Bull and his hopes for the season ahead.

    Make sure that you follow Mobil 1 The Grid:
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  • Verstappen “feeling positive” after RB15 reveal

    Verstappen “feeling positive” after RB15 reveal

    After a long and exciting day in the world of F1, Max Verstappen took a few minutes out of his busy schedule to post a video on Twitter to fans after driving the new RB15, which debuted at lunchtime today.

    Verstappen described his first run, explaining he was “very happy with how the car was behaving … just can’t wait to get started now for Barcelona and Melbourne”. Max also included a very brief comment on the new Honda engine, a new addition to the Red Bull cars for 2019 after a long and disgruntled partnership with Renault in previous years.

     

    After a turbulent few years with McLaren, the announcement that Honda would supply engines to Red Bull from 2019 was met with some trepidation. However, in these early stages it is quite obvious that Verstappen has no qualms with his new drive.

    The real test of course will come in Barcelona next week, but for now it’s all smiles at the Red Bull garage.

     

    [Featured image – Max Verstappen preparing for first run in RB15. Courtesy of Red Bull Racing Twitter]