Formula 1 - 2019 Season

its happening !!!
https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/49317809

Red Bull will replace French driver driver Pierre Gasly with Alexander Albon for the rest of the season.

Thai Albon, 23, has been promoted from the team's sister outfit, Toro Rosso, with Gasly going the other way.

hopefully alex can rise to the challenge but i worry that its too soon because the lad is good
edit: just to elaborate alex is good but good drivers can be "ruined" (set back) by going into a top team too early: magnussen at mclaren, perez at mclaren, a million drivers at red bull/toro rosso

only the fewest have risen to the challenge
 
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Happened sooner than I expected but when you think about it, RBR probably only cares about those fewest.

I don't think they care about the Buttons or Massas. I think they only want to have the Hamiltons, Vettels, Verstappens. Guys that have that little bit extra. Hence the sink or swim approach to their drivers.
 
Hmm :neutral:
So if Albon doesn't do better than Gasly & Kvyat beats Gasly for the rest of the year, they switch to Kvyat for the start of next year? :runaway:
 
Yeah, weird they didn’t go with Kvyat, but maybe they think he’s just not RB material. Hope Albon can rise to the challenge, and that he gets a lot of questions about how the two cars compare. I’d love to read a piece about how his driving style compares to Verstappen as good as this piece about Kimi and Alonso.
 
albon is thai and red bull is originally thai so from that perpective albon makes sense
 
albon also makes as a trial for a partial seson. They prolly can better estimate how Kvyat would perform at RBR, it makes sense to try out Alborn to have more information for next year's lineup.
If Alborn proves to be a dissapointment for them similarly to Pierre, at least they won't sacrifice points next season

Sure , not saying the logic is flawless. Precisely to recover some points it would have been a decent shot to revive Kvyat's RBR seat. He's the safest choice
 
Hmm :neutral:
So if Albon doesn't do better than Gasly & Kvyat beats Gasly for the rest of the year, they switch to Kvyat for the start of next year? :runaway:
Considering that Kvyat has been doing nice comeback Red Bull asked for, this looks exactly like "Let's see what Albon can do and if he can't, we'll go Kvyat next season"
 
On the other hand kyvat already had his chance and while he's doing better this time around, it's not like he is totally on top of Albon.

I also read kyvat's contract might prevent him from driving the Red Bull this year due to his previous engagements with Ferrari.
 
I also read kyvat's contract might prevent him from driving the Red Bull this year due to his previous engagements with Ferrari.
Oh interesting.
But if that was the main problem we'd presumably be seeing some statements like 'we wanted to promote Kvyat but can't because of the Ferrari contract' wheras this announcement has come apparently without direct mention of Kvyat at all.

On the one hand Kvyat seems hard done by since he's got a podium & healthy points lead over Albon, on the other he hasn't exactly stomped Albon despite considerably more F1 experience.
He'll presumably have to soundly beat Gasly for the rest of the season to have a chance at going up to Red Bull now & plausibly might not get a 2nd (6th?!) year at Torro Rosso if he can't.

Looking back at his race history I hadn't really realised Kvyat actually had a full year at Red Bull in 2015 where he out-scored Ricciardo (& had been promoted to RB despite being out-scored by the senior guy at TR the year before) so this year is already his 5th in F1.
 
Oh interesting.
But if that was the main problem we'd presumably be seeing some statements like 'we wanted to promote Kvyat but can't because of the Ferrari contract' wheras this announcement has come apparently without direct mention of Kvyat at all.

Well such statements would blow away Alborn's confidence ("you're not our first choice, but such is life"). It's not in the best interest of RBR to ever express such thoghts in public or to him
 
helmut marko is a hard man and his hardness has sunk a lot of f1 drivers over the years (thats why they have almost none left, see hartley in toro rosso last year)
so if he sinks albon it will be a crying shame because the lad is good and has potential. is he a verstappen? not likely but who is
 
So back on.

Bottas has been confirmed for Merc next year.
Hulkenburg out for Ocon at Renault next year.

In Practice 1 Albon was on-pace just a smidgen behind Verstappen.
Kvyat ahead of Gasly.

Practice 2 a bigger gap back from Verstappen to Albon & Kvyat ahead of Gasly.

Apparently 14 drivers including both Albon & Kvyat are getting new engines for this race so grid positioning is going to be heavily governed by penalties.


They showed off the new 2021 rules concept via a sub-scale windtunnel model
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/...n-the-wind-tunnel.6ye3S7Pb8NRX1K7PjTBxtS.html
image.jpg

image.jpg

Also older sketches & details https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/...or-racings-future.1Yaz5mXGa4RqEzyCt8meC2.html

I think I like it.
Looks like they're getting rid of most of the ugly fins & vanes which is great.
Brought back ground effect in a big way (the end of the Plank?)
Apparently a really big reduction in wake affecting following car.
Fins above the front wheel is a pretty weird look but could have dramatic drag/downforce impact.
Halo looks a bit sleeker in front but not so sure about the rear blend-in, seems oddly chunky & clunky here.
Still working on front wing concept.

A bunch more equipment standardisation I think is a good way to control costs & limit advantages of the bigger teams simply being able to throw money & people at gaining tiny advantages.
 
Ooh geez, fatal crash in F2 race.
Dodging someone who spun in-front, went into the barrier, bounced out spinning & got high-speed t-boned right in the cockpit by another car who probably didn't have time to react when he emerged from the debris cloud :cry:


F1 Qualifying: both Ferraris on front row, Mercs 2nd row which is impressive since Hamilton had a pretty bad crash in P3 & mechanics somehow got the car back in running condition in the short time before Qualifying.

A blown engine just before the end of Q1 messed up a bunch of late runs.

Kvyat & Albon apparently were just doing race config in P3 due to engine penalties, Albon did make it into Q2 but Kvyat & Gasly both out at Q1.
Due to others' penalties Gasly starts at 14 & Russels 19th on time = 15th on grid.
 
Yep Verstappen out in first lap, steering damage from contact with Raikonen on 1st corner.

Leclerc finally managed to convert!
Led most of the race and just had enough gap to hold off Hamilton despite older tyres.

Unfortunate Norris at the end, engine died as he was crossing & dropped from 5th to 11th in final placing.

New Honda engine is apparently a good improvement/some good strategy: both Albon & Kvyat stayed clear of first lap carnage & made places, took long first stints on Med then finished on Soft with a heap of pace passing a bunch of cars on older Meds.
Albon 17 -> 5th.
Kvyat I think had the more impressive result though 19th -> 7th with the slower car & only ~8s behind Albon :yes:

Also Gasly on old spec managed to move up from 13th to 9th, maybe Torro Rosso has managed to improve a bunch other than just the engine?
 
Some fun overtakes in No Name, especially Albon on Ricciardo.

I don't get Verstappen's impatience at turn one. He couldn't have been that worried about an Alfa holding him up for too long, especially if (as Perez-Albon showed on the last lap) it's much better to enter turn one behind so that you can pass on the straight after Eau Rouge/whatever. At least he showed maturity in his post-race comments.

This is the second decent result Norris had yanked from him due to car failure, right? Pity.

Good work by Vettel holding up Hamilton, possibly crucial to LeClerc's win.
 
Didn't he do the same thing last year? Maybe he didn't have a chance to go anywhere? In the replay I think I saw a Racing Point next to the RBR at some point? Whatever the case, taking the inside line to turn one doesn't seem like the smart thing to do.

Race wasn't that interesting IMO. Vettel held up Hamilton just enough to allow Leclerc to win and at no point Vettel or Bottos seemed to be really challenging. Good to see Albon doing well but the Torro Rossos had some decent pace as well. That Renault just doesn't seem to be going anywhere. I wonder how much Ricciardo is kicking himself in the face right now. Sure, I don't think he expected things to be that great but fighting just to be in the points and with seemingly no improvements?

Maybe Horner was on to something when he asked Cyril if they still had money to develop the car after hiring Ricciardo (Netflix docu) :LOL:
 
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