I’m in!!! I did a couple of laps last night in preparation for the week.
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Sweet. Ill create a thread in an hour
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F1 DNA shows nine of the 11 entrants from 1999 are in some form still competing as Sportsmail looks at the lineage of every team competing in the 2019 campaign, and what they were previously known as.
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I bought F1 2018, so I will join in on this
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Very cool chart!
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Very sad news to start today 
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Very sad news indeed. He will be sorely missed.
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On a more pleasant note, here’s Danny Ric keeping it classy in welcoming Robert Kubica back to the grid.
Good guy Daniel.
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I watched the first episode of that Netflix F1 show last night and it’s very good. Looking forward to watching the rest.
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I’ve never been this excited for a sporting season start!
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You are not the only one!
So much to look out for and forward too.
Its awesome to see Kubica where he belongs, altho I have a feeling its going to be a one season thing - that williams will just break his heart.
As for Charlie, RIP, it is sad, apparently a pulmonary embolism. He did so much for the sport, and will be missed.
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RIP Charlie. The old generation is leaving us bit by bit. Charlie has been a feature of F1 for all the years I’ve been watching.
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Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi!
Despite the sudden and tragic passing of Charlie Whiting, Formula One’s legendary Race Director, the 2019 Formula One World Championship gets underway this weekend in Melbourne, Australia. And we head into Round 1 of the new season with a host of questions that I can’t wait to see answered. Here’s just a few of those questions:
- Just how much sand-bagging was Mercedes doing during the pre-season Test Sessions? Or are the reigning World Champions genuinely still half a second behind the development curve of their biggest rivals, Ferrari?
- We know Daniel Ricciardo’s decision to leave Red Bull and join Renault was a bold and unexpected move. But was it a wise one? How far into the season are Honeybadgers’ fans prepared to wait before they decide if his move makes him a ‘bloody legend, mate’ or that he must have had ‘a few kangaroos loose in the top paddock’ when he made the decision?
- Just how wide will RICs smile be any time he manages to beat Max Verstappen this season?
- Which of the rookies will struggle the most in the sports’ top tier? My money’s on Alexander Albon.
- Will Valtteri Bottas be content again with playing wingman to Lewis Hamilton’s aspirations to take a 6th Driver’s World Championship title? As the only other driver to have access to the same car as HAM, I really do hope that the Finn can find the gumption to take the challenge to Lewis from the begining of the season.
- Will Robert Kubica manage a complete season? Will the Williams team as a whole? In both cases, I really do hope so.
There are many more questions that this season has. Hopefully the action both on- and off-track provides answers to them all.
Onto Round 1 of the 2019 F1 World Championship then…
The 2019 Australian Grand Prix
The Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix 2019 (to give it its formal, marketing department approved title) will be the first of 21 rounds of the 2019 F1 season. It is official numbered as the 998th Formula One Grand Prix. Sunday’s race is the 35th time the Australian Grand Prix has been part of the F1 Championship, and the 24th time that the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit (aka the Albert Park Circuit) will host an F1 Grand Prix.
Sebastian Vettel has won the previous two Australian GPs driving for Ferrari. The 3 prior to that were won by Nico Roseberg (2016, 2014) and Lewis Hamilton (2015) all for Mercedes. With 4 victories, Michael Schumacher holds the record for the most F1 wins in Australia (2000, 2001, 2002, 2004). Only 3 drivers on the grid this year have multiple Aus GP wins: Vettel (2011, 2017, 2018); Kimi Raikkonen (2007, 2013); and Lewis Hamilton (2008, 2015).
McLaren is the team that has the most F1 Championship wins in Australia: 11. Other teams with multiple wins are Ferrari (9), Williams (5), Mercedes (3), and Renault (2).
The Schedule
Australian times for the race weekend mean early hours for us in South Africa. You can go back to bed afterwards!
The Circuit
The Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit is a 5.3km temporary street circuit that circles Albert Lake in Albert Park on the edge of the Melbourne CBD. It has hosted every Australian Grand Prix since 1996. Temporary stands allow for a crowd of around 80,000 to attend the Grand Prix. The 5.303km, 16-turn, 2 DRS zone circuit remains relatively unchanged since it was first used for F1 races. The Michael Schumacher’s 2004 race lap record for Ferrari (now one of the longest standing) remains at 1:24.125.
And here’s local hero Daniel Ricciardo to show us around:
The Tyres
Pirelli has selected the middle three of this year’s five tyres for the low grip and high downforce of the Melbourne circuit. Teams and drivers could select from C2 (Hard, White), C3 (Medium, Yellow) or C4 (Soft, Red) tyres for the weekend. Unsurprisingly, the softest tyre on offer is by far the preferred choice.
The Weather
If you’ve ever been there, you’ll know that the locals describe Melbourne’s weather as being “All four seasons in one day, sometimes twice in one day.” In other words, it’s weird and unpredictable. At the moment though, the forecast for the weekend looks pretty decent. Let’s hope it holds and we can get a weather unaffected race to start the season off.
The Pre-Race Driver’s Presser
Slightly different look to the drivers’ pre-race press conference, with 5 drivers (Verstappen, Hamilton, Ricciardo, Vettel, Kubica) present. This one somewhat subdued as the drivers talk about the sudden passing of Charlie Whiting.
That’s it for the Australian GP preview. All that’s left now is the racing. Let’s hope for a fast but safe race weekend, and an awesome, action-packed race on Sunday.
Race on!
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Awesome write-up as always!
That should probably read Driver’s Championship titles. Ferrari won 6 consecutive Constructers titles from 1999-2004. They did not however achieve 6 consecutive doubles, since Hakkinen won the 99 Drivers title for McLaren.
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No, the video is not spead up. This is the view for people sitting at turn 15 of Albert Park, which is supposed to be the slowest part of the track. I realized that I never shared any of my videos or pics of the track when I was there.
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Epic. You went to go watch an F1 race?
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We do not speak of it, we are still green with envy because he did and spent the next day spamming me pictures and vids
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