Why Vettel will not want to win at Australian GP
This Sunday, Sebastian Vettel might not want to win the Australian Grand Prix. The Ferrari driver won the year’s first race in 2017 and 2018, only to lose the title to Lewis Hamilton both times.
F1, a sport that bookmarks performance using microscopically varied numbers, is obsessed with statistics, as racers and viewers learn (and pray) based on data. What Vettel may superstitiously heed is how Michael Schumacher spent five years in red overalls before winning a championship for Ferrari, and 2019 marks year five for the current German — the year he needs to stop making mistakes and shine again.
This invigoration matters because Lewis Hamilton doesn’t make mistakes. The Mercedes driver didn’t put a tyre wrong in the second half of 2018, and will carry that metronomic momentum into this season. He soaked up the pressure and drove peerlessly when it mattered most. Last year was Hamilton’s best yet, and he may prove unstoppable in 2019.
Their teammates may liven up the duel. Mercedes made Valtteri Bottas roll over to support Hamilton last year, and the Finn who bristled at being called ‘wingman’ will want to make his presence MELBOURNE: The death of Formula One race director Charlie Whiting, a popular and key figure in the sport, cast a pall over the paddock on Thursday, three days before the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. The governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) said in a statement that the Briton, who started his career working for the Hesketh team in 1977, had died in Melbourne of a pulmonary embolism. He was 66. Australian Michael Masi, a previous deputy race director of the local V8 Supercars series who has served as a steward at Formula One and Formula E, will replace Whiting for the Melbourne felt. Meanwhile Ferrari, after decades of experienced and proven drivers, have signed 20-year-old wunderkind Charles Leclerc, and if this promising youngster can hot things up for Vettel, we’re in for a smash.
Speaking of young talents, the prodigious Max Verstappen will have free rein over at Red Bull as teammate Daniel Ricciardo, who he clashed with so spectacularly and so often, has swapped to Renault for a bigger paycheque and the promise of preferential treatment.
It’ll be fascinating to watch those two — and their teams — battle. What will Red Bull do with their new Honda engines? How much can Renault up their game? After all, half the point of having Ricciardo around is to watch him celebrate by pouring champagne down his shoe.
There are no significant rule/ engine changes. The rear wings weekend. “It is with immense sadness that I learned of Charlie’s sudden passing,” said Jean Todt, president of the International Automobile Federation. “He has been a great race director, a central and inimitable figure in F1.” are now super-wide, and while we wait to see how they increase drag and how much they enhance overtaking, we can look forward to last minute pyrotechnics at the end of each race.
A crowd-pleasing new rule will award an extra championship point to the driver who sets the Fastest Lap in each race (provided he is finally classified among the top ten drivers).
This means the climactic spurts of glory we often see from showy drivers like Verstappen and Kimi Räikkönen may add up, making a difference in the title races. More importantly, this extra point will compel drivers content with the finishing order — and even those driving defensively — to blaze the track one more time even as the race winds down, and put on a show. Now that’s worth a point.
FI RACE DIRECTOR DIES