FORMULA ONE - 2019

Williams so far this year reminds me of that USF1 team when they first started. I hope they can turn things around and continue to survive. 

Is any of the practice televised?

Or streamed?

I am excited to see how the season opener reveals who has speed and reliability

bentwrench said:

Is any of the practice televised?

Or streamed?

I've seen that there's streamed timing, but I still have not seen streamed video.  I could be looking in the wrong place, though.

In reply to Spoolpigeon :

Ha!

Yes only one thing is certain at this point.

I do think Ferrari had the best car last year. Strategy calls made by the big three teams settled the championship.

I am curious to see how the first five races go. Leclerc vs Vettel I think will decide the championship. If they can't work as a team them MB will take both championship.

Just watched an Autosport article explaining that Mercedes has a LOT of changes for week 2 of testing.  It's estimated to be well over 1000 changes from last weeks car.  

Seems that they planned on some experiments based on CFD and wind tunnel work- as it's not realistic to come out with these parts in less than a week to react to what others brought....

I think the following car gap will be better this year. Not like a showroom stock race but better.

I do think we are not going to to see track record after track record fall this year.

Just a few more weeks!

I'd like it if more than 4 (or 6 depending on the track) had a chance to win a race this year. Doesn't seem that any of the midfield teams have made a giant leap forward, so it looks like three teams that could win, 6 teams fighting for best of the rest and then Williams. 

Advan046 said:

I do think we are not going to to see track record after track record fall this year.

2018 pole position time for Barcelona: 1:16.173

2019 Ferrari fastest time in testing: 1:16.221

Kinda looks like they'll be faster, so any track records set last year are in danger.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Hmm I guess the laptimes I was referencing we're not correct. If they are a tenth off pole times now then I think records will fall .

In reply to T.J. :

I think that Renault and Haas might get a surprise win this year.

In reply to Advan046 :

I hope so. I'd like to see either Renault driver win one, but if any of the mid field teams pull a win or even a podium off it would be interesting. 

In reply to Advan046 :

I would love to see Haas win.

Especially if there's a GRM'er on the staff- since the odds of that happening at Haas is actually a possibility.  Really- any good mechanic or engineer can move there and work on an F1 team.

James Allison of MB does a really good job explaining the changes from '18 to '19.  

And I'm sure this applies to all teams... 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsFjDou_4qk

Advan046 said:

In reply to T.J. :

I think that Renault and Haas might get a surprise win this year.

I'm rooting for Kimi to make something happen at Sauber, and it'll be really interesting to see how Ricciardo does. He was impressive in the first year of the hybrids, but Red Bull always has a clear #2 and he suffered for it.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

I agree about Kimi. It would be massively entertaining to see Kimi battling with Le Clerc and/or Vettel.

Keith Tanner said:

Advan046 said:

In reply to T.J. :

I think that Renault and Haas might get a surprise win this year.

I'm rooting for Kimi to make something happen at Sauber, and it'll be really interesting to see how Ricciardo does. He was impressive in the first year of the hybrids, but Red Bull always has a clear #2 and he suffered for it.

I hope Kimi can squeeze out a podium or three at Sauber, but more likely to expect him to just be a nuisance (in a good way) to the other teams and be right there in the mix.  Given where he is in his career (i.e. doesn't matter too much as he'll retire soon), the fact that he probably won't have team orders (Kimi, Vettel is faster than you) and his general attitude about racing, I really hope he just has a "I don't care, so I'm going to have fun" mentality this year. 

-Rob

Kimi's a hard guy to keep off the podium. I'm hoping for a repeat of what we saw at Lotus, where he was just plain pesky and came out of nowhere to do things he shouldn't have been able to do. The team dynamics should be quite different, it's likely there are far fewer alpha dogs involved than there were at Ferrari.

Sounds like Hamilton is motivated by the speed of the Ferraris. He seems to relish having to fight over the course of a season.

So the dumpster fire at Williams gets a little hotter- Paddy Lowe is no longer technical director.  

So sad.

First race is this weekend, I'm excited to see what begins to develop.  Granted, Australia isn't indicative of the rest of the year, but should show who has pace early and who's struggling.  I wonder if Mercedes were sandbagging at practice and have a lot more in the tank.  That seems to be their modus operandi. 

Has anyone see the F1 Netflix series?  It's really good and I enjoyed it quite a bit.  Especially since it didn't focus too much on Mercedes/Ferrari and more on the other teams.  One cool thing was at the end where they said 2019 will have the youngest driver lineup since 1950.  That alone should make this season quite fun with lots of young drivers trying to prove themselves while the the vets (Hamilton, Vettel) try to maintain their dominance.  Will Ricciardo finally have a chance to secure a championship?  Will Verstappen, being the number 1 on the team, show that he has the talent to pull it all together?

-Rob

The series doesn't focus much on Mercedes/Ferrari because Mercedes/Ferrari declined to take part :) So it's basically Formula 1.5 plus RBR.

I'm really hoping Danny gets some time on the podium. I really want to see Renault beat RBR, simply because Horner is such an ass. I think Max will continue to be entertaining and frustrating and a meathead and occasionally fast.

In reply to rob_lewis :

I did not like the Netflix series so far. I got about 20 minutes in and was very meh and turned it off. I seem to have a vastly different opinion about it Than most though. So I plan to go watch it more to give it a fair shake. 

Will Buxton mentioned some tricks up Sauber/Alfa Romeo's sleeves based on what he saw in testing on the youtube preseason video I watched last week.  I'd love to see some shake-up from them or Haas to the current order of things.  I think Kimi will make a good nuisance of himself to the top of the field regardless.

To Alfadriver's point - There are a handful of really interesting sounding F1 jobs listed on the automotive segments of Linkedin currently.  Sadly I didn't seem qualified:)