Formula 1 - 2019 Season

Wasn't fuel or oil an issue with McLaren and Honda? Some team had an existing fuel/oil sponsorship that they had to maintain when switching engines that may have limited their efficiency or reliability.

I don't understand how Kvyat's collisions were anything other than first lap incidents.

 

Was someone claiming otherwise? I thought the issue people are wondering is whether it was Kvyats mistake or caused by someone else hitting him first

 

The stewards. I was just agreeing with hoom. It didn't look like it merited a penalty had it happened on the last lap, let alone the first.

 

Oh there were penalties given? That's wrong, obviously. (Damn work, interfering with my F1-watching schedule)

 

Yeah Kvyat got a drive through (& stop?) penalty for it.
Nobody got penalised for the one in Bahrain.

 

Jolyon Palmer's pretty comprehensive analysis of the race's big incidents:

He even noted the unpunished Stroll incident from the last race that I was thinking about, where it looked like he didn't even bother trying to avoid Grosjean and just bounced him off the track. At least Kvyat was trying to avoid his collision. The only reason I can see for giving Kyvat a penalty (but 5 or 10 secs, not a drive through!) is that there was so much space on the inside (to his right) that the stewards thought he should have been there instead of trying to crowd the McLarens off the track. That ignores his oversteer and correction, and that Seb crowded Max off the track near the end of the race and wasn't penalized.

 

Hmm https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/...red-after-shanghai.JQDckpMZvvtKc6ZY991np.html

I fully look forward to seeing that rule equally applied & a whole slew of retrospective penalties applied to other drivers.

Ah that one actually has the view from the Racing Point behind.
And confirms that the only contacts were Sainz-Kvyat & Norris-Kvyat.

 

Red Bull & Toro Rosso getting Honda spec2 engines for Baku https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/...-upgrade-for-baku.2SqsoLZpFL8nBYBmRnsWFv.html
Will that count as an engine change? Or is it likely to be a bunch of small enough changes to not count as engine change?

 

In the preseason they already said a couple of times they are willing to take penalties if it means they can get a improved engine. I don't think they really care whether the engine can do 7 races as they'll probably planned on taking a penalty or two anyway.

And it makes sense. The car is off the Mercedes/Ferrari pace so RBR isn't going to be fighting for the WDC but they should be far enough in front of the rest of the field not to have to worry about becoming 3rd in the constructors championship. This year is for learning and they probably hope they can mount a real challenge in 2020.

If this year's care was competitive right from the start it would probably have been a different story.

 

Then Kvyat is already on his 3rd engine before the 4th race

 

Oof, thats not good.
Loose manhole cover looks like its wrecked one of the Williams right near start of practice 1.
Suspended session & they'll probably have to re-check the whole track.

Edit: and then the crane on he truck bringing the car back to pits hit a bridge & leaking hydraulic oil all over the car, jebus.

 

Those grid penalties are bad of course, but they'll only affect one race, so it makes sense to just take them if that gets you an advantage (of course you better not do that at every race...).
FWIW Giovinazzi already gets a grid penalty (10 places) for this race, due to control electronics change, which are only allowed 2 per season. All of the Ferrari teams (Ferrari, Haas, Alfa Romeo) are now already on their second unit (it had to be exchanged for Giovinazzi on the last race).
I guess we'll see quite some grid penalties this season...

 

Nice work at Baku, the drain covers which are supposed to be welded down apparently weren't or at least not strongly enough, Leclerc driving over one lifted it up and Russell coming in next crashed into it. To make matters worse, the crane on the truck taking Russell's car back to pits wasn't lowered enough so it hit a bridge and leaked the hydraulic oils all over Russel's car. (embed doesn't work, you have to watch it on YouTube)



edit:
Looks like F2 got some of the marshal fun too

 

Well, the track safety including those manhole covers is apparently FIAs responsibility so all the blame won't go to Baku, don't know about the rest.

 

Commentators kept talking about welding but they were obviously bolted, officials & team members were consistently talking about bolting.
At start of FP2 they clarified that apparently the retaining plate its bolted to broke, they'd been checked a day or two before but rechecked other 319 covers before FP2.

Apparently a couple of years ago a team was financially compensated for damage caused similarly.
Williams should presumably at least get waivers on equipment changes where there are limits?

Ugh Kvyat crashed again
Commentators were saying he's never managed more than 9 laps there in races & then he crashed after 9 again
He was going pretty quick though, had 6th quickest lap for the session.

Lots of other drivers had close calls & heaps of dives into bailout zones.

 

Right when you thought Ferrari was gonna be quickest Merc pulls through again for a 1-2 on the grid again.

2 scary crashes at the castle corner including leclerc & the other Williams.

Kvyat actually had a good day, 6th fastest in FP3 with decent number of laps and actually pulled P6 on the grid!
Now just needs to stay out of trouble in the race...