♦ Rain created a drama-filled race which delighted spectators who had not seen so much action in a while.
♦ Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen collected his second win of the 2019 season. The Dutch driver has won 7 F1 races to date.
♦ Lewis Hamilton, who was ill, finished 11th but got promoted two positions up as a result of 30-second penalties imposed on both Alfa Romeo drivers for start-line offences.
♦ Robert Kubica’s promotion to tenth place gave the Williams team, powered by Mercedes engines, its first point of the season.
♦ Russian driver, Daniil Kvyat, had two reasons to celebrate after the race. First was his unexpected third place after a chaotic race and second was the birth of his first child the same day.
♦ The event might not have been run this year had Mercedes-Benz not come in to provide support as the main title sponsor and provided much-needed financial support.
Race starts at 3:10 pm in Germany/9:10 pm in Malaysia
♦ In spite of being ill (believed to be the flu) this weekend, Lewis Hamilton still managed to capture pole position on the starting grid. Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen will be alongside the Mercedes-AMG driver. In the event that he decided he cannot race, reserve driver Esteban Ocon was ready to take over in his place.
♦ The Ferraris should have had a chance at the front row but technical problems in qualifying saw Charles Leclerc getting into tenth spot while Sebastian Vettel will start from the back. Vettel’s car had a turbo failure while Leclerc’s was due to a fuel problem.
♦ Although he has not raced his car in the rain, Renault F1 Team’s Daniel Ricciardo is hoping for a wet track as he thinks it may provide with just a slight edge. He said that he noticed that the car performed well in the wet last year.
♦ As some other circuits have been experiencing, the extremely high cost of hosting a F1 round means they can no longer do so. Hockenheim has hosted F1 rounds since 1970 (though not every year) is likely to have its last race this year for this reason. If so, there will be no German Grand Prix in 2020 (and beyond) since the Nurburgring circuit also stopped being a F1 venue.
Lewis Hamilton’s victory at Silverstone this year is his sixth British GP win, the most of any driver in the race.
Sebastian Vettel rammed into Max Verstappen’s car on lap 37 but the Ferrari driver acknowledged it was his fault and apologized to Verstappen at the end of the race. He was given a 10-second penalty which dropped his finishing position to 15th, and 2 penalty points on his racing licence.
Despite the dramatic incident, Vettel and Verstappen completed the race with the Red Bull driver collecting 10 points for his 5th placing.
Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen – both driving for the American Rich Energy Haas F1 Team – never had a chance to race this weekend as they collided in the first corner and had to retire as the damage was too severe.
The duel between Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen received praise as the two drivers showed gentlemanly behavior even as they challenged each other.
Kimi Raikkonen’s 8th placing at the British GP brings him points for a third consecutive race but not without having to work hard. The car still lacks speed on the straights, he said.
Lewis Hamilton revealed that he ‘went easy’ on Valtteri Bottas because they are team mates, even though they compete hard against each other and Bottas certainly would like to win the championship. “When you’re racing with a team-mate it’s on a different level. If I were racing a Ferrari, you take more risks. Still respectful, but you can lean on them a bit more but as team-mates, we sit down at the beginning of the race, we talk about Turn One and how we’re going to respect each other,” Hamilton said at the post-race press conference.
Race starts at 2:10 pm UK time/9:10 pm Malaysian time
Round 10 of the 2019 FIA Formula One World Championship sees teams and drivers travel to the English Midlands and Silverstone Circuit, home of the British Grand Prix. This year’s event marks the 70th F1 World Championship British Grand Prix. Silverstone has hosted the event the most times (53, including 2019) with Brands Hatch and Aintree being the other venues in earlier years. Silverstone and the British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) have announces that the British Grand Prix will continue to be held at the venue until at least the end of 2024. The agreement between Formula 1, the BRDC and Silverstone Circuit was signed yesterday in London.
A true power circuit, more than 60% of a 5.891-km lap of Silverstone is taken at full throttle. A strong favourite with drivers and fans, its popularity, however, does not solely rest on the speeds reached. Instead, it’s the circuit sequences of fast and flowing corners that thrill both competitors and spectators alike.
The track is also famous for being demanding on tyres which, in the past, has led Pirelli to bring its hardest compounds to cope with wear rates. The tyre supplier has maintained that practice this year, choosing it C1 compound as the hard tyre, the C2 compound as its medium compound and the C3 compound as the soft option.
The Silverstone circuit was the reference circuit for the layout of the Batu Tiga Circuit in Malaysia which was opened in 1968.
Resurfaced track adds complications
Complicating matters for teams and drivers, however, is the fact that the entire track has been resurfaced for the second time in two years following issues during last year’s MotoGP event here. Understanding the new surface will be one of the major tasks of the weekend as teams build towards an ideal race set-up.
This is Lewis Hamilton’s home race and he once again goes into today’s race bidding to take the outright record for most British Grand Prix wins. The 34-year old Mercedes-AMG driver currently shares the record of five with Jim Clark and Alain Prost.
Where constructors are concerned, Ferrari has collected the most wins in the British GP. Including last year’s victory by Sebastian Vettel, they have 17 wins, three more than McLaren, with Williams in third place on 10. Alfa Romeo, having a presence in F1 again, won the inaugural championship event in 1950.
Championship positions before Round 10
Approaching the mid-point of the 2019 season, Hamilton has a 31-point lead in the Drivers’ standings over team-mate Valtteri Bottas. Victory at the last race in Austria moved Max Verstappen up to third place. The young Red Bull Racing star now has 126 points, three ahead of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.
Although the 25 points won by Mercedes-AMG in Austria represented the team’s lowest single-race points haul of the season, they still hold a commanding lead in the Constructors’ Championship. The team starts the race today with 363 points in hand, 135 ahead of Ferrari. Meanwhile, victory for Red Bull Racing at their home race in Austria edged the team slightly closer to Ferrari and they now lie 59 points behind the Italian outfit. McLaren is in fourth place with a healthy 20-point gap to fifth-placed Renault.
The world of Formula 1 is never as exciting without all its drama and turmoil thrown into the mix. The latest one surrounding five-time world champion Lewis Hamilton leaving Mercedes at the end of 2020 to join Ferrari is probably the biggest talking point so far. (more…)
Perhatian kepada semua peminat pelumba Formula 1 Michael Schumacher! Sempena sambut hari kelahiran beliau yang ke-50, Muzium Ferrari telah membuka sebuah pameran istimewa iaitu ‘Michael 50’. Pelumba F1 tersohor yang berasal dari Germany telah diberi penghormatan di muzium yang terletak di Maranello, Italy dimana beliau telah memberi kemenangan terunggul Ferrari iaitu 5 kejuaraan berturut-turut dari tahun 2000 hingga 2004. (more…)
A very special Ferrari will be featured at Europe’s biggest pre-season motorsport show, Autosport International. The car in question is the legendary F2004, the very F1 car that dominated the 2004 season. It helped Micheal Schumacher to clinch his 7th world championship title. It also secured 15 pole positions that year, 13 for Schumacher.
The F2004 still holds the lap record for seven different racetracks, 5 of which are still part of the Formula 1 calendar. Between Schumacher and teamate Rubens Barrichello, the car managed to secure 12 pole positions during that same season.
Several minor changes were made from the previous year’s specifications that include the rear wing, which was made larger, the rear suspension was redesigned to reduce excessive tyre wear and the exhausts were made smaller, allowing for aerodynamic benefits. It is powered by a 3.0-litre V10 engine that produces close to 1000bhp.
The car will be featured alongside Ferrari FXX-K Evo, Ferrari 488 Challenge and a 488 GTE on the main Ferrari feature, which aims to highlight the Course Clients. This is Ferrari’s exclusive client racing programme, from Challenge car to GT car, through the XX development cars to Formula One.
It’s Ferrari’s way of preparing owners to better handle their vehicles as well as their readiness to handle professional competition. It’s a driving academy worthy of praise. Owners have the support and backing of a professional crew during the sessions.
After an eventful race at the recent Mexico grand prix, Lewis Hamilton has won the 2017 Formula 1 world championship. The race was anything but ordinary for Mercedes-Benz after the British driver was involved with an accident with Sebastian Vettel early in the race.
This shunt forced both drivers to scramble to the pits for repairs and to change tyres, which effectively left them in second last and last place. They were well behind the charging pack once they rejoined the race. What matters worse was that Hamilton was eventually lapped, which placed him in an unfamiliar situation.
Though many wrote off Hamilton’s chances of sealing the championship title in Mexico, the Briton proved his tenacity and unwillingness to accept defeat by clawing back up the order. He eventually finished in 9th place while closest title rival, Vettel, managed a more successful 4th place.
Despite finishing well ahead of Hamilton, it wasn’t enough to stave off his pursuit of a fourth world title. The race was eventually won by Max Vestappen with Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen completing the top 3.
Hamilton, who is now part of an elite club of five drivers who have won four or more world titles, was unhappy with how he won the title. Based on an article published by F1.com, he stated that felt it was a horrible way to win the title considering the drama that unfolded shortly after the race began.
There are only four other F1 drivers in history that have won four or more world titles, which are Juan Manuel Fanio, Alain Prost, Micheal Schumacher and Sebatian Vettel. It’s a proud moment for the Briton, but we are sure he will be gunning for a fifth title next year.
McLaren’s Formula 1 team and its engine supplier for the past two and half years, Honda, have decided to part ways after a dismal run of performance since the partnership was forged in 2015. Since switching from Mercedes-Benz powered engines to the Honda ones, McLaren hasn’t been the same.
The team have found themselves closer to the back of the grid, competing with teams that lacked the same technology funding, and driver talent than what the British based automaker had at its disposal. Despite having one of the most talented drivers of this era in Fernando Alonso, the team has failed to impress.
Plagued by constant reliability issues, the under powered Honda units have caused McLaren and Alonso, a great deal of grief. So much so that the Spaniard delivered an ultimatum to his team by stating, if things did not improve soon, he would leave in search of other opportunities.
After allowing all this to sink in, both teams have decided, in a complicated manner, to break-up and go their separate ways. As part of the deal, McLaren will receive Renault engines for the 2018 season, Toro Rosso will switch to Honda power and its driver, Carlos Sainz Jr., would be loaned to the Renault F1 team for the 2018 season.
It’s a complicated break up but it’s one that might allow McLaren to get back to its winning ways. This is especially sad considering that this same partnership allowed Mclaren a great deal of success in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Any hopes of both teams rekindling that same success of their glory days will never be realized in the near future.
How well these new partnerships pan out remains to be seen, but rumour has it that Honda might introduce a more powerful engine for the 2018 season. If proven true, McLaren might have jumped the gun by switching to Renault power and allowing Toro Rosso to benefit from its R&D with Honda.
Porsche has made it known that it is mulling over the idea of joining Formula 1 as an engine supplier for the 2021 season. The news was reported by Autosport where it mentioned that changes to engine regulations for that time, will allow the automaker to step in.
The article also reported that, Lutz Meschke, deputy chairman of Porsche’s executive board and member of the board for finances and IT, met with a number of key people in the Formula 1 fraternity.
His meeting was with Ross Brawn and a number F1 boses at the Italian Grand Prix to help gauge the feasibility of getting involved this late in the game. Porsche has not been directly involved in F1 since the early 1990s but has played a smaller roll in the sport.
This decision to participate was probably due to the F1 governing body moving to simpler and more affordable engines for the start of the 2021 season. Cost is a serious concern for less established teams, which means the new ruling could be beneficial to all.
The Stuttgart based automaker will be pulling out of the LMP1 class of the World Endurance Championship at the end of 2017 citing poor return on investment. It will however, have a works team in Formula E for the 2019/2020 season.
At the moment, Porsche has no plans to field a works team in F1, rather it will be content with supplying engines to teams who are looking for a business partner that will allow them to remain competitive.
Teams like Williams and Red Bull are considered potential customers for Porsche but nothing has been set in stone as yet. Though this may seem like exciting news, the automaker hasn’t given a definite answer of its involvement in the sport.
