- Mar 20, 2007
- 28,067
- 24,501
- AFL Club
- West Coast
New Year, new F1 thread.
Few different things to take note of in the lead up to the season.
1. Changing Driver Lineups
Quite a bit of changing in the F1 grid from last year. Underlined are drivers at a new team
Mercedes: Hamitlon and Bottas
Ferrari: Vettel and LeClerc
Red Bull: Verstappen and Gasly
Renault: Ricciardo and Hulkenberg
Haas: Grojsean and Magnussen
Racing Point: Stroll and Perez
McLaren: Norris and Sainz
Torro Rosso: Kyvatt and Albon
Sauber: Giovinazzi and Raikkonnen
Williams: Russell and Kubica
I like the grid for this year. LeClerc will become a fan favourite, as will Norris I predict. Towards the back of the grid, Kubica and Raikkonnen should produce some good scraps. Gasly won't condede much to Max, and Kyvatt will just try not to run into anyone this time round.
Title wise, unfortunately its hard to go past Hamilton and Mercedes. They would have to be favourites yet again, even before we know the full effect of engine and regulation changes. The best we can hope for at this stage is a solid Ferrari fight like we got for the first half of last season.
2. New Regulations
Most of the major regulation changes revolve around the front wing, with the designs being simplified significantly in the hope to allow cars to drive in dirty air for longer periods of time. See the video below for the changes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1LlCNgF8DI
I would have thought that simplifying the front wings would disadvantage a team like Red Bull that relies on complicated Adrian Newy designs to gain aero advantage in lieu of straight line speed.
3. New Engines
For me the most interesting part will be the effect of engine redevelopment at Renault, and the move to Honda at Red Bull. If you believe the reports then Renault have basically scrapped the core design of their previous engine.
https://www.wheels24.co.za/FormulaO...se-the-engine-gap-for-2019-abiteboul-20181205
There will only be 2 teams on the grid using Renault engines this year (Renault and McLaren) and both will be looking to improve on 2018.
The real dark horse though is how this Honda engine will operate in a now works team Red Bull. After a disastrous run with McLaren (which in hindsight has not proven to be exclusively their fault based on McLarens lacklustre 2018) they managed to provide some decent horsepower to the Torro Rosso, regularly appearing reasonably high in the speed traps. It would be hugely optimistic to expect similar engine output to the top two cars, but with some improvement on their previous Renault output, they could potentially join the fight in a few more races.
Testing Dates (Spain)
Test 1: Feb 18 - Feb 21
Test 2: Feb 26 - Mar 1
(Expect most teams to launch cars just before Test 1)
Few different things to take note of in the lead up to the season.
1. Changing Driver Lineups
Quite a bit of changing in the F1 grid from last year. Underlined are drivers at a new team
Mercedes: Hamitlon and Bottas
Ferrari: Vettel and LeClerc
Red Bull: Verstappen and Gasly
Renault: Ricciardo and Hulkenberg
Haas: Grojsean and Magnussen
Racing Point: Stroll and Perez
McLaren: Norris and Sainz
Torro Rosso: Kyvatt and Albon
Sauber: Giovinazzi and Raikkonnen
Williams: Russell and Kubica
I like the grid for this year. LeClerc will become a fan favourite, as will Norris I predict. Towards the back of the grid, Kubica and Raikkonnen should produce some good scraps. Gasly won't condede much to Max, and Kyvatt will just try not to run into anyone this time round.
Title wise, unfortunately its hard to go past Hamilton and Mercedes. They would have to be favourites yet again, even before we know the full effect of engine and regulation changes. The best we can hope for at this stage is a solid Ferrari fight like we got for the first half of last season.
2. New Regulations
Most of the major regulation changes revolve around the front wing, with the designs being simplified significantly in the hope to allow cars to drive in dirty air for longer periods of time. See the video below for the changes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1LlCNgF8DI
I would have thought that simplifying the front wings would disadvantage a team like Red Bull that relies on complicated Adrian Newy designs to gain aero advantage in lieu of straight line speed.
3. New Engines
For me the most interesting part will be the effect of engine redevelopment at Renault, and the move to Honda at Red Bull. If you believe the reports then Renault have basically scrapped the core design of their previous engine.
https://www.wheels24.co.za/FormulaO...se-the-engine-gap-for-2019-abiteboul-20181205
There will only be 2 teams on the grid using Renault engines this year (Renault and McLaren) and both will be looking to improve on 2018.
The real dark horse though is how this Honda engine will operate in a now works team Red Bull. After a disastrous run with McLaren (which in hindsight has not proven to be exclusively their fault based on McLarens lacklustre 2018) they managed to provide some decent horsepower to the Torro Rosso, regularly appearing reasonably high in the speed traps. It would be hugely optimistic to expect similar engine output to the top two cars, but with some improvement on their previous Renault output, they could potentially join the fight in a few more races.
Testing Dates (Spain)
Test 1: Feb 18 - Feb 21
Test 2: Feb 26 - Mar 1
(Expect most teams to launch cars just before Test 1)