THE BIG QUESTIONS: F1 2019 IN THE SPOTLIGHT
We look at the season just gone
On the face of it, Lewis Hamilton’s march to a sixth world championship seemed like a walk in the park but, as ever, there were a host of subplots which made the 2019 Formula 1 season one to remember.
There was the tinderbox situation at Ferrari. It had only just recovered from repeatedly shooting itself in the foot when its two drivers, Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc, metaphorically and sometimes literally took aim at each other.
There was the emergence of the Red Bull-honda partnership, which was looking increasingly competitive as the season progressed, plus the rebirth of the Mclaren team and the performance of young Briton Lando Norris to boot.
Hamilton might be relentlessly closing in on equalling Michael Schumacher’s record of titles, but there was plenty to keep the casual fan interested in the last 12 months. We have gathered together some of the Motorsport Network’s top F1 brains to run the rule over the year just gone.
The eminently combustible mix of ambitious young go-getter and emotionally brittle four-time champion was bound to end in tears, tantrums and sundry scattered piles of carbonfibre shards, and so it came to pass.
The inevitable contretemps between Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel was a long time coming, but it was spectacularly explosive.
Throughout the season, Leclerc’s disgruntlement at being forced to play dutiful number two has been palpable. Sure enough, the mutterings became rumblings.
An elaborate prologue to the Brazilian Grand Prix collision played out over the preceding races: in Monza Leclerc reneged on a plan to give Vettel a ‘tow’ in final qualifying; in Singapore Vettel got a better race strategy and beat his polesitting team-mate into second place; and in Russia Vettel mugged Leclerc for the lead on the first lap, tearing up a pre-race agreement and ignoring further team orders.
The gnashing of teeth subsided briefly, but it was a phoney silence. At Interlagos engine penalties consigned Leclerc to 14th on the grid, but an alternate strategy and a safety car brought him onto the tail of his fourthplaced team-mate. On lap 66 Leclerc pounced at the Senna ‘S’ and got the position, but Vettel got a decent exit and put his nose ahead on the following straight. Then, inexplicably, he jinked left and took them both out of the race, leaving team boss Mattia Binotto with yet another fire to fight.