The 2019 F1 season had a mix of highs and lows all-through and here FormulaRapida.net’s Duncan Leahy with Darshan Chokhani’s help is summarising those moments.
The 2019 F1 season was diverse where on-track action varied heavily, and the favored team was never the same as it was a few races prior, barring the first several grand prix. Even though Ferrari looked good but Mercedes had everything under their control still.
The season has had ups and downs as it’s gone by, and with that, here we try to sum-up five highs and five lows, which covers the whole season. Some lesser magnitude highs and also lows is also carried here – does the list matches with yours?
Here are the five highs from F1 2019 – not in any fixed or ranking order:
Lewis Hamilton’s sixth F1 title win:
Love him or despise him, Hamilton’s F1 title win in 2019 was well and truly deserved this year, as his performance was consistent all-through, and he worked well with Mercedes to eke out good strategies, which helped him score the victories.
The six-time champion fought his teammate Valtteri Bottas in the first four races, but after winning four more on the trot, Hamilton started to pull away in the standings, and ultimately took another world title to sit just behind Michael Schumacher.
Max Verstappen vs Charles Leclerc:
Following their fight in F1 Austrian GP, we were treated to many duels between Red Bull’s Verstappen and Ferrari’s Leclerc, which certainly were the highlight of 2019. They had tussles at Silverstone, Suzuka and Abu Dhabi – where the former is regarded as their best.
It went long as the lead Red Bull driver and the new-to-Ferrari Monegasque traded blows several times that race, even in the pit lane. All their fights had fans entertained by the aggressive and competitive nature, which boiled over on occasion, as it did in Suzuka.
Rookie-mania – Alexander Albon, Lando Norris and George Russell show:
It is rare for three drivers to have their debut at the same time but the Australian GP saw Toro Rosso/Red Bull’s Albon, McLaren’s Norris and Williams’ Russell start their F1 career together – all coming off after a solid year in F2.
The trio all found their feet well, with Norris beating teammate Carlos Sainz in qualifying 11-10, Albon stepping up to Red Bull from Toro Rosso in the middle of the season, and finishing eighth with consistent performances and Russell outperforming Robert Kubica by a large margin as well, even though the points tell a different story.
Together with Verstappen and Leclerc, the 2019 F1 rookies have shown that the future of the sport is in safe hands and that we have the next crop ready to take the mantle from the likes of Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen and co.
McLaren’s resurgence:
After years of disaster with Honda, and another year of misery in 2018, McLaren did kind of became a joke in F1 as even Fernando Alonso decided to quit. In 2019, though, the British team fought back handsomely albeit to top the midfield fight.
They secured the best of the rest with an all-new line-up, and outscored 2018’s Formula 1.5 winner, Renault – from whom they take engines – by an impressive 54 points. Even more impressive, however, was their return to the podium after 2014 with Sainz in Brazil.
It gave voice to a lot of McLaren fans, who have had a difficult years while supporting their team. The driver pairing of Norris-Sainz was a pleasant surprise for everyone as the team moved away from having a world champion driver in their car.
Crazy grand prix races:
While F1 may have had a number of abysmal races in 2019, the middle and latter half of the year treated us to some very intoxicating and dramatic grand prix, where German GP topped the charts as per the fans with Brazil GP coming close – both won by Verstappen in unusual circumstances, where he shared the podiums with three midfield drivers.
To add to the list, the British GP had its own set of dramas where Hamilton won while another win of his in Hungarian GP was received well. Among others, the double win for Leclerc in Italian GP and Belgium GP left a good mark too. Besides that, the win for Verstappen in Austrian GP and Bottas in Japanese GP drew good numbers too.
Notable mentions which missed the cut:
While we had some standout points as mentioned above, there were some other performances as well, which helped in making the 2019 F1 season a memorable one –
Robert Kubica’s F1 return:
While Williams’ Kubica may have failed to beat Russell in terms of overall performance, his F1 return was a highlight enough, as the Polish driver was able to bounce back from a near career-ending injury which took place earlier in the decade.
Kimi Raikkonen’s switch from top to midfield:
Going from a top team to one of a lower caliber can often be troubling, as grip and downforce levels drop. To add to that, it is not often that a F1 champion stays back even after losing his drive from a top team but Raikkonen is a different class.
He accepted the switch from Ferrari to Alfa Romeo Racing in stride and had a drama-free season, as he consistently delivered. The Finn’s move, in fact, showed the pure love for F1 and racing.
Toro Rosso’s performance, podiums for Pierre Gasly, Daniil Kvyat:
Being in the shadow of a successful senior F1 outfit is a big task and Toro Rosso, which is a breeding ground for the future Red Bull drivers, stood out as solid outfit in 2019 where they not only finished sixth in the standings – their first since 2008 – but also had two podiums.
It was two of the most surprising moments of 2019 when Kvyat got the podium in German GP while Gasly – having being demoted to Toro Rosso – got his in Brazil GP. Both, though, made for an interesting and fresh result.
Here are the five lows from F1 2019 – not in any fixed or ranking order:
Ferrari’s stumble, Sebastian Vettel’s misses:
Whether you wear the scarlet red of Ferrari, or the whites of Mercedes, Ferrari’s failed F1 2019 run was painful just the same. In pre-season, it seemed the Italian team were the ones to beat, but come Australian GP, they were far off the pace.
They seemed like themselves in Bahrain GP but reliability issues cost them as it started a chain of mishaps. Whenever they were competitive against Mercedes, they lost the lead due to poor strategy or bad luck, or even driver error.
In the latter half of the season they recovered to some extent. However, the lead Mercedes had acquired by this point was to great for Ferrari to put up any real challenge, costing us a chance at a thoroughly exciting F1 constructor’s championship.
While Leclerc managed to be the one shining light for Ferrari, senior pro Vettel had another difficult season, even though it was better than 2018. The German racer looked in control in certain F1 races but comparing Hamilton’s consistency, he felt short.
Lack of close F1 title fight:
Continuing with Ferrari’s misses, it led to the biggest source of disappointment in F1 2019 as it resulted in a lack of a close title fight. In the early races, it seemed one would take place between the Mercedes teammates, but as Hamilton found his stride, it was all one-sided then.
Red Bull provided some dramas but then they fell short in certain races with Honda which limited their play as Mercedes flew by. The lack of Top 2 fights were made up by some of the tussles between the other teams, such as Ferrari and Red Bull, but it remains 2019’s major weak point when compared with other strong seasons.
Renault’s fall:
Another sob-story to come out of the 2019 F1 season was the demise of Renault, who lost out to their customer team McLaren in their quest for best-of-the-rest, resulting in them falling one position, in a year when they hoped to challenge the top three teams on occasion, and perhaps even fight for podiums when given the chance.
This was especially hard for the French manufacturer, as it meant that they were the only major factory team to have not prospered in 2019, as even Honda scored podiums in several races, and wins in Germany, Brazil, and Austria, while Renault’s best result was a fourth place with Daniel Ricciardo in Italy.
Haas’ strange drop, Williams struggles:
Two other F1 teams to suffer severely in 2019 were Haas and Williams. The situation was difficult for both teams, but it came more suddenly to Haas, who had a spectacular 2018 season, in which they battled Renault for fourth, and put up a valiant effort to boot.
In 2019, though, they struggled in the early stages of the year, and were unable to pinpoint the issue. The result of this uncertainty held them back hugely as their upgrades didn’t work and they faltered to finish ninth from fifth in 2018.
Meanwhile, on the Williams front, they were just unable to compete at any point in the season, as they continued to drift further from the leading and midfield F1 teams. The 2019 was, in fact, their worst, in terms of points, since their first season in F1.
Straightforward grand prix races with no real fights:
For many races prior to Austrian GP, Mercedes domination left little racing at the front of the field, and often times, dirty air and other factors limited passing in the midfield as well. Extreme cases of this were the French GP, Azerbaijan GP, and also Spanish GP.
F1 received much criticism for these poor shows, but the sport’s reputation has since recovered due to a thrilling latter half of the season, which also had some low-key races but not as much as the first half.
Notable mentions which missed the cut:
Pierre Gasly’s tenure at Red Bull:
Gasly was promoted to Red Bull from Toro Rosso at the end of 2018, but once in the top team, the Frenchman was unable to replicate the outperforming-the-car trait he had at Toro Rosso, with him consistently running far behind Verstappen.
He finished quite far off from the Dutchman, except the British GP, which was one of his better races from the season. He certainly had the talent but it just didn’t click at Red Bull which cost him his seat but he was able to fight back in Toro Rosso.
Change of hands affects Racing Point:
Following an excellent year in 2018, which nearly resulted in fourth place for Force India/Racing Point, had it not been for turmoil involving the team’s sale, they dropped many positions under new ownership this season.
In fact, the pink panthers found themselves in seventh in the 2019 F1 standings, which was the same position they were in 2018 but in reality, they lost performance due to the change of ownership and a late start to their new campaign.
Here’s the Top 10 of 2019 as chose by team bosses and selected drivers
F1 reveals attendance data where British GP heads the pack for 2019
German GP has been voted as the best race of 2019 F1 season
The story is written by Duncan Leahy with the help of Darshan Chokhani
