Testing is now over, and the stage is now set for the opening round of the 2019 FIA Formula One World Championship beginning traditionally in the great city of Melbourne on the streets of Albert Park for the Formula One 2019 Rolex Australian Grand Prix. This is the 70^th season of the FIA Formula One World Championship and the 24^th year that Melbourne has hosted the Australian Grand Prix as part of the Formula One calendar.

 

 

A look at the Albert Park Street Circuit

 

 

The Albert Park circuit with its spectacular backdrop is a temporary street circuit around Albert Park Lake, only a few kilometres south from central Melbourne. Despite the track being run on public roads, it has characteristics of a permanent racing circuit considering its fast, flowing nature combined with extensive runoff in many corners.

 

The circuit itself uses everyday sections of road that circle Albert Park Lake, a small altered lake (originally a lagoon formed as part of the ancient Yarra River course) just south of the city of Melbourne. The road sections that are used were rebuilt prior to the first event in 1996 to ensure its consistency and smoothness. As a result, compared to other circuits that are held on public roads, the Albert Park street circuit has quite a smooth surface.

 

The track is considered to be fast and easy to drive, drivers have commented that the consistent placement of corners allows them to learn the circuit very quickly and achieve competitive times.

 

Each year, most of the motorsport infrastructure, trackside fencing, pedestrian overpasses, and grandstands are built approximately two months prior to the race weekend and removed within six weeks after the event. Land around the circuit (includes a large aquatic centre, a golf course, Lakeside Stadium, some restaurants and rowing boathouses) has restricted access during the event weekend.

 

The circuit runs in a clockwise direction and is 5.303km (3.295 miles) in length with 16 corners.

 

The race distance is 307.574km (191.071 miles) in length with 58 laps in total.

 

Michael Schumacher holds the fastest lap record on the streets of Albert Park set in 2004 with 1:24.125 in his Ferrari F2004.

 

Michael Schumacher and Lex Davison are tied for most Australian Grand Prix victories with four apiece.

 

Ferrari and McLaren are the most successful Constructor at the Australian Grand Prix, tied with 12 victories each.

 

The Last Five Winners

 

 

2018: Sebastian Vettel, Scuderia Ferrari. 2017: Sebastian Vettel, Scuderia Ferrari. 2016: Nico Rosberg, Mercedes AMG F1. 2015: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1. 2014: Nico Rosberg, Mercedes AMG F1.

 

Tyres

 

 

Pirelli will be bringing with them to Albert Park, the C2 (White) Hard compound, the C3 (Yellow) Medium tyre and C4 (Red) Soft compounds along with the green-branded Intermediates and Blue side-walled Full Wets in-case of rain.

 

Reigning World Champions Mercedes, along with archrivals Ferrari and Red Bull will have nine sets of the C4 (Soft) tyre for the Australian Grand Prix weekend.

 

All their drivers except for Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, have opted for single set of the C2 (Hard) rubber whilst the young Monegasque driver will have two available.

 

Renault are the only team on the grid to have selected 10 sets of the softer red side-walled C4 tyre, with Racing Point and Williams taking a more conservative approach with eight sets.

 

With just three colours at each race in the 2019 championship, five different compounds are available from C1 being the hardest and C5 the softest.

 

Each driver must save a set of the softest of the three nominated tyres available for the weekend for Q3. This set will be given back to the drivers who qualify into the top ten, but the remaining drivers will be given the spare set for the race.

 

Each driver must have both mandatory sets for the Grand Prix.

 

Teams are free to choose the remaining ten sets on offer, making a total of 13 sets for the weekend.

 

Tyre choices for the long-haul are to be made 14 weeks in advance and for European rounds the deadline is eight weeks in advance.

 

DRS Zones

As in 2018, there will be three DRS Zones for the Formula 1 2019 Rolex Australian Grand Prix weekend. The first detection point is 170 metres before turn 11, with the first activation point 104 metres after turn 12. The second detection zone is shared by zones two and three, which is 13 metres before turn 14. The activation point for zone two is 30 metres after the final corner, while the activation point for zone three is 32 metres after the second corner.

 

Pitlane Speeds

Pitlane speeds will be 60km/h in Practice with an increase to 100km/h for Qualifying and the Race.

 

Team and Driver Line-Ups

 

 

Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport: The reigning World Champions retain their driver pairing of five-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas for the 2019 season. They are the team to beat once again as they focus on achieving their sixth consecutive Driver’s and Constructors Championships since the 1.6L V6 Turbo Hybrid era began and aiming to equal Ferrari’s successive record of six Constructors titles. For the past two seasons, Mercedes has been challenged, or even outpaced by Ferrari at the start of the season, as the Silver Arrows were forced to step up another level and fight back hard. Team boss Toto Wolff said 2018 was the team’s most challenging season and it’s possible 2019 could be the Silver Arrows most toughest season yet. Can Hamilton and Bottas lead the team to their sixth successive Constructor’s Championship and ultimately a sixth Driver’s title for the Briton or a maiden crown for the Finn?

 

 

Scuderia Ferrari: It’s an all new driver line-up for Ferrari as Sebastian Vettel who spends his fifth year with the Maranello team, will be partnered by promising youngster Charles Leclerc who was promoted from the outfit’s Driver Academy and the Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team. The Prancing Horse will be looking to once again take the fight to the Silver Arrows and finally take a hold of what was a difficult second half of the year in both the 2017 and 18 seasons after a promising start, which saw their title hopes slip away. Can they knock Mercedes off the top this time round?

 

 

Aston Martin Red Bull Racing – Honda: It’s a new era for the Milton Keynes-squad with Honda as their new power-train supplier after a demise with former partner Renault. The team retains the exciting Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly is promoted from their junior outfit Toro Rosso to join up with the Dutchman. Can Honda help propel Red Bull back into the championship fight alongside main rivals Mercedes and Ferrari?

 

 

Renault F1 Team: Daniel Ricciardo moves to the Anglo-French squad after spending five years with Red Bull Racing. The entertaining Aussie teams up alongside Nico Hulkenberg who is in his third season at the team. Can Renault close the gap to the front three in 2019 as they look to chase wins and eventually the championship in the next seasons to come?

 

 

Rich Energy Haas F1 Team: The Kannapolis-Banbury team keeps driver duo Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen for the 2019 campaign having helped Haas achieve their best season to date. Can the American outfit go one step better this year in its quest for fourth in the Constructors Championship?

 

 

McLaren-Renault F1 Team: The Woking-based outfit feature an all new driver pairing for 2019 with Carlos Sainz switching from Renault and promising rookie Lando Norris stepping up from Formula 2. After divorcing from its partnership with Honda in 2017, the team opted for Renault power-units last season. The team scored 48 points in the first half of the year before only taking a low 14 in the second half as the team halted development on their MCL33 to focus on the MCL34. With double-World Champion Fernando Alonso taking a sabbatical from the sport and two new drivers coming in – big results are possibly still a season or two away. McLaren are thinking long term and regular points finishes in 2019 will be a solid result.

 

 

SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team: It was inevitable that after the sale of Force India to a consortium of buyers including Lawrence Stroll, young Lance Stroll would be moving to the Silverstone squad from Williams to partner the established Sergio Perez who will be in his fifth season with the team. They were renamed Racing Point F1 Team after falling into administration late July last year and surrendered all their achieved Constructor points when under new ownership. The team finished seventh overall, but had all their points counted, they would have ended up fifth and 11 points behind Renault. In 2019, closing the gap to the bigger teams will be a challenge, and a pending battle with Renault and maybe Alfa Romeo, could be one to watch this season. In the past few years, SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team have been known for doing more with less assets than some of it’s rivals. With that efficiency being well admired, it can take the Silverstone-outfit only so far and in 2019 it needs to step up or risk falling behind their closest rivals.

 

 

Alfa Romeo Racing: The Sauber F1 Team, were renamed Alfa Romeo Racing for 2019, and have been competing in the pinnacle of motorsport for over 25 years with just one win and a pole position. The Hinwil-based outfit have brought in Kimi Raikkonen, who returns to the team he began his Formula 1 career with in 2001 with the 2007 World Champion teaming up with Antonio Giovinazzi, who made two starts for the outfit in 2017, replacing the injured Pascal Wehrlein. The team have made major strides in the past two seasons and could 2019 be the year that trend continues and sees them move upwards and will a podium for the team once again be within reach?

 

 

Red Bull Toro Rosso – Honda: The Faenza-based squad brings Daniil Kvyat back to the team after being Ferrari’s development driver last season and will partner Alexander Albon who finished third in last year’s FIA Formula 2 Championship. There are lot of positives for the team to look forward to in 2019, especially with their closer than ever ties to Red Bull Racing. Both teams will run Honda’s power-trains, which only is the third time in the last 13 seasons that both Red Bull-owned teams will share the same engines. This should help Honda to develop their power-trains more rapidly and provide more information between the two outfits. With this, Toro Rosso’s aim for 2019 is much more clearer. Last season, some of the Faenza-based outfits decisions were based around data gathering for 2019 and on occasion, it compromised Toro Rosso’s performances. Honda’s performances were up and down last season and when they were up, they were looking very promising and Pierre Gasly’s fourth place in Bahrain was some achievement. Could this be the year that Toro Rosso starts growing up?

 

 

ROKiT Williams Racing: Reigning FIA Formula 2 Champion George Russell partners Robert Kubica who returns to the sport in an exciting new driver line-up for the 2019 World Championship season. The Grove-outfit that have won seven Driver’s and nine Constructors Championships are currently in a difficult position at the present moment and the only way is up. Can Williams turn a leaf after a horrific few seasons and slowly find their way moving up the field?

 

Formula 1 2019 Pre-Season Testing Wrap

 

Ferrari ended Formula 1 Pre-Season Testing at Spain’s Circuit De Barcelona-Catalunya as a comfortable favourite for the start of the 2019 World Championship season.

 

Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg was quickest of all in the opening test using Pirelli’s C5 softest rubber, but the Scuderia showed great promise with it’s SF90 racer, with an impressive four days as it singled-out its rivals.

 

Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel made those predictions stick as they topped both Thursday and Friday’s running respectively, as nearly every driver, but one set their best time on the C5 compound during the second half of the week.

 

Vettel ended the fortnight with the quickest time of a 1:16.221, his best effort was just 0.010 seconds better than Ferrari team-mate Leclerc.

 

The final week was troublesome for the Scuderia, as Leclerc lost time on the opening day due to cooling checks with Vettel crashing the next day after a tyre rim failure sent the German into the turn three barriers.

 

Those setbacks meant the Maranello-outfit recorded the eighth highest lap total in week two and ahead of Racing Point and Red Bull – and was 181 off of the 580 that arch rivals Mercedes reached, 200 less than it achieved during the first week.

 

Five-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton also bettered Leclerc’s time on a Friday afternoon run on the soft C5 tyre to go second quickest overall as the Silver Arrows ran performance runs for both their drivers.

 

Before his afternoon run, Hamilton said he thought that Ferrari could be half a second quicker than his Mercedes team.

 

Behind Leclerc, Hamilton’s Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas was fourth quickest overall in the combined times list with a 1:16.561 posted on the final day.

 

The Silver Arrows brought a heavily revised aerodynamic package for the final week of testing, which saw the Brackley-based squad focus mainly on long pace runs.

 

The first testing week pace-setter Hulkenberg was the best of the rest in the second week, with a 1:16.843 set in the late afternoon on the Friday, with new team-mate Daniel Ricciardo three tenths and a further seven places back in the time-sheets. The Enstone-French outfit achieved the second highest tally with a total of 528 laps on the mileage charts.

 

Toro Rosso looked to be very close to their performance limit with Alexander Albon and Daniil Kvyat showing impressing times, finishing sixth and seventh respectively in the combined time-list.

 

McLaren stuck with performance runs early on with Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz topping the first two days of testing. Sainz ended up the quickest of the two by the end of the week, with Haas F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean sandwiched in-between the duo on the combined time-sheets.

 

Haas did not produce any eye-catching runs, but their pace looked very solid. Kevin Magnussen was 15^th overall, but his 278 laps of mileage was 53 under what Hamilton achieved.

 

Red Bull’s promising start was hampered by a difficult end to the second week. Pierre Gasly was the quickest of the Milton Keynes-outfit’s drivers with a 1:17.091 posted on the penultimate day, then disaster struck when the Frenchman suffered a heavy crash at Campsa after touching the grass approaching the fast turn nine right hand corner.

 

This affected Red Bull’s preparations for the last day’s running and although Max Verstappen headed out just after half an hour into the morning session, his day was cut short due to a gearbox issue and only ran 29 laps.

 

The Dutchman’s best effort of a 1:17.709 was set on the C3 yellow-branded medium compound and left him ahead of only three drivers on the time-sheets, Racing Point’s Sergio Perez and Williams pairing Robert Kubica and George Russell.

 

Perez ended Wednesday describing his Racing Point’s running as “very limited” and that he needed a solid final day of mileage to try different fuel loads and more. The Mexican was 18^th in the time-sheets and completed over 100 laps on the final day.

 

Perez’ new team-mate Lance Stroll, who passed the same lap target a day earlier then was forced to stop due to a censor issue, ended 14^th overall.

 

After their late start to testing, ROKiT Williams Racing had a much better seconds week, completing the fourth-highest lap total but struggled to match the rest for pace.

 

Russell was three-tenths slower than Perez while his team-mate Kubica was the slowest overall.

 

Alfa Romeo showed less attraction than it did during the opening week but continued to show their promising potential. Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi finished 13^th and 16^th respectively on the overall time-sheet.

 

2018 Australian Grand Prix Flashback

 

 

Sebastian Vettel capitalised on a mid-race safety car to snatch victory from Lewis Hamilton at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on the streets of Albert Park.

 

Vettel was third in the first stint but stayed out longer than Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen and early race leader Lewis Hamilton and took advantage of the Virtual Safety Car & Safety Car periods to pit.

 

Vettel managed to keep Hamilton behind him with ease, aided by his fellow four-time World Champion’s lock up and off-track excursion into turns 9 and 10, coming through to win 5.036 seconds ahead as Raikkonen rounded out the top three and gave the Scuderia a double podium.

 

When the 58-lap season-opening Australian Grand Prix began, pole-sitter Hamilton kept the lead at the start and withstood a quick attack from Raikkonen at the third corner before slowly building into a comfortable three second lead, as Vettel kept his eye on the front-two in the other Ferrari.

 

Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen’s got an impressive start, running on the outside into the first corner to swamp Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and gave the front three an opportunity to move clear, and the Grand Prix was heading towards a processional in the opening stage.

 

Verstappen’s Red Bull RB14 racer looked lively behind the Haas VF-18 as the Dutchman complained over the radio of overheating rears, then Verstappen dramatically spun at turn one and fell to eighth.

 

The only change in the field before the pitstop window was Carlos Sainz’ RS18 running wide at turn 9 and allowed Fernando Alonso’s McLaren to slip into ninth, but the race turned upside down when drama struck American-outfit Haas.

 

Magnussen pulled over at turn 3 after his left rear tyre was not fitted properly, and team-mate Romain Grosjean suffered the same problem a lap later when an issue on his front-left caused the Frenchman to pull over on the left side upon the exit of the first corner immediately.

 

That deployed the virtual safety car, which was a huge boost for Ferrari as it used its two on one handicap over Mercedes to beneficial use, bringing Raikkonen in early so Hamilton reacted and stopped a lap later to cover Ferrari’s fresh-tyre advantage.

 

Vettel remained on track several laps longer and with the virtual safety car in force, he took the opportunity to pit while the rest of the field travelled slowly and came out just in-front of Hamilton, after being nine seconds behind and turning it into a race lead.

 

The real safety car was soon deployed and replaced it’s virtual version and the race remained stable until the 32^nd lap, giving Hamilton 26 laps to reclaim the lead from Vettel.

 

Hamilton hovered around a second behind Vettel for most of the time, then mounted a harder push with 12 laps remaining but locked up at turn nine and tripped over the grass.

 

That made Hamilton drop nearly three seconds behind and though he charged back within DRS range with five laps remaining he complained of his rears overheating and fell again.

 

Vettel crossed the line 5.036 seconds ahead of Hamilton taking his ninth victory for the Scuderia and giving Ferrari it’s 12^th Australian Grand Prix victory, equalling McLaren’s record.

 

Raikkonen kept Red Bull’s fast charging Daniel Ricciardo at bay to take third place, while Alonso, the other driver who was boosted by the mid-race safety car, completed the top five despite intense pressure from Verstappen.

 

Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg had a quiet race to take seventh, hunting down Alonso and Verstappen in the closing stages.

 

Valtteri Bottas’ uneventful recovery from 15th was bolstered by the safety car and claimed eighth from McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne, with a great pass into turn 3 on the restart. The Finn then chased down Hulkenberg but could not pass and was once again threatened by Vandoorne.

 

The second Renault of Carlos Sainz claimed the final points place, finishing 10^th after the Spaniard held off Force India’s Sergio Perez’s despite claiming he was nauseous in the final three-quarters of the Grand Prix.

 

As well as the Haas failures which changed the complexion of the race, three other teams lost a car over the course of the race.

 

Williams rookie Sergey Sirotkin suffered a brake issue on lap six and became the first retirement of the 2018 season, while Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson brought his C37 racer back into the pits on lap 14 with a hydraulic issue and Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly retired after an MGU-H failure on lap 13.

 

Who will get their season off to a flying start this year?

 

The Formula 1 2019 Rolex Australian Grand Prix begins Friday March 15 with Free Practice One and Two, followed by Free Practice Three and Qualifying Saturday March 16 and concluding with the 58 lap Race Sunday March 17.