Formula 1 - 2019 Season

Yes, Formula 1 was bought!

2016 Bloomberg reported that Liberty Media had agreed to buy Delta Topco, the company that controls Formula One, from private-equity firm CVC Capital Partners for $4.4 billion in cash, stock, and convertible debt.[6] On 23 January 2017 Liberty Media confirmed the completion of the acquisition for $8 billion.[7][8]


Bernie was getting old and letting the sport get stale.
This new US firm intends to bring Formula1 to the masses and energizing the youth of the sport. As such, just watch any episode of "Drive to Survive" on Netflix.

 

Well Ferrari looks fast in Bahrain. Let's see how they can blow it on race day.

 

The current 1.6l Merc and Ferrari are making in the ballpark of 850hp to 890hp (from intended 650hp when introduced in 2014). With added electric motor kicking up to 160hp the total output reaches 1050hp in party mode.

I would love to put one of these to my car - instant torque, extra 300hp and engine which is only 92kg instead of my 3l 195kg. Not to mention fuel economy of a family hatchback

 

Right so its dependent on having a competitive supplier who's willing to sell top gear.

Didn't Toro Rosso get forced to buy older gear/develop more themselves because they'd been doing too well when they were basically running same car as Red Bull?
Surely other teams are similarly limited in what stuff they are allowed to buy in?

 

Get your hands on AMG Project ONE, that's a roadcar with actual Mercedes hybrid F1 Engine from 2016

 

So that's what that looks like.

 

I know ! I'm just short few pennies at the moment, but surely Project One is one sweet ride!

 

Entertaining, weird race that had a bit of everything: teammate battles (with touching--hilariously, Hulkenberg trod on Ricciardo's endplate), lead swaps, car failures (I've never seen sympathetic failure before), Kimi, Vettel spinning, and a safety car that stopped Ferrari finishing 4-5 and Merc 1-2 just like in Australia.

First lap or not, I'm not sure how Stroll got away with driving into Grosjean. Renault's race alone is worth an entire post-race show. Lando Norris has had a great first two races.

hoom, the Missed Apex Bahrain preview podcast briefly got into the Haas-Ferrari details. Apparently in their first year Haas somehow (and legally at the time, though it's now prohibited) gave their wind tunnel time to Ferrari to theoretically develop only Haas' car, albeit with Ferrari personnel who I'm sure didn't use any of that data for themselves.

Speaking of Haas and Ferrari, didn't Grosjean's front wing snap (albeit in a different place, and not clean off) in an earlier session because of vibrations?

The Sky post-race interview with Binotti was terrible, and Crofty's shouting is intolerable. You can describe what's happening without alerting the neighboring counties. How did the Sky execs decide their product could use less Ted and the same amount of Crofty? Bring Ted back and replace Crofty with Karun.

 

So, no FT1&FT2 in China, Greta Thunberg will come to China and organize a "Friday for Future" demo, it is supported by the chinese goverment, FIA an UN.

 

Oh God please no. Right now is about as much karun as I can stand. No offense but Indian accents aren't pleasing on the ears. Even less than crofty's shouting.

Ant wouldnt be bad at all though. I don't understand he seems to play second fiddle to di resta as I think ant is a lot better.

Anyway, interesting race to watch. Too bad for leclerc but I'm sure he'll have his chance soon enough, especially since Vettel cocked up again.

 

Poor Leclerc. Did Ferrari ruin his race on purpose or were they just trying to help Vettel .

 

Sky pre-race, Brundle and Ocon interviewing Norris on the grid walk. Brundle asks Ocon if he had any advice for Lando. Ocon said, “Stick to the inside, it’s safer.” Truer words were ne’er spoken. Kvyat probably ruined both McLaren’s and his own day on a wide open midfield in which Albon started last and Hulkenberg retired again. Nice drive from Albon, who benefitted greatly from his teammate’s escapades. Bottas’ poor start ruined Vettel’s. Would Vettel have been able to split the Mercs? Maybe not. Sounds like DRS would have nullified their advantage in the straights.

I’d love to know the last time (if ever) so many driver pairs qualified so closely to each other. Weirdly close team pairings...save for Gasly, who barely pipped Vettel for fastest lap with the advantage of a softer tire and much less fuel. Gasly’s got some work to do.

Not a great race to watch. Also, it’s not so much Crofty’s shouting that I object to than the absurdly high pitch he achieves when doing so. He needs to relax them vocal chords.

 

The race was meh, indeed.

With Ted's notebook back, finally had a reason to watch the post race covereage

 

Ugh I think I need to find a new favourite driver
I don't see how Kvyat to blame for that over-steer, didn't seem to be going in to the corner excessively quick, other cars were sliding in that corner too and then Kvyat & Tost both say he was hit from behind.
I really wanted to see a replay from the air/the car behind him to see if contact by other car created the oversteer but they never showed those angles.
If they meant the contact with Sainz that was clearly after he'd had the oversteer.

Collision previous race seemed pretty clearly the other guys fault but was not penalised.

But he's at least horribly unlucky.

Great drive for Albon & proves the car is not slow.


Personal theory is Ferrari had over-cranked the engines last race & had to wind them back a bit.

Whats the deal with fuel? I had assumed that would have been standardised even before tyres but they were saying Ferrari & Alfa smell different than other cars & talking about fuel development being very important.
It doesn't make sense to have strict fuel volume restrictions but then allow custom fuel formula

I think they said not since the 60s.


I love Kimi interviews, he's so laconic.

 

Fuel is regulated but not standardized. I assume this is a combination of engines being designed with a certain fuel and lubricants in mind as well as manufactures having long and important ties with fuel suppliers making it difficult to change. Though I doubt there is a real necessity.

Tires was a different story because you basically had top teams getting a tires designed specifically for their car while the rest had to make due with whatever they got.