Tag: 2020

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Formula 1

Alfa Romeo 2020 Preview

After a mixed 2019, the Alpha – Alfa rivalry is on for 2020 – so will it be Beta Tauri or Beta Romeo come Abu Dhabi in November…?

After designing an aggressive looking car and a promising pre season test, last season flattered to deceive for Alfa Romeo. I honestly expected a little more from Alfa last year, especially considering the pace they showed at the end of 2018. And then there was the signing of a resurgent Kimi Raikkonen, coming off the back of his first win 113 years..uh races (sorry Crofty). 2019 then, should’ve been another year of points building back into something great for effectively the same Sauber team. Was it a case of not understanding what you’ve designed, or the midfield taking a larger step forward than expected? Either way, I’m not entirely sure Alfa Romeo would’ve been incredibly pleased with their 2019 as a whole.

But then we move to 2020, and Alfa Romeo produce their best livery so far. Promising. Tie that in with Giovinazzi’s end of 2019’s season form and 2020 should be a big reason for hope of improved fortunes. Keeping the same-ish design but dropping the blue, and playing around with sidepod design. At the time I think I only tweeted one word – better. And while 2020 is the last year of this set of regulations, they’d still hope 2020 is better. Goodness only knows what’s going in that midfield this year, and even despite me writing this rather late in the pre season. I never like to speculate after testing; these pieces are always more fun when you’re in the dark, but uni work has screwed me this year, hence it’s so late. Apologies. Nonetheless, with the hindsight of testing now taken into account, Alfa Romeo are one of the biggest enigmas coming out of the 2 weeks at Barcelona. One thing is for certain though, Kimi and the leadership of Fréd Vasseur, should surely mean there are solid foundations being built. Giovinazzi should turn out to be a solid driver too, so there’s plenty to work with for sure. Who knows how long Kimi will stick around for, it is his hobby after all, but if they can get their house in order well ahead of next year, then who knows what the future holds for the iconic Swiss-Italian outfit.

After being under immense pressure after a below par start to the season, Giovinazzi put in some superb performances and showed he’s worth at least another season next to Kimi, besides it would’ve been difficult to see where he would’ve been replaced; Mick Schumacher is a little while away from the top, hopefully he performs well in F2 after a solid rookie year. Gio was on a level with Kimi by the end of the season and if he keeps those performances up, it’s hard to see him not getting a seat for 2021 onwards. Who knows, the silly season supposedly should be a cracker, but will probably be up there for biggest let-downs since any French GP around Paul Ricard. I fully expect Gio to take another step forward after a solid full rookie year.

Kimi will be Kimi. The known quantity you need to have in a team like Alfa Romeo. Will we see the same unrelenting pace from Kimi that we’re used to all season long? Who knows, he is 41 this year, but I wouldn’t bet against it. As long as Kimi still finds it rewarding it would be difficult to pass on him for 2021. If I wanted any team mate as a young driver at the start of a career it’d be Kimi. In terms of who comes out victorious out of the teammates this year, you’d have to say Kimi, but it will be a rivalry that goes under the radar, and I certainly think it will be closer than it was for the most of 2019.

I normally would’ve backed Alfa Romeo for 6th place, but after the release of the rapid Racing Point, I don’t think I can be that generous. For sure there are some good targets to aim for, Haas haven’t grabbed the headlines, and so if they can be comfortably ahead of them, that’s a solid season as far as I’m concerned. It might well be wise to say cut the 2020 losses, and focus on 2021 as it’s difficult to see Alfa Romeo in the higher echelons of the points. Don’t lose your hope with Alfa Romeo in 2020 though.

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Formula 1

Williams 2020 Preview

After a disastrous 2019, can Williams Russell something better up in 2020?

Well if we’re judging car performance off the livery, things are certainly looking better in 2020. It’s not perfect, for sure, but hey it’s no gradient disaster-class like last year, and they embraced their toothpaste meme potential. The red is a welcome addition and breaks up the car nicely, unlike the blue mush of its predecessor. If they kept the colours clean with no grid lines all over the car, and a bit more blue on the engine cover I’d be happy with that. Seriously, the faint lines at the back of the car make it look like a colour blind world map. Don’t even get me started on the driver numbers either. They’d be more clear if they were written in Japanese… in white. I honestly can barely tell the difference between Latifi and Russell. Yes it doesn’t help they’re 6 and 63 respectively but they need to tidy that up for sure, especially for the fans trackside.

From one reason of optimism to another; there were no mumblings of crash tests being failed or struggling to build the necessary parts for just one car to go testing. Having two fewer days full stop was always going to compress the running, but missing the start sets you back weeks, if not months. Williams weren’t as tragic towards the end of last season. Imagine if they got to testing on time, they might’ve had faster race pace than Haas come Abu Dhabi. It’s not as if they went pointless in 2019 either, yes Germany was a race of a generation, but you’ve still got to keep it on the road, and have good reliability. Sad that it was the only silver lining for Kubica in a heartbreaking season, but hey he seems to be happier despite only testing the Alfa for a couple of days. I still think he’s fast, but he’s lost his edge be it through age or limited use of his left hand. Probably Polish press bias but there were things being said about unequal equipment at Williams, so who knows. But I digress.

Who knows what’s going on internally too at Williams. The early departure of Paddy Lowe raised a few eyebrows to say the least, but a couple of seasons of being backmarkers after hiring someone who was supposedly a key role in making Mercedes into the dominant force of 2014 to 2016. He was no doubt on high wages and must’ve been a key role in overseeing part production, hence their late arrival to 2019. But the fact they’ve replaced them with relative nobodies could be a cause for concern. Is it a sign of the dire finances Williams have at the moment? Or is it, more worryingly, a sign that one of F1’s biggest names can’t recruit key figures anymore? Who knows, the humility of these appointments might well be just what they need, just like when McLaren were force fed those concrete mixer sized portions of humble pie in 2018. The buck might not even stop there. Just how unsackable is Claire Williams? I mean she’s led the team through the relatively good periods of 2014 and 2015, but she hasn’t made them kick on like they should’ve. Is that down to dinosaur appointments that held development back? And if so, is that her fault? Don’t get me wrong I love to see women in high ranking jobs in F1, but are they the right person for the job? It’s good that Williams stays a family business, but perhaps she should stay on to advise and not lead? The once great Williams name is being tarnished, and while that is not Claire’s fault entirely, Williams have been midfield for well over a decade now, they need to find someone who can bring the greatness back into this team.

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As far as the fan is concerned the jury is still out on Russell. I’m not doubting he’s fast, but did a below par Kubica paint him in too good of a light? Mercedes know how fast he is, and if they do decide to pull him into a better seat then we’ll find out I guess. I won’t lie I was a Russell sceptic coming into 2019. I’m wary the F2 title can sometimes not be the best gauge, I know Vandoorne got a little screwed over by McLaren, but in 2018 it just never looked like it was going to work much longer. Jolyon Palmer also has a GP2 title to his name but we all know how that turned out. I just thought Russell was a little boring, but how wrong I was. He can dish out the banter just as well as anyone, and that powerpoint he did on that Rookie of the Year video is GOLD. I’ll bite my tongue on how far he can go until we see how he stacks up against a known quantity in a decent car as teammate.

I dont’t know what we’ll see from Latifi, truth be told I’ve not followed his career that closely. What I won’t be doing, however, is writing him off before we even see him turn a wheel in anger. That’s not fair. He is an unknown quantity for sure, but it’s not like Williams picked him out of the F2 field by doing an ‘eeny meeny miny moe’, he has tested for both Renault and Force India as it was at the time, so it’s not like he hasn’t impressed. He seems like a nice enough chap too, and he was hitting it off with the testing commentators. If he can give Russell food for thought across the season, that’s a success for sure. I know he was forgotten at the back for a lot of last season, but Russell has a full F1 season under his built, arguably already having the team built around him. If Latifi can question even on occasion, he’s shown to enough to say he’s there on merit. Look at Giovinazzi last season, started slowly but had some stellar performances in the second half of the season, including an outstanding race in Italy. Wait and see with Latifi.

Can Williams be genuine midfield in 2020? Unlikely. Can Williams be better than last year? For sure. They may still finish last in the constructors in 2020, but that won’t tell the full story. Staying with the pack and pulling off the odd legitimate point scoring race would be an incredible achievement considering where they were last season.

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Formula 1

Renault 2020 Preview

Back to form and back to black in 2020?

As the world’s press gathered in Paris, Renault launched their 2020 season with the biggest anti-climax since Ferrari’s 2019 season. Do Renault not understand we wait all Winter just to put up with the occasional tedious event so we can see a glimpse, a snippet, a morsel of a 2020 car? And what do we get? A CG render of a 2019 car with a… testing livery? What a let down. I mean I really don’t know what to say now! I mean surely you can pick up the structure of these pieces, start with a few rubbish jokes or metaphors, mostly slate the livery designers or the PR of a team, say how I could obviously do a better job with no qualifications relating to those fields, before coming to a convoluted prediction for the season which ends up being wronger than a sultana in a salad. But I’ll do my best with this and see where this stream of consciousness takes me.

I was very worried for Renault just after the ‘launch’, especially when they said they did the launch without completing the real car. I thought we could’ve seen a beta version of what Williams did the season just gone. For a manufacturer team, with major backing and with the employment of a Mr Daniel Ricciardo, having that sort of season would be a disaster and that’s an understatement. But nevertheless those fears were soon quashed when in the next few days pictures appeared of the Barcelona shakedown, albeit not in the best of quality. Season back on.

And then the very next week we see Renault turn up with a nose 2.0. The R.S 20 nose job. In a testing week that started with mundane R&D updates, the nose of the Renault certainly caught the eye of many, before the innovation that must not be named stole the limelight like the drunk uncle at a wedding. Will it work? We’ll wait and see. Looks like we’re getting a three-way scrap for fourth place this year, and you would’ve thought you wouldn’t get a Renault on the back foot two years running. One thing’s for sure though, that five year plan for Renault’s path to the top is looking precarious. It would take a lot for consistent, legitimate podiums this year, but that’s just the nature of the beast in Formula 1 in its current guise. In hindsight, it always was going to be a tall ask, but to be fair, if Renault had the season they should’ve last season then maybe the five year plan has sort of worked. But if they’ve closed the gap to the front and are competitive with the top of the midfield then it’s been a bit of a success and perhaps delay the five year plan to a seven year plan. It shouldn’t be out of the question, bearing in mind the 2021 rules to come, and the budget cap coming into play, which hopefully compresses the field further.

Ocon v Ricciardo is already a done deal in many people’s minds but I reckon it could be quite an interesting battle. Ricciardo’s contract is up at the end of the season, so will he be looking to sell himself with plenty of contracts expiring this season, including 3 realistically available seats at the top opening up. It would be a shock if Hamilton and Bottas didn’t re-sign for Mercedes, but there are very strong question marks over Vettel’s future. Plus Ricciardo’s gamble for Renault hasn’t paid off either, yes he disposed of Hulkenberg, but the car didn’t look like giving him race wins any time soon let alone a championship. While it made sense to jump ship from Red Bull at the time he did, the longer his Renault stint goes on, the more it looks like a stop gap career move. Daniel needs to keep his stock high this year regardless of Renault performance. He could still return to a top seat, but needs to show he’s worthy. For example, unless there’s fireworks, or one of them falls off the pace, you can’t see either McLaren driver jumping ship, despite thoughts Ferrari would go in for them if Vettel left, it is difficult to turn down the Scuderia, mind. Again, it all depends on who pulls the trigger first.

If Ocon has a really good season though, it would be interesting to see how tight the elastic is back to Mercedes, if it exists at all. If Bottas is let go, would Vandoorne upstage him? If Stoffel wins the Formula E championship, and impresses on the simulator might he get the call? He is regarded highly, after all. It’s easy to forget George Russell too, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Talk of this only really continues if Ocon hits the ground running at Renault and gets a few early jabs in against Ricciardo. This time there must be no excuses. The team dynamics no longer work against him, as you could’ve argued at his time with Force India. French driver in a French team must also help him too. He still has the potential, does Ocon, but he ran the risk of being forgotten last season, and is in danger of becoming the new Hulkenberg as it were. High potential needs big results eventually. He certainly has the pace to upstage the Australian this season, and I for one, hope he does.

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Formula 1

Alpha Tauri 2020 Preview

The team formerly known as Toro Rosso revealed their rebrand in surprising fashion

If Renault instigated their 2020 season with an anti-launch, Alpha Tauri borrowed the excitement from the French team’s launch and concocted a dramatic launch to rival Ferrari in OTT-ness. That was the first fashion show I think I’ve seen and while there weren’t any dramatic numbers on show, I wasn’t exactly falling asleep either. Yes, I can see the arguments against the nature of the launch, but it wasn’t exactly the worst one going (*cough* Mercedes). It did take a long while to get going, but it certainly brought back the big launch feel to F1, like with Ferrari before it. Peak 90s and 00s pre season. Another thing I liked, is the fact that the teamwear was given catwalk time. I can imagine as an Alpha Tauri fan you’d be hyped to see that given billing next to the launch, and even I’ll admit some of the stuff they had designed was quite smart.

Moving onto the car, what a treat! Teasing the car in black with either the honeycomb design or a liquidy, bubbly effect as they did in the video had me thinking the whole event was going to be the biggest let down since my A-level chemistry results. It was when Pierre Gasly and Daniil Kvyat walked out in white and Alpha Tauri deep blue romper suits when my appetite was re-wetted as it were. Then the livery itself ugh *chef’s kiss*, definitely the runaway favourite for best newcomer on the grid this year, unless Renault turn up with something ground-breaking for Melbourne. There’s a lot of talk about how slimline the 2020 cars are and how it has led to a reintroduction of large designs over the engine cover, and Alpha Tauri have exploited that to the full. Ironic that Williams, who’ve ran white liveries since 2014, have only just come up with a respectable effort now, whereas Alpha Tauri pretty much nail it in their first. I’m interested in where they take it in the future; hopefully with the rebrand distancing themselves a little further away from Red Bull, there might be some more free reign with what they can do. Obviously, Alpha Tauri still very much a Red Bull brand and the feeder team to its main F1 team.

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Any predictors of Pierre Gasly and Daniil Kvyat being in these seats for 2020 must either be astrologists or liars, or both. I mean before the 2019 season you could look at Pierre Gasly and suggest ‘oh Red Bull might fire him because it’s Red Bull’ and to be honest the promise he showed in 2018 should’ve maybe bought him more time. Then again there could be argument that a full season of Albon might’ve earned Red Bull 3rd place, but I digress. The form that Pierre showed since his demotion to Toro Rosso has been the form that was putting him in the Red Bull seat to begin with, and he was rightly rewarded with a podium in Brazil. Opportune yes, but Pierre showed a deft touch under pressure to keep 2nd place away from Lewis Hamilton before his penalty was awarded. Considering the pressure he was under at the time by the Red Bull big wigs and the media too, makes it more of an achievement. Those primal screams akin to Senna at the same circuit nearly 30 years ago, still ring in my ears today.

Also under the circumstances, Daniil Kvyat had a solid season, and while the lack of upcoming talent in the junior programme works in his favour, showed that the Russian deserves another couple of seasons in that seat, barring any calamities. Only rarely did I have to bring out the torpedo gifs on Twitter in 2019 – was it only once or twice? Maybe we should change his nickname to the Resurrected Russian? Who knows, if Albon pulls a Gasly, he might be next in line for the shot at the big time? Ballsy call for sure, but it wouldn’t be the first time Red Bull have done a U-turn on their drivers. Consistent points for Daniil this year and it might just happen.

As ever, you’d be a fool to predict the midfield this year. Toro Rosso certainly put in some very strong performances last year including a couple of podiums. Can we expect the same strides as we expect Renault and McLaren to make this year? No. Can we expect to see more solid, consistent point scoring? It’s not out of the question. Franz Tost was talking his team up at the launch, but I’m sure if you offered him 6th place now, he’d gladly take it. If they want to make gains then 2021 is the only realistic method of doing so, but who knows? Honda might well just pull out another big performance step and make them a very good package for 2020.

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Formula 1

Racing Point 2020 Preview

Have the Pink Panthers finally got us tickled pink?

We’re not going to pretend there isn’t an enormous elephant in the room here, but starting with the livery, it might just be the best livery produced by the Silverstone based team under its many different guises for years. It only took them 4 years to get right a pink livery, and funnily enough it was back to basics. Just pink with a huge decal at the back. No pointless dashes of white or blue, or that hideous bubble effect of 2017. Clean. I still wouldn’t put it up there with my favourites but it certainly stands out as always and has become a contemporary F1 icon. It’s no Marlboro McLaren, Red Bull, Rothmans Williams, sure, but there’s a certain level of performance and legendary drivers associated with those cars. Ironically enough, it’s similar to the Jordan Yellow that adorned the same team’s cars when I was just a nipper, and those are nothing short of iconic.

And now to the elephant. That bulbous looking trunk looks familiar. Ok that was stretching the metaphor far but, I don’t think this has ever been said this literally before, but it’s a carbon copy of the W10. But let’s not kid ourselves, they’ve not just pulled a Haas and made a similar front wing before having their own philosophy downstream; the bargeboard and sidepod inlet is an imposter last year’s Merc. At least Haas and Ferrari, Red Bull and Toro Rosso (at the start of the team) were explicit over what was happening. Toro Rosso, now AlphaTauri, since 2010 have been their own team, no longer taking the previous year’s Red Bull. Haas whilst taking bits and pieces from Ferrari, have always been independent and to be fair, are still only in their 5th season. Racing Point have technically been on the grid since 1991, and have been bigging themselves on how the new investment bringing to the front end of grid, much further than Toro Rosso will ever get. Using another teams car or not, it’s just how they exist. 2008 may be an odd exception but never near consistent race wins.

Should Formula 1 really allow this much ‘convergence’ if you can call it that? Satellite teams are not allowed at the moment but should they? They can’t completely shut out the Haas method but should they draw a line? I mean if the FIA don’t specify the rules and give some clarity, we remove all independent teams from F1 and we completely lose the Brawn moment, or the Leicester moment. MotoGP’s racing is extremely good yes, but it’s the same 3 or 4 factory outfits winning. You don’t have your Williams equivalent in MotoGP, you lose the plucky Jordan teams punching away above their weight in a machine they designed themselves too. The worst thing is too, even if we plumbed for satellite teams overnight, it will take seasons to get it right. Seasons of tuning to get anywhere near the way MotoGP has got its concessions at the moment. If Toro Rosso weren’t inheriting title winning machinery but had so much backlash at the time, why aren’t we making as much noise over inheritance over a team getting a car that dominated most the season before?

If Racing Point wants to become a legitimate race winning team on a regular basis that’s fine, it just won’t happen chasing another season’s tail. Plus they need the qualify this partnership with Mercedes. We know Williams won’t sell out, Haas haven’t exactly sold out. Have the ties become much closer with Mercedes over the summer? Because it’s sort of soured the midfield battle and Racing Point’s reputation of David against the F1 Goliaths. Maybe I’m paying too close attention to early test times, after all we should see newer, more proper 2020 packages in test two. Maybe I’m being too harsh, I just feel there needs to be some sort of balance, or prevention of fully copying of a complete aero package. Of course it would be great to have Racing Point podiums this year, but it would always feel undermined.

Perez v Stroll is another interesting dynamic. What happens when a team legend meets an undropable driver. Stroll needs to fix his qualifying for sure, but you can’t argue with the positions he makes up in the race. Perez is a known quantity, and very capable of podium finishes. Moving into Aston Martin next year and another year of increased investment, you’d feel they’d want continuity from car to car. Having said that, it completely depends on how deep the Mercedes relationship is. Maybe it’s another duff Williams and they want to pull Russell out of it into a more competitive Aston Martin? Maybe Bottas cost Mercedes a constructors, and they’d feel bad by not giving him a seat so he goes to develop the B team? We’ll see but I’d doubt if there’s any driver movement here. Where they finish this season depends on the R&D race, I guess. There’s stiff competition at the top of the midfield. Can Racing Point develop this car and has a year old car been well and truly outdeveloped? Time will tell, but that’s the question they have to ask themselves in 2020.

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Formula 1

Red Bull 2020 Preview

Will the Bulls charge into title contention this year?

Released with all the pomp and circumstance of waking up and getting dressed, Red Bull released their images of the RB16 casually on Wednesday morning like they were holiday photos. No testing camouflage, no fancy release video, no nothing. Red Bull will certainly be hoping their season will be anything near as mundane.

Starting 2019 comfortably behind Mercedes and Ferrari, their season transformed to almost becoming title contenders around the summer break before being on a par with Mercedes at the tail end of the season. If 2020 is 2019 2.0 like everyone’s being saying then, Red Bull certainly have a lot to look forward to. Plus another iteration of a Honda power unit which is becoming increasingly like a no brainer decision to move away from Renault, sorry Tag Heuer power units. That drag race between Gasly, albeit in a Toro Rosso, and Hamilton had better be a sign of things to come. Impressive doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface, especially when you consider where Honda were 2 seasons before, let alone that infamous 2015 season.

I suppose the big question is, was that end of season form as promising as it seemed or did Mercedes, having realistically wrapped up both titles by France, and mathematically by America(?), ease off a little and or reduce R&D to focus on 2020? As much as we rightly slate Ferrari for iffy strategy calls, Mercedes can just be as fallible at times, especially when under pressure, Germany and Brazil comes to mind, for example. 2017 is arguably the only time where Mercedes have had an inter team battle for the title, and even then that notion dissipated after the summer break when Hamilton wrapped up the title with more ease than I did wrapping up Christmas presents last year. Sorry dad. Verstappen pulled out some incredible qualifying efforts which, when he got his starts sorted, really allowed him to control races and force Mercedes on the back foot like in Brazil, where Hamilton pushed too hard to make amends and ended up in 7th having punted Albon off the podium. It will be hard to see anyone but Hamilton and Mercedes putting their towels on the proverbial sunbeds, but if anyone’s going to do it surely it’s Red Bull.

One thing that would certainly help close the points gap is stability in its driver lineup. You never know with Red Bull but you would’ve thought Albon should see out a full season in the senior outfit. Whilst the difference between Gasly and Albon wasn’t exactly what you’d call stark, you would certainly say Albon was far more decisive in his overtaking manoeuvres than Gasly was which led to him being out of position on fewer occasions than Gasly. Having got the nod full time, you’d hope Alex will relax in the car a bit more and feel the need to overdrive the car much less. Having two drivers in the 2nd/3rd fastest car and neither one finishing 6th in the drivers’ standings is either great testament to Sainz in the McLaren or a little disappointment in the drivers of that second seat at Red Bull. In the end it was probably a bit of both. All in all, the goal for Albon is clear for 2020, show he deserves a seat at the top, and close the gap to Verstappen.

Stability in the driver lineup is also helped by the contract extension of Verstappen, which is very much a clear signal of intent from all involved parties. The form that Honda is showing, plus a major rule rejig next year, plus Hamilton not being tied down; it really shows that Red Bull want to build something great for Verstappen. It’s hard to believe he’s still only 22, having been in F1 for so long now. He’s still got so much of his career ahead of him, and as Vettel and Hamilton showed, it only takes getting ahead of the curve on a rule change before you’re toppling records left, right and centre. He could very easily match Schumacher and Hamilton in WDCs.

Of course this year there’s the Dutch GP where I reckon even if it’s another French GP, the crowd alone could turn it into a fantastic weekend regardless. If he can just turn the wick down on occasion, like at a Monaco practice session to not bin it at the swimming pool, he will become a very complete driver that is more than a handful for Lewis Hamilton. 2020 might not be his year, but building more momentum ahead of 2021 will be a very ominous sign for Mercedes.

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Formula 1

McLaren 2020 Preview

Blimey, a livery the F1 community can agree on.

What a 5 years it’s been for the Woking team. From GP2 engines, to sunbathing drivers, to new engines, to rejuvenation and a podium. Just look how bland and worryingly bare the McHonda years were, and compare it to today’s MCL35. It’s two different teams, and it could only be done with a changing of the guard.

Look at today’s launch; a far cry from the sterile surroundings of yesteryear. McLaren has to have the best fan engagement on the grid. Fans seeing the car before anyone else? The advent calender? Regular factory tours? Their sense of unity and building for the future together is creating a formidable force, and I hate to say it, it’s because of a lack of a certain Fernando Alonso. They’re no longer chasing their tail whilst bent over backwards to ensure a competitive car from day 1 just to please the two time champion. That steep learning curve has completely changed the philosophy from we’ll be back next year, to striding forward slowly. As with last year, that mentality was echoed again today. 4th place again this year is doable and would show progress of a team ready to topple the top 3 ahead of the regulation change. That’s 4th place with what’s quickly become the worst power unit too. Impressive.

Of course it does help that the car does look nice. If 2015-2017’s looks were an omen of the performance to come, then 2020 could be a good year for McLaren. Of course as the old saying the car only looks nice if it’s fast, so let’s not count chickens before they’ve hatched. Just a shame they painted the halo. At least change it to the bare carbon fibre or the blue used for accents. It just doesn’t quite hit the mark. But the matte is an interesting change, and no doubt because of the slight performance benefits. What McLaren is doing exceptionally well is showing you can keep your colour scheme but change it up and make some excitement when the covers come off. You couldn’t say that about the launches so far. Renault’s obviously a different, perplexing story, but we’ll get to them another day.

The launch itself was also a benchmark effort too. If Ferrari’s was an ode to the ostentatious launches of the 90s and 00s, then today’s was a strong contender of how good an efficient launch can be in the 10s and 20s. The car was the centre piece of the launch, not the tricolore or a new principle partner. And of course it actually helps the car was there in person and was as similar to a 2020 car as you’re going to get at launch. I think it was half an hour total show and the car was out for 20 minutes of that. Carlos’ 2020 lid was also a very welcome surprise, definitely a contender for best newcomer award, along with Lewis’ purple effort.

Watching McLaren’s performance over 2020 will be interesting, with James Key taking over the reins from Pat Fry, and some new philosophies appearing down the car it’s difficult to know how much of a step forward, if at all McLaren will take this year. It could end up being a total rehash of the 2013 escapade; a sort of Frankenstein’s monster of a car combining bits of the Red Bull, Ferrari and the previous year’s McLaren. The 2013 McLaren did follow a competitive car in the MP4-27, so there is some symmetry there, but of course it’d be difficult to see the same thing happening twice, right?

Performance-wise it will always help to have two competitive drivers who get on and are eager to prove themselves. McLaren were certainly the surprise package of last year and a lot of that has to go down to the driver pairing of Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris. It was difficult to see if McLaren legitimately had the 4th fastest car every weekend, but the ability of its drivers together with better strategy calls meant they extracted the maximum from every race. Carlos really brought himself back into the top fold after a couple of slightly below par seasons by his standards, whilst Lando had a strong rookie season, unlucky to not win the overall title of Rookie of the Year. He still had some rough edges to straighten out, but that’s to be expected in a rookie season, and only his second year on the Pirellis. The fight for qualifying supremacy was one of the highlights of the season and Lando eventually came out on top, so not a bad effort overall.

I’m biting my tongue this year. If I’m not mistaken, I said Renault would be well clear of the midfield and putting great pressure on Red Bull, with a struggling Honda power unit last year. Uhhhhhhhhh… I’m not saying anything remotely close to that this year, but if McLaren keep themselves at the sharp end of the midfield, while appearing to close the gap on the established frontrunners, it’s a success. Obviously they wouldn’t want 5th, but it wouldn’t be a disaster. The big push still remains 2021. Having said that, Renault still haven’t got a physical car together, which at this stage of Winter is never a good sign. I’ll guess we’ll wait and see in the next few weeks.

Nice to have a car we can 99% agree looks nice though huh?

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Formula 1

Ferrari 2020 Preview

Who knows what you’re going to get from Ferrari these days but there are some certainties, namely it’s a red car, and it comes with a heaped side portion of Italian. Let’s just hope the only bottles we get from the Scuderia this year stay in the VIP sections eh?

Off to a good start, mind. What Mercedes failed at yesterday, Ferrari nailed today. A proper F1 launch even the 90s and early 00s would’ve been proud of. Who needs the Spice Girls when you’ve got an orchestra, a choir, and uh, a DJ? 45 minutes of presser? The whole event was 45 minutes today, and you didn’t have to wait until the end to see the car. At least Mercedes seemed to have taken it in their strides, with a witty response yesterday to Ferrari teasing their launch today. Worth a look if you’ve not seen it.

What was even more brilliant was it didn’t feel sterile. It didn’t feel corporate. If yesterday was Ron Dennis, then today was certainly Flavio Briatore. Yes the tricolore talk was a bit forced down you, but hey it’s Ferrari. The only way it could get more Italian would be if they were to sing the national anthem at the start and bring out Francisco Totti halfway through just for the bants.

Back to the car; no real surprises here. Very similar to last year’s but just fixed now. Gone is that pointless black swoop over the engine. Even the Mission Winnow doesn’t look out of place anymore. Numbers are a bit meh but no one was expecting anything groundbreaking from Ferrari really. The biggest surprises may well yet come when people way smarter than me get their teeth into the aerodynamics. People already looking at that bargeboard, and I reckon the wheelbase is longer. My eyes are dodgy to be fair.

The strength that Leclerc showed from the ‘European season’ onwards certainly established himself amongst today’s racing elite. Winning the pole trophy in your first season in a top car, when qualifying caused problems in your rookie season, whilst dethroning Lewis Hamilton in the process? Now that’s impressive. Arguably in half a season he turned Ferrari into his own team, and probably sent Sebastian Vettel into retirement. Where does he go from here? He can only go upwards, right? I mean car permitting, he’s already shown he’s a deft hand in pressure scenarios. Think Belgium and Austria where he was unlucky to come away second best, both against two of F1’s best in Hamilton and Verstappen. If he can rein it in a bit, I’m thinking about Italy here, then he will become an all round driver and unbeatable on his day. I guess Italy was him putting down a marker, argue for and against his defending all you like but it was a show of dominance, in front of the Tfosi, in your first season in scarlet. That’s championship winning material.

Don’t get me wrong, this is not me dismissing Vettel either. I was hoping the Singapore GP last season was going to see the renaissance of the four time champ. It’s just a shame he hasn’t been able to string the results together. Trying too hard? Burden of leading the team? Couldn’t handle the pressure of a championship rivalry? Choose any answer you like, it’s just not working. Unless we see a Vettel you could even begin to compare to his Red Bull days, it’s hard to see him staying with Ferrari beyond 2020. He may even choose to leave the sport himself, depends what seats are available and feasible (he wouldn’t go to Red Bull if it’s Verstappen’s team at the moment, right?) I suppose. I’d love for him to stay. He’s got the character and the talent to merit his stay, it’s just there’s too many Sbinnalas (r/formuladank) at the moment to warrant a place at the top. Fingers crossed he pushes on this year and shows us his old form.

Like I was saying, who knows what we’re going to get from Ferrari these days. They’ve started making some noises again about a complete redesign for this season. Who knows? I’m guessing Mercedes aren’t going to feel like they’ve got something to hide in testing this year. But then again Ferrari might want to set their stall out early and spurs-y it up again like last year. Let’s hope they’ve got their downforce fixed, so we do have a competitive championship, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Red Bull sneaked ahead this year. Their ending to the season was promising and Honda are showing no signs of slowing down, literally. A competitive Ferrari from weekend to weekend should be the goal, forget the championship. If they’re consistently up there every weekend the championship will sort itself. Keep the confidence in their drivers and focus on 2021.

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Formula 1

Mercedes 2020 Preview

And you thought the livery reveal stream was bad…

‘It’s my birthday and my mum was serving up a speciality; scrambled eggs and disappointment.’ Just one of witticisms by Will in The Inbetweeners, and while it’s neither my birthday, nor did I have scrambled eggs for my admittedly late breakfast, there were certainly generous servings of disappointment this morning. I feel it wouldn’t be out of place to put this amongst the worst livery/car launches in Formula 1, if not the worst. I think it was the Racing Point launch that I slated the most last year, with its main charge being a lack of originality and refusal to get on with it. Compare that to today and the contrast is, to say the least, stark. Was that really 45 minutes of press conference? Did the journalists ask mostly about Mercedes’ and Lewis Hamilton’s future and not the new partnership or the season ahead? It just seemed unnecessary for a livery launch. Of course it doesn’t help that it was compèred by some random bloke I’ve not seen before and not David Croft, who yes I have been scathing about in the past but he does have a personality and he will inject some soul into proceedings which should’ve been an otherwise bland event. The three on stage today had the charisma of Simon Lazenby’s right thumb.

It seemed a little poorly organised too. They had to say oh yeah we’re unveiling the car in 15 minutes downstairs so you may want to run your cameras and other stuff downstairs! Surely you’d brief them on the order of proceedings first? Just a little strange to me.

Maybe I missed something. I did leave the stream to grab some breakfast (some frosted shreddies if you were wondering) and they had paused for a couple of minutes while the hosts had moved downstairs. Again poor organisation. But twitter didn’t exactly blow up so I can’t have missed Toto Wolf twerking to Brian Tyler’s F1 theme on stage. Damn. Maybe next year then.

And then we move to the livery. The way they were bigging it up, we naturally were going to see some new additions to the scheme. INEOS’ dark red/burgundy affair plus the Petronas green on a silver and black car doesn’t even sound okay. The matte effect makes for some interest at the front of the car, but is soon lost as the car must resort back to its shiny, three-pointed star motif over the engine cover. Don’t even get me started on that roll-hoop. Mercedes managed to take one of 2019’s best schemes and make it into 2020’s worst. I’m not even sure Williams can top that as Formula 1’s biggest disappointment in 2020. I mean I don’t know how you incorporate burgundy into the original colours and scheme, I’m nowhere near being a graphic design artist, but I do know is that the W11 is not how you do it.

To rob a point off my Twitter timeline, this is the look of the car that more than likely, will set a new record for consecutive championships won, as well as matching Schumi’s drivers’ title haul, and that is the biggest shame. You think of these iconic cars: MP4/4, F2004, R25, BGP-001, RB9, even the W05 and they all look fantastic; worthy cars to take up the mantle of being mechanical royalty. The W11 will likely add to that list, but stick out like a sore thumb for the wrong reasons

Can anyone really match Mercedes this year? I don’t think so. Can anyone match Lewis Hamilton this year? I don’t think so. Time will tell if the Brackley based outfit lifted off in 2019 to focus on 2020. I guess we’ll have to wait for testing, failing that Australia, before we find out. It would be nice to see a Bottas 2.5 this season. He’s just lacking that little bit to become a genuine title contender. We’ll see enough from Valtteri for him to keep his seat, but no more in my opinion. It would’ve been scandalous for Rosberg not to win a title in those cars and how hard he worked Lewis. You just don’t get the same feeling from Bottas.
George Russell will also be a strong factor in the Finn’s future. It was difficult to gauge his first season, and if Williams make gains then I’m sure Toto will be watching closely, but that’s for another preview.

Unless we see a more consistent Red Bull this year, it’s difficult to see where any other legitimate title contenders may come from. Ferrari maybe? But it’s Ferrari so we know how it ends up. You’d be pushed to find anyone who realistically would back anyone other than Lewis Hamilton for the title, outside of Italy, and maybe The Netherlands, at least. Let’s just hope we get a good championship in the process.

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Formula 1

Haas 2020 Preview

2019 was cat-Haas-trophe for the American outfit but can the new decade bring improved fortunes?

(If I really, REALLY try I may be able to put Will Buxton out of a job…)

But that’s not what we’re here for; slightly earlier than planned Haas unveiled their revised look for 2020. I’m not complaining, the treacherously long F1 off-season has finally come to a triumphant end and Haas will hope that with it comes an end to the dog of a car that was the VF-19.

As Formula 1’s newest team there’s nothing they’d love more than consistency from season to season while slowing gnawing away at F1’s elite. This is something that Haas haven’t been quite able to tie down like they do a certain Frenchman, but more on that later.

2016 built a very solid start for a newly founded team. Support from Ferrari or not, they executed races, especially in pressure conditions, like a team with several seasons under their belt. While performances didn’t maintain the high standards set at the start of the season, this was always to be expected considering the low numbers of staff and funding they had at their disposal. This was always going to leave a hangover the following season where despite another 8th placed finish, they couldn’t make inroads towards the top end of the midfield. But like a student realising they had a lecture the next day (write about what you’re familiar with I guess) they popped a couple Beroccas down them and produced a monster of a car for 2018, which they were unfortunate not to make 4th place in the Constructors’ with, picking up a very respectable 4th place in Austria in the process. Come 2019 then, and big things were expected from America’s plucky outfit.

I don’t know what was worse; Rich Energy’s attempts at being a legitimate title partner, or the VF-19’s woeful race pace. If you were a Haas fan I honestly don’t know how you coped. You’d think the race was bad enough but then at the end of it you’d get some bearded buffoon spurting anti Red Bull gibberish on Twitter. It was sometimes more entertaining than the race itself! What’s that? The French GP a let-down again? Oh well, grab the popcorn kids we’ve got Rich Energy tweets to look forward to! I mean we could, in fact we are feeding their PR machine here, but admittedly I did enjoy their fall, especially considering Haas didn’t suffer financially in the end. What’s the phrase? All publicity is good publicity.

Well if there’s ever a man in Formula 1 who is living on borrowed time it’s Romain Grosjean. If I’m not mistaken I slated him in last year’s preview and even threw in Wehrlein to replace him for 2020. Magnussen gave another stellar season, convincingly outscoring and outqualifying the Frenchman. In spite of this, Grosjean did prove his worth in helping to feedback about what was wrong with the VF-19 and why they couldn’t develop it. Other than that, he was beaten soundly by Magnussen; a half a second average qualifying delta for starters! If Haas return to form in 2020, Grosjean really needs to consistently put the pressure back on his Danish teammate. In some ways, he’s lucky there’s no ready prepared driver in the Ferrari stable that could feasibly take his seat. Even Wehrlein looks to have left F1 fully behind him now, I know Mahrindra aren’t the team they used to be in Formula E, but he hasn’t set that Formula alight like we might’ve thought – look at Vandoorne for example.

I do expect Magnussen to prevail again this year, but it would be nice for Grosjean to remove just some of the doubters on his back. What happened to 2013-2016 Romain? Remember when he was tipped to replace Kimi at Ferrari? Seems eons ago now.

I predicted a 5th or 6th placed finish for Haas last year. Hindsight is a wonderful thing isn’t it?! I mean maybe a slight drop off in relative performance could’ve been predicted considering the titanic battle between themselves and Renault the year before so they possibly could’ve put extra resources into beating Renault, and who would’ve blamed them? It’s just a shame that they can’t seem to find consistent growth.

However, it’s not all doom and gloom for Haas in 2020, they’ll have a few things working in their favour. The regulations are stable for 2020, so they can take huge lessons from 2019 and implement them for this season’s challenger. The tyres have also remained the same spec, so there’s less chance of them pulling a 2019. Plus if history’s to be judged, a duff Haas season is followed by a highly competitive one. I certainly wouldn’t predict them to finish 9th this season. How highly they finish? Well that depends on consistency.

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