Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Team Archives

F1: Valtteri Bottas wins Sprint Race to get pole position in Sao Paolo GP

It was another Sprint Race win for Valtteri Bottas again in the Sao Paolo Grand Prix as he got off to a good start ahead of Max Verstappen who had moved into pole position after Lewis Hamilton’s qualifying times were disqualified. The Mercedes-AMG driver’s car was found to have a technical infringement in the rear wing and without a qualifying time, he was placed at the back of the grid.

Nevertheless, Hamilton worked hard for the short 24-lap race around the old-school Interlagos circuit to finish fifth. While the starting order for the main race is determined by the finishing order of the Sprint Race, Hamilton already knew he would have to add 5 grid positions – the penalty for changing an engine – to whatever position he finished in, so he had to work hard for the highest position.

The decision to take the 5-grid penalty was made with the hope that, for the main race, Hamilton will stand a stronger chance (or not having engine failures) of winning with a new engine. However, starting from 10^th place for the race today means he will have to contend with traffic in the early stages before he can challenge his Red Bull rival.

The top three finishers of the Sprint Race were awarded extra points with 3 going to Bottas, 2 to Verstappen and 1 for Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz who finished third. The 2 points for Verstappen move him slightly further to a 21-point lead over Hamilton in the Drivers Championship. While the 3 points that Bottas collected could be added to the Mercedes-AMG team’s lead in the Constructors Championship, the gap is only 2 points.

While the technical infringement on Hamilton’s car lost him his qualifying time, Verstappen’s case of having broken the rules of the Sporting Code by inspecting and even touching his own car and that of Hamilton’s right after the qualifying session resulted in a 50,000 euro (about RM238,000) fine imposed by the Stewards.

The action was not deliberate, as Red Bull’s Christian Horner argued, and it is likely that Verstappen did it without realising the actions broke rules. It’s like if there was a rule that forbade drivers from coming into physical contact (as in hugging) after a race and they still do it because they forgot the rule at the moment of jubilation. But rules are rules and a penalty has to be imposed to remind everyone that they cannot break rules and get away with it.

Incidentally, the Mercedes-AMG team won’t be making an appeal regarding the action taken for the technical infringement which had been brought about after Red Bull had made a complaint with the FIA about the rear wing on the car. After inspection, there was evidence that the gap for the wing was greater than the maximum permissible even though the design met the regulations. The team suggested to the Stewards that there might have been some fault and while they accepted this point, they still felt that a penalty was necessary and that was to just disqualify the pole-capturing time that Hamilton achieved in Qualifying.

Race starts at 2:00 pm in Brazil/1:00 am in Malaysia (Monday)

F1/Round 19: Preview & Provisional Sprint Race Starting Grid For 2021 Sao Paolo Grand Prix

F1/Round 18: Preview & Starting Grid For 2021 Mexico City Grand Prix

Race starts at 1 pm in Mexico/3 am (Monday) in Malaysia

While the racing teams are on the west side of the Atlantic Ocean, they have 3 races in the hemisphere – after the US Grand Prix in Texas, this weekend sees the second one in Mexico City. The event has been known as the Mexican Grand Prix for the 20 times in has been held since 1963 (last year, it was cancelled due to the pandemic) but this year, it will become known as the Mexico City Grand Prix.

An event special to Honda
The Mexican Grand Prix has been held at the same circuit which was originally named the Magdalena Mixiuhca Circuit but renamed to Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in honour of the country’s racing drivers, Ricardo and Pedro Rodriguez. This circuit in particular is special to Honda because it was the first Japanese team to win a Formula 1 race in the 1965 event. While it did not participate as a factory team later on, it was an engine supplier and contributed to the victories of Williams (1987) and McLaren (1988-1989) in the Mexican rounds of the championship.

*Honda RA272 winning the 1965 Mexican GP – the first F1 win by a team from Japan.*

5 times higher than Petronas Twin Towers
The 4.3-km circuit set within a sports park has always presented a unique challenge for the engineers. At 2,385 metres above sea level, it is situated at the highest altitude of any circuit and that’s 5 times higher than the height of the Petronas Twin Towers. This means the air is thinner (by about 25%) so the operating conditions are unlike other tracks. This is where forced induction is vital to avoid the loss that naturally-aspirated engines suffer due to less air being available.

There are also has implications on aerodynamics and the racing cars will be set up with maximum downforce. But because the air is thin, resistance is less so the cars will be able to hit very high speeds of around 350 km/h too.

The drivers will have to be alert for cooling problems with the brakes and the turbochargers will also have to work harder, so there is a risk of the Power Unit failing. Cooling the car appropriately is probably the biggest challenge in Mexico. For the Power Unit, the lack of mass flow of air limits the cooling potential, which requires careful management to ensure reliability.

Red Bull Racing or Mercedes-AMG?
Going into the final quarter of the championship, the battles for the Drivers and Constructors titles are still tight. The lead has alternated between Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS and Red Bull Racing and after the US Grand Prix, Max Verstappen has a lead of just 12 points ahead of Lewis Hamilton 275.5 points. Running in third is Valtteri Bottas with 185 points and he will be starting from pole position for the race after a surprise qualifying run to beat his teammate by 0.145 second. 35 points behind him is Sergio Perez who will be in fourth place on the grid, alongside his teammate, Verstappen.

Historically, the Mexican Grand Prix has been one of the races where the Drivers championship has been decided but in those years when Hamilton was confirmed champion (2017 and 2018), the event was the 19th round of a 20-race calendar.

In the Constructors championship, the positions are reversed and it is the German team that is ahead of Red Bull Racing by 23 points. The fight for the title will be confined to these two teams, while third will be fought by McLaren and Scuderia Ferrari which are just 3.5 points apart with 5 rounds remaining.

F1: Australian GP to be replaced by Ooredoo Qatar Grand Prix in November

PETRONAS to end sponsorship of Mercedes-AMG F1 team after 2021 season

The PETRONAS name will be absent from the racing cars of the successful Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 team after this year’s championship ends. It has been confirmed that the team, which has won 7 world championships, will no longer have Malaysia’s national oil corporation as its title sponsor. This comes after over 10 years of association between the team and the oil company, although its involvement in F1 goes back as far as 1995. The latest development follows Petronas’ ending of their MotoGP title sponsorship at the end of this year and no longer being associated with the Yamaha SRT team.

Over the years, Petronas has used its association with Formula 1 for many marketing activities, leveraging on the development efforts in fuels and technology. More than 50 engine oils, transmission fluids and hydraulic fluids have been developed for the racing cars to use in extreme conditions. The technologies and knowledge from such developments have eventually been used to develop commercial products for sale to the public.

It would certainly have been very expensive and while Petronas products are available in around 65 countries, many may not know it is a Malaysian company (although ‘MALAYSIA’ has occasionally been put on the cars. But the same can also be said of other major sponsors like Repsol, Santander and certainly, not many of the 500 million people who watch F1 worldwide will be aware that the ORLEN which sponsors the Alfa Romeo F1 team is a Polish petroleum company. Brands like Marlboro, Rolex and even Dell would have more global presence and recognition. But Petronas believes the money has been well spent: in 2016, it estimated the value of brand exposure in F1 from 1995 was worth more than US$900 million.

Saudi Aramco to take over as title sponsor?
In place of Petronas, Mercedes-AMG is expected to have another oil company – Saudi Aramco. As the main company operating in Saudi Arabia, it has the world’s largest network of oilfields and its revenues are chart-topping. Saudi Aramco (which stands for Arabian American Company) is state-owned and was established in 1933. Described as an integrated oil and gas company, it is mainly in upstream activities and has no visible internationalpresence in consumer products, unlike most other oil companies. It does, however, have a network of fuel and service stations (in partnership with Total of France) in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Aramco, which has been operating for 88 years, is active mainly in upstream oil and gas activities. It also has a network of fuel and service stations under the Sahel brand which is in partnership with Total of France.

The tie-up with Mercedes-AMG is the second major involvement in F1. Last year, Saudi Aramco announced a long-term global sponsorship with the sport, its first global sponsorship of a major sporting event.

“We are excited to partner with Formula 1, a strong global sports brand with millions of fans around the world. As the world’s largest energy supplier and an innovation leader, we have the ambition to find game-changing solutions for better-performing engines and cleaner energy. Partnerships like these are important to help us to deliver on our ambitions,” said Saudi Aramco’s CEO & President, Amin H. Nasser.

Involvement in F1 since 1980s
Saudi Aramco’s involvement in F1 is not Saudi Arabia’s first association with the sport. Older readers will remember that, in the 1980s, Saudia Airlines (the country’s national airline) sponsored the Williams team. Though the Saudia name was the most prominent, Frank Williams also managed to get eight other supporters from Saudi Arabia’s growing business community.

*Saudia Airlines was one of the Saudi Arabian companies that were sponsors for the Williams F1 team in the 1980s.*

The group included TAG (Techniques d’avant Garde), an advanced technology company which was founded by a Saudi businessman. TAG (which bought over the Heuer watchmakers) first sponsored Williams and the McLaren. Today, it also has a major share in the McLaren Group. More recently, TAG Heuer has been a major partner in the all-electric Formula E series as well, along with Saudia Airlines.

Major motorsports events in Saudi Arabia
The country’s ‘Vision 2030’ is also bringing Saudi Arabia into the 21st century and its society is changing, eg women have been allowed to drive cars since 2018. As a result, it has attracted three major motorsports events to be run in the country to boost tourism. The Dakar Rally and Extreme E Desert X-Prix, which were run in the deserts for the first time in 2020 and 2021, respectively, and later this year, the first ever F1 race in the streets of Jeddah. All are significant events which will be widely publicized, and organisers have made deals to run them over a number of years.

*The first round of the inaugural Extreme E electric off-road series was run in Saudi Arabia in April this year.*

2022 Formula 1 calendar to have 23 races, with season-opener in Bahrain

F1/Round 16: Highlights & Provisional Results For 2021 Turkish Grand Prix

Rain was falling as the cars lined up, Valtteri Bottas in front with Max Verstappen alongside and the fastest driver in qualifying – Lewis Hamilton – down in 11th spot as he had to take a grid penalty for the engine component change. The wet conditions were expected to remain throughout the race.

The Mercedes-AMG driver got off to a good start, and Verstappen slotted behind in his spray. Not surprisingly, there was some drama as Alpine’s Fernando Alonso, Williams Racing Nicholas Latifi and Haas F1’s Mick Schumacher went into spins on the wet track. But Hamilton was quick to slice through traffic within the first few corners and started the second lap to positions higher. He was then held at ninth place for 6 laps as Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda proved difficult to get past.

In third was Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc while Verstappen’s team mate Sergio Perez was shadowing him and waiting for an opportunity to get forward to cover Verstappen. Track temperatures were low due to the rain and as the drivers tried to get the tyres warmer, the racing was still a bit tricky.

On lap 9, the first penalty of the race was imposed on Pierre Gasly. It was a 5-second time penalty for having bumped Alonso in a spin at the start. However, Alonso also got a 5-second penalty as well as he had later bumped in Schumacher.

Within 15 laps, Hamilton had moved from eleventh at the start to fifth and the difficult part would start – ahead were Perez and Leclerc. Meanwhile, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, who had started from the back due to an engine change penalty, had moved up to ninth place after 18 laps. McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo was less successful and stuck at sixteenth place for some time. He would be the first driver to pit on lap 24.

At the halfway point of the race, it was still Bottas leading Verstappen and the gap was around 4 seconds. Leclerc was about 3 seconds behind the Dutchman but Perez was still some distance away with a gap of over 10 seconds. The prospect of more rain was mentioned in the pits.

Lap 36 saw Hamilton close in on the Red Bull driver and for a few corners, the two drivers were doing close-up duels. As with Tsunoda, Hamilton’s attempts to overtake keep being frustrated by the Mexican driver. And then Perez headed for the pits on lap 37, letting Hamilton through to start chasing Verstappen. Bottas also came in at around the same time, his lead taken by Leclerc. The Mercedes-AMG driver was able to return to the race just ahead of Verstappen.

On lap 42, Hamilton was asked to come in but he was reluctant to do so, and remained on the track. Leclerc too was thinking that he might trey to stay with the tyres all the way till the end of the race. Aston Martin COGNIZANT’s Sebastian Vettel had come in and taken the chance on intermediates which proved to be a very bad decision, dropping him totally out of contention.

Bottas started to close in on Leclerc while Verstappen was facing steering problems. With 10 laps remaining, the Mercedes-AMG finally regained the lead. Leclerc was displaced to fourth as Hamilton zipped past him but there was still a 6-second gap with Verstappen. The pressure was on the Red Bull driver who was aiming for the Finn ahead but also having to keep an eye on his team mate in the mirror.

To be on the safe side, Hamilton decided to come in to change tyres with 7 laps remaining. His quick stop allowed him to return behind Perez and Leclerc. He had fresh tyres and could put in maximum effort all the way to the finish so the 5-second gap was nothing. But even as Hamilton closed in on Perez, he put in a spurt and overtook Leclerc, which was not what the Mercedes-AMG driver was expecting. It didn’t help that Scuderia Alphatauri’s Pierre Gasly had also closed in and was watching for an opening past. Only 3 laps remained.

In the final two laps, Bottas had a comfortable 10-second lead over Verstappen, enough for him to concentrate on picking up an extra point by going for the fastest lap just before he took the chequered flag to win the Turkish Grand Prix. It was his tenth win on Formula 1. Strange how, having been confirmed that he will leave the team at the end of this season, his fortunes are getting better.

F1/Round 14: Preview & Starting Grid For 2021 Italian Grand Prix

Race starts at 3 pm in Italy | 9 pm in Malaysia

Round 14 of the 2021 Formula 1 World Championship is the Italian Grand Prix, which takes place at the Monza Circuit north of Milan. This is the most frequented track in Formula 1 and Monza is running a round for the 71^st time. The only time Monza did not host a round was in 1980, when the Italian GP was held at Imola.

The 5.739-km circuit is therefore familiar to the teams who know how different it is from the tight, maximum downforce Zandvoort Circuit last weekend. Nicknamed ‘The Temple of Speed’ and in existence for 99 years, Monza is all about pace, and some of the highest speeds of each season are reached on the long straights. In fact, 85% of the lap distance will be taken at full throttle, the highest of any F1 track.

The teams will therefore be giving attention to downforce and use packages designed for the high-speed straights. Monza has the lowest downforce level of the year, requiring a special rear wing for the event. This is a talking point every year at the Italian Grand Prix, but there would still be enough downforce to – in theory – drive a car upside down.

The lower downforce levels at Monza, combined with the long straights, decreases the temperature of the tyres, resulting in more frequent wheel lock-ups than at other tracks. This also impacts brake stability as it makes the car more nervous and unpredictable under braking, increasing the possibility of a lock-up. A lot of time can be found in these slow-speed chicanes and big braking zones, but the run-off areas can be unforgiving if you make a mistake.

According to the technicians at Brembo, which supplies the brake systems for the F1 cars, the Monza Circuit is a very demanding circuit for brakes. On a scale of 1 to 5, it is rated 4 on the difficulty index, the same as Sochi where the GP will be held at the end of the month. The low aerodynamic load used to take advantage of the really long straights means highly violent throttle-off moments on the three chicanes. making them particularly demanding for the driver.

Each team can choose from 6 different Brembo front discs, depending on the temperatures expected during the race and the specific race strategy. There is the medium cooling option with 800 holes, high cooling with 1,250 holes and very high cooling with 1,480 holes. Each of these then offers a sub-option with a process on the outer diameter – the so-called groove.

In the case of very high cooling, the holes are arranged in 7 different rows, in the intermediate case in 6 rows and the other case in 4 rows. They measure 2.5 mm in diameter each and are precision-machined individually. It takes 12 – 14 hours to punch all the holes on a single disc. The mechanical component tolerance is only four hundredths.

As for the tyres, Pirelli is providing 3 compounds in the middle of the range: the most popular selection of the season. The P Zero White hard is the C2, P Zero Yellow medium is C3, and P Zero Red is the C4. The same compounds were selected for the last 2 years, offering a good balance for all the different demands of the circuit.

The Italian GP is the second race this year that will have the new Sprint qualifying format. First run at the British Grand Prix in July, it proved to be popular with the drivers as well as the spectators. The Sprint Qualifying Race is 100 kms long which is 18 laps of Monza. No pit stops are required so the drivers will be going flat out from start to finish.

The start of the Sprint race saw Hamilton fumble and while his team mater got off well, Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo also got past the Mercedes-AMG driver and Land Norris as well! But collisions further back, starting with Pierre Gasly and a McLaren brought out the Safety Car. But it was only our till the third lap and racing resumed – by which time, Hamilton had dropped to fifth place.

The Scuderia AlphaTauri team had a bad day as Gasly (last year’s Italian GP winner) was out and Yuki Tusnoda had also sustained damage. Gasly’s retirement enabled Charles Leclerc to move up, while Lance Stroll had to work hard to prevent Sergio Perez from taking over his position.

Verstappen tailed Bottas who was about 2 seconds in the lead. The Dutchman didn’t have to try too hard and just keep his second position since the Finn would have to start from the back even if he won the race. The only thing that Verstappen would miss out on was just 1 point.

For Hamilton, things were just not working out, even with DRS and Norris remained in his sights ahead. The thing is, it was just an 18-lap race so there was not a lot of time and every second counted. In the end, he had to settle for fifth place, while Bottas took the chequered flag. The additional points don’t do anything to the rankings as they were on 3-2-1, so tomorrow will see the reigning World Champion having to work very hard to regain the lead.

F1/Round 3: Highlights & Provisional Results For 2021 Portuguese Grand Prix

♦ It seemed like a good, incident-free start to the race… at least for the first lap. Then, as the second lap was beginning, Kimi Raikkonen ran into the back of Antonio Giovinazzi (his team mate). The front wing came off and he tried to drive on but could not and had to turn off into the gravel. An early start as usual for the Safety Car which was deployed to allow the Alfa Romeo to be removed and debris cleared. Giovinazzi, however, was still in the race and Daniel Ricciardo was waiting to pounce on the ‘wounded’ Alfa Romeo.

♦ Although Valtterri Bottas was in the lead, his engineers saw the brakes overheating (smoke was coming out too) and this was a concern for the restart when the Safety Car moved off on lap 6. Max Verstappen was ready for the moment and got around Lewis Hamilton to slot into second place and aim for the race leader.

♦ But the World Champion was not going to settle for third place, and within a lap, he slipped part Verstappen to regain second position less than a second behind his team mate.

♦ Lando Norris had used his tyre advantage to overtake Sergio Perez for 4th place, but then the Mexican driver who is with Red Bull Racing this year out-maneuvered the McLaren driver going through Turn 1 with the help of DRS.

♦ Ricciardo had started from 16th position and steadily worked his way up the field. By lap 18, he was able to pass Sebastian Vettel to grab 10th position and start thinking of some points to take home at the end of the race.

♦ Bottas didn’t make things easy for Hamilton, who was showing a lot of determination to take the lead. On lap 20, as the cars raced around Turn 1, Hamilton surged around his team mate and into the lead. It was like a replay of the 2020 race when Hamilton did the same thing.

♦ With a third of the race done, most cars were changing their soft tyres for harder ones. The two Mercedes-AMG cars were ahead of two Red Bulls, with one Ferrari (Charles Leclerc) about 12 seconds further back. Verstappen was within striking distance of Bottas but never had a clear chance to overtaken, allowing Hamilton to concentrate on building up his buffer with a succession of fastest laps.

♦ At the halfway mark, it was still both Mercedes-AMGs ahead, and then two Red Bulls. Fernando Alonso was the better-placed Alpine in 6th, watching Ricciardo’s progress and waiting for a chance to attack the McLaren driver, Both Ferraris were still in the points, but in 9th and 19th positions, they could easily drop out too. In fact, Leclerc was under threat from the second Alpine driven by Esteban Ocon, just a couple of seconds away.

♦ On lap 36, Verstappen started the chain of pit stops to get onto harder tyres to sustain an offensive. While Bottas shot in after the Dutchman, Hamilton was willing to stay out a bit longer, telling team that he thought the tyres were still okay, but he was ordered in. At that point, he had a 4-second lead and Perez inherited the lead of 12 seconds. But if he came into the pits, he would immediately fall to 4th.

♦ 22 laps remained as Hamilton sped after Perez, setting a fastest lap again. Verstappen had no answer to the speed of the Mercedes-AMG. He also had to watch his mirrors for Bottas who had been given encouragement personally by the team boss to go after the Red Bull.

♦ On lap 47, Nikita Mazepin, the ‘bad boy’ of the F1 world with his controversial behaviour, caught the attention of the Stewards who investigated him ignoring blue flags, which required him to allow the race leader to pass. The Russian drver has made some mistakes before, and explained that he was new and ‘unaware’. This time, he got a 5-second penalty although that was of no great consequence since he was at the back of the field anyway.

♦ By lap 51, Perez was probably finding it difficult with the old tyres, and Hamilton got by to regain the lead. The Red Bull driver then came in for the long-overrdue tyre change and as expected, slotted into 4th place when the rejoined.

♦ With the softer tyres, Perez pushed hard and got a fastest lap. He was making steady progress up the field in the final 10 laps but had still to get past some cars. As 5 laps remained, Hamilton was in a reasonably comfortable and safe lead, 5 seconds ahead. Bottas was not trying any harder and would settle for third, with Perez not within striking distance.

♦ 2 laps before the end, with a 30-second gap, Bottas rushed into the pits to get soft tyres and he was planning to go for the fastest lap and snatch that 1 bonus point from Perez. Veerstappen did the same thing since he had a 32-second lead ahead of Bottas, and he too was eyeing that 1 precious point.

♦ As Hamilton took the chequered flag, Verstappen and Bottas were both trying hard to be quickest driver of the day – and Bottas was the one because Verstappen’s time was deleted due to track limits infringement.

George Russell to take Lewis Hamilton’s place for this weekend’s race in Bahrain

Lewis Hamilton is under self-isolation due to a positive result in COVID-19 tests and will be unable to race at the Sakhir Grand Prix this weekend. Taking his place is a fellow British driver, George Russell who has been released by Williams Racing, his current team.

“First and foremost, I wish to thank our loyal partners at Williams for their collaboration and open-mindedness in making it possible for George to race for Mercedes-AMG this weekend. The conversations with the team at Williams were positive and pragmatic, and those were the key factors in reaching an agreement,” said Team Principal and CEO Toto Wolff.

“It will not be a straightforward task for George to make the transition from the Williams to the W11, but he is race-ready and has detailed understanding of the 2020 tyres and how they perform on this generation of cars. George has shown impressive form this year with Williams, playing an instrumental role in their climb up the grid, and I am optimistic that he will deliver a strong performance alongside Valtteri, who will be a demanding reference for him,” said Wolff.

‘*63′ is George Russell’s racing number which will replace ’44’ on Lewis Hamilton’s car.*

Mercedes-Benz Junior Programme driver
He will be the fifth driver to race for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team since 2010, and the third British driver to represent Mercedes-Benz in F1 after Sir Stirling Moss and Lewis Hamilton. He is not a stranger to Mercedes-Benz though, having been a member of the Mercedes-Benz Junior Programme since 2017, when he won the GP3 Series championship as a rookie, before repeating the feat in Formula 2 in 2018.

He has been a fully-fledged Formula 1 driver with Williams Racing since 2019, demonstrating impressive qualifying and race performances during the past two seasons. “This race will mark a small milestone for us, as we see a member of our Junior programme compete for the works Mercedes team for the first time,” Wolff noted.

F1 (Round 15): Highlights & Provisional Results of the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix (piston.my)

F1 (Round 17) – 2019 Japanese Grand Prix Results and Highlights

♦ The strong typhoon forced qualifying to be postponed to raceday and both Ferrari’s were able to take the front row of the starting grid.

♦ With Valtteri Bottas winning in Japan, the 2019 F1 Constructors Championship is secured by the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Motorsport team. The sixth consecutive world championship double is a new Formula 1 record.

♦ Although the two Ferraris had the front row on the starting grid, the team lost its advantage when the lights went green as Sebastian Vettel fumbled his start. However, the stewards did not penalise him for what appeared to be a ‘jump start’. Charles Leclerc was also slow off the line and Bottas surged forward, taking advantage of the situation.

♦ Max Verstappen’s race was short after his car was hit by Leclerc’s early in the race. Although both cars were damaged, the Red Bull was worse off and Verstappen was forced to retire.

♦ It was Alexander Albon’s first time at Suzuka and the 4th place is the best he has achieved in his career to date, one position better than in Belgium and Russia.

♦ A Mercedes-AMG driver will win the title again but it’s still not Lewis Hamilton’s for sure. The round in Mexico will be a tense one as Bottas still has an outside chance, depending on the outcome.

Next race in Mexico on October 27

F1 (Round 11) – The 2019 German Grand Prix Starting Grid

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.

F1 – 2019 British Grand Prix Preview

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.

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