#F1 @ROLEX @ausgrandprix 2020 and Season Preview. @F1

Testing is now over, and the stage is now set for the opening round of the 2020 FIA Formula One World Championship beginning traditionally in the great city of Melbourne on the streets of Albert Park for the Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix 2020. This is the 70^th season of the FIA Formula One World Championship and the 25^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.

 

Onboard Pole Lap of the Albert Park Street Circuit

 

 

Here is the onboard pole lap of the Albert Park Street Circuit set at last year’s event by Lewis Hamilton in his Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport F1 W10 EQ Power+, with the Briton posting a blistering 1:20.486. You can watch the video right here at the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnUZFrrd9os

 

 

The Last Five Winners

 

 

2019: Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes AMG F1. 2018: Sebastian Vettel, Scuderia Ferrari. 2017: Sebastian Vettel, Scuderia Ferrari. 2016: Nico Rosberg, Mercedes AMG F1. 2015: Lewis Hamilton, 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.

 

World Champions Mercedes have chosen identical sets for drivers Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas with ten sets of the red side-walled C4 Soft compounds.

 

Both Ferrari and Red Bull Racing have opted for nine sets of the C4 soft rubber for their respective drivers. While Red Bull pairing Max Verstappen and Alexander Albon have the same identical allocations, Charles Leclerc will have an extra set of yellow-marked C3 mediums at his disposal compared to Ferrari team-mate Sebastian Vettel.

 

Alfa Romeo Racing, Haas F1 Team and Renault F1 Team and follow Mercedes’ in selecting 10 sets of the red C4 softs.

 

However, BWT Racing Point F1 Team have gone with only eight sets of the red C4 soft tyres for the weekend.

 

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 2019, there will be three DRS Zones for the Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix 2020 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 champions enter their fourth season with the same stable driver line-up, with six-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton teaming up with Valtteri Bottas, with the former chasing his seventh title crown to equal the legendary Michael Schumacher.

 

 

Scuderia Ferrari – The Scuderia keep their driver pairing of four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc as they aim to bring a title back home to Maranello for the first time since the 2008 campaign.

 

 

Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda – Max Verstappen enters his fifth season with the Milton Keynes-based outfit, whilst having been promoted from junior squad Toro Rosso to the senior team replacing Pierre Gasly at the mid-way point of 2019, Alexander Albon has the chance to show how he stacks up against his Dutch team-mate over the course of the season.

 

 

McLaren-Renault F1 Team – After an impressive campaign in 2019, the Woking-based outfit opted for stability as Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris team together in the Renault-powered MCL35, the first car under Technical Director James Key’s guidance.

 

 

Renault F1 Team – Daniel Ricciardo takes on his second team with the French-Enstone alliance and whilst sitting on the sidelines as Mercedes test and reserve driver, Esteban Ocon returns to the Formula 1 grid to partner the Perth-born Australian.

 

 

Scuderia AlphaTauri-Honda – Daniil Kvyat and Pierre Gasly have been kept on by the Faenza-squad, with Kvyat driving a fifth season in one of the Italian team’s cars in the 2020 season.

 

 

BWT Racing Point F1 Team – Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll partner up for their season together at the Silverstone-based outfit with the former now spending his seventh campaign under their various guises.

 

 

Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN – Antonio Giovinazzi once again teams with 2007 World Champion Kimi Raikkonen, who will celebrate his 41^st birthday at this year’s United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas.

 

 

Haas F1 Team – Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen enter their fourth season in a stable line-up as the Kannapolis-Banbury squad’s drivers.

 

 

ROKiT Williams Racing – George Russell contests his second campaign with the Grove-based team, while running alongside the Briton is 2019 Formula 2 racer Nicholas Latifi, the only new driver on the grid in the 2020 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season.

 

Formula 1 2020 Pre-Season Testing Wrap

 

 

If testing is anything to go by, it’s reigning champions Mercedes that will head to the season-opening Australian Grand Prix as the clear favourites – however, there are concerns over its power-train reliability.

 

Testing rarely shows the full picture of how the pecking order will stand, seen most like last year when Ferrari showed its early promise at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya before a disappointing start to the season.

 

A look at the time-sheets and charts suggests that Mercedes will once again be the team to beat at Albert Park after topping every single chart.

 

Valtteri Bottas showed a glimpse of the F1 W11 EQ Power+’s potential, when he blasted the fastest lap of a 1:15.732, putting the Finn only three tenths adrift of his lap record at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

 

His benchmark remained unbeaten throughout the final testing week, giving Bottas half a second difference over the entire field, with Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen runner up on the time-sheets, 0.537 seconds off the Finn’s effort. Bottas’ final day quick lap of a 1:16.196 meant he ended both tests with the two fastest laps.

 

Verstappen moved his Honda-powered RB16 to second on his qualifying simulation run in the final hour of testing on the C5 softer rubber. The Dutchman suffered some spins throughout testing, giving him some concerns on the way the RB16 handles, but Verstappen insisted there was nothing to worry about.

 

Defending World Champion Lewis Hamilton held the fifth-quickest time in pre-season testing for Mercedes, with the Briton leading mileage charts with ease despite a few setbacks. Hamilton clocked up 466 laps of mileage over the six days (seven Spanish Grand Prix distances) – ending the test 20 laps more than McLaren’s Carlos Sainz.

 

Mercedes were the kings of the mileage charts as Hamilton and Bottas completed the test with 903 laps in total, 59 more than Ferrari.

 

However, a series of engine problems for Mercedes and customer outfit ROKiT Williams Racing – often the issue coming from the oil system – fired up some reliability concerns. Williams were forced to go through three engines through pre-season testing, whilst Mercedes had a couple of separate problems – as Hamilton called it a “difficult winter.”

 

Ferrari took a radical approach compared to it’s other testing years, focusing on basic programme running after it’s underwhelming start to the 2019 campaign. The Maranello squad still trailed Mercedes’ lap count but was only 150 laps adrift of its 2019 total when it had a two extra days of running – showing it’s change of approach.

 

BWT Racing Point F1 Team and ROKiT Williams Racing gained more than they did in 2019, with the latter after last year’s dismal woes – ending testing with 737 laps compared to 567 in five and a half days of running in last year’s test. Without engine troubles, the Grove-based outfit could have been very high on the lap charts.

 

Racing Point showed great promise at the end of the first day of pre-season testing, showing the RP20’s strong reliability and quickness. The Silverstone-squad ran 782 laps over the six days. In 2019, it completed 625 in eight days. Sergio Perez was seventh overall on the timing sheets, but four tenths adrift of second-placed Verstappen’s effort.

 

The stability of the regulations meant all the ten teams could hit the track running and reach some huge mileage numbers. Haas F1 Team, however, were the only team in the field to end 100 laps adrift of the other nine outfits, completing 649 in total.

 

This weekend at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, we will see a clearer picture of how the field will stand, but if testing is the clear idea of the way the pack will stack up, it’s Mercedes that will once again dominate it’s rivals from start to finish at Albert Park.

 

2019 Australian GP Flashback – Bottas cruises to dominant Australian GP victory

 

 

Valtteri Bottas produced a flawless drive to take a crushing Australian Grand Prix victory and passed Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton to clinch his first victory since the 2017 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix finale.

 

Hamilton outpaced Bottas in qualifying but his advantage slipped almost immediately after a slow run off the line.

 

The reigning champion was able to resist pressure from Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to complete a Silver Arrows one-two, whilst Verstappen rounded out the podium to give Honda it’s first since 2008 British Grand Prix in it’s first race with Red Bull while Ferrari ended up fourth and fifth.

 

Bottas got off to a great start, out-dragging Hamilton into the first corner, enjoying a trouble-free Grand Prix, aided by Mercedes reacting to Vettel’s early pitstop and switching Hamilton to an inferior strategy.

 

Vettel was the first of the front runners to stop on lap 14, with Hamilton pitting a lap later to cover the Scuderia’s fresh tyre advantage.

 

Neither could lap as quick on newer medium rubber compared to Bottas on old softs, which allowed Bottas, Verstappen and Charles Leclerc to stay out longer.

 

Bottas pitted on lap 23 and continued uninterrupted for the remainder of the race, hammering his opponents by 20.886 seconds.

 

The Finn’s gap was complimented slightly by Hamilton having to nurse his medium compounds right to the end to come home second, but the five-time World Champion managed to see off Vettel during the midpoint of the race.

 

Hamilton then kept a small gap to Verstappen once the flying Dutchman flew by Vettel with ease around the outside into turn three.

 

Verstappen continued to push the Mercedes hard, keeping 1.5 seconds behind the Briton for almost the entirety of the second half of the race, before taking a trip into the grass after running wide at turn one.

 

The Dutchman fell back but continued to charge and posted the fastest lap of the race in the closing stages but was unable to get by Hamilton.

 

Bottas stole the fastest lap from Verstappen and the first bonus point of the season to take his points haul to 26.

 

Ferrari’s promising pre-season pace translated into a fourth and fifth place on the streets of Albert Park as Vettel continued to fall back from the top three, only finishing ahead of team-mate Leclerc.

 

Vettel ended the race 50 seconds by race winner Bottas, with Leclerc – who took an excursion across the gravel into turn one in the earlier stages of the Grand Prix – finishing fifth after appearing to back off once he caught team-mate Vettel.

 

Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen came home best of the rest in sixth place and ahead of Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg who was seventh.

 

Kimi Raikkonen crossed the line in eighth place on debut for Alfa Romeo and in-front of Racing Point’s Lance Stroll who took ninth – his first points for the Silverstone squad, and Daniil Kvyat rounded out the top ten for Toro Rosso in his comeback drive for the Faenza-outfit.

 

The other Red Bull of Pierre Gasly finished closely behind the Toro Rosso in 11^th place. The Frenchman started a lowly 17^th after a blunder in qualifying and emerged from his pit-stop ahead of Kvyat, only to be passed by the Russian on the rundown to turn three.

 

Qualifying star Lando Norris was unable to score points on debut for McLaren but finished as the top rookie in the field, taking 12^th place. The young Brit managed to keep Racing Point’s Sergio Perez and Toro Rosso’s Alexander Albon at bay.

 

There were three retirements in the Australian Grand Prix, with Carlos Sainz the first casualty of 2019 with his Renault-powered McLaren burning up in flames.

 

Home hero Daniel Ricciardo on his debut for Renault was next to retire, taking a precautionary measure after breaking his front wing after running onto the grass heading into turn one.

 

The other Haas of Romain Grosjean stopped his VF-19 racer on track after running in the points earlier on before dropping out of the top ten due to a slow pitstop. The onboard camera showed his front-left wheel had come loose – which has been a problem during his stop.

 

The other Alfa Romeo Racing C38 of Antonio Giovinazzi, whose very long run in his opening stint, held up early and played a major role in settling the final points finishers.

 

The two ROKit Williams Racing FW42’s of George Russell and Robert Kubica finished at the rear with the latter losing his front wing on Gasly at turn one and remained a distant last for most of the race after being passed by Ricciardo.

 

Who will get their season off to a flying start this year on the streets of Albert Park and be Melbourne’s 25^th Grand Prix winner?

 

The Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix 2020 weekend begins Friday March 13 with Free Practice One and Two, followed by Free Practice Three and Qualifying Saturday March 14 and concluding with the 58 lap Race Sunday March 15.

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You can catch up on the first F1 Newbites of 2020 and the 2020 Guide to the Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix 2020 at the links below:

 

#F1 Newsbites – First of 2020. @F1

 

Your guide to the @F1 @ROLEX @ausgrandprix 2020. #F1 #AusGP