The official Formula 1 and general motorsport thread for 2019

"It is not in the long term interest of the sport that fans lose free access to content and broadcasting"

They've only just realised this?

The Sauber Team has been rebranded as Alfa Romeo Racing for 2019

It’s kind of sad to see the Sauber name vanish completely, would have been nice to keep it as it was in 2018, Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team.

They should have been officially named Alfa Romeo Sauber, as they had no issues being BMW Sauber back in the day.

I have just watched the battle and driving of Alonso to take the lead at Daytona before night fall and he was great to watch over those 20 mins before he took the pass into the lead. Watching him battle for 3rd place at that time even, i could tell he was enjoying it he was so confident on the brakes on certain parts of the track. Great stuff

This year could also be the last Mexico GP. The Mexico City mayor announced today that there is no budget being contemplated for a new contract, so 2019 would be the last year. All the money will go to a new touristic train to connect the whole Yucatan peninsula. It was obvious this was going to happen, since the deal was done by the previous government and these guys' top priority is to undo anything that remotely looks like the previous administration.

One would hope that the promoters could gather the fee from private parties instead of relying on public funds, but I doubt Liberty will wait for them. There are plenty of governments ready to spend tax money on F1, like Vietnam and Argentina.

https://www.animalpolitico.com/2019/01/ ... tren-maya/

While it isn't the best track, I have thoroughly enjoyed the return to Mexico these last few years. [Hamilton]The Mexican fans were some of the best[/Hamilton] we've had in recent years thanks to the baseball stadium section and their enthusiasm really did enhance the race for me. I would have thought it would be one of the more sustainable races on the calender all things considered.

The old track configuration used to be mighty, i get why they changed the final corner (not enough run off), but turning the esses into a sea of concrete was just ridiculous.

floydfreak wrote:I have just watched the battle and driving of Alonso to take the lead at Daytona before night fall and he was great to watch over those 20 mins before he took the pass into the lead. Watching him battle for 3rd place at that time even, i could tell he was enjoying it he was so confident on the brakes on certain parts of the track. Great stuff

Alonso is just mighty whatever car/class he jumps in, I’d love to see him try something like WRC or rallycross but I reckon he’d do pretty well at both of those after sometime spent acclimatising to them.

As for Mexico I can’t say I’ll really miss it, tracks not bad but it does have a great atmosphere around it all.

God damn that's a great set of laps, and in those cars you can really appreciate the different driving styles. Alonso makes so much more out of the track, riding wide on corners keeping speed up, then only clipping the apex at that higher speed when he has to. Contrast that with the other cars that are entering corners from the middle of the track and hugging the inside of the corner far more than they have to (so staying at a set lower speed rather than dipping lower to make the corner). Then when Alonso gets in to the lead and it switches to the car behind, you can see how that style translates to a faster exit too - he's twitching on the exit under power because there's still lateral load in the tyres which he's pushing with applying power, so it's squirming but is quicker. The other people are just feeding power in from their tame corner hugging so it's smoother, but there's less speed in it.

Lap time technique :datass:

Haas have really pushed the boat out with their new livery.

Looks like the bastard offspring of a 2014 Lotus and 2016 McLaren.

Last edited by Robbo-92 on Thu Feb 07, 2019 3:14 pm, edited 2 times in total.

The black and gold liveries of the 2011-15 Lotus cars (except 14, which was awful) did a much better job, just looks like a black F1 car (imagine the new front wing on it is from very early in development as well).

I quite like the look of it there, but I think once it is on the track it might look a bit too much like a Minardi. That's why I hated McLaren when they had their black livery as it looked like a back marker and performed like a back marker.

I thought it was just going to be a livery launch but many F1 journalists are finding interesting things on the car.

McLaren style rear suspension, exhaust similar to what Ferrari tested last year and possible blown wheel rims.

The HAAS look nice from the front but pretty bland from the side, looking forward to seeing the rest of the cars released.

I thought it was literally a livery reveal as well, presumed it was a 2018 spec car with an early 2019 spec front wing. I’ll have to read some of the articles about it then.

McLaren have also signed a deal with British American Tobacco, which brings them back into the sport for the first time in over a decade.

Has there been any announcement whether the highlights on Channel 4 will remain the same, or will they now just be using Sky Sports production and presenters?

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