Haas gets jump on rest of field
Haas F1 Racing finished fifth in last year’s constructors’ championship, but have at least got a head start on the other nine teams in this year’s championship, by being the first team to reveal their 2019 title challenger.
The team, to be known as Rich Energy Haas F1, revealed it’s livery recently. Title sponsor Rich Energy is a British energy drink company that was linked last year to Racing Point, formerly Force India, the team that a consortium led by Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll, the father of F1 driver Lance Stroll, purchased halfway through 2018.
Rich Energy put £30m into the Force India team before Stroll’s consortium bought it, and was later looking at investing in the Williams team as a replacement for that team’s sponsor, Martini. But eventually they decided to go with Haas. Certainly the new livery has turned a few people’s heads. The gold and black livery is a reminder of the colours carried by Lotus in the 1980’s and again in 2010 through to 2013. Romain
Grosjean, who will again partner Kevin Magnussen in the Haas team, was a Lotus driver alongside Kimi Raikkonen in 2012 and 2013.
New aerodynamic rules are being imposed this year to aid overtaking, but Grosjean doesn’t expect to see much change.
“Formula 1 needs to get better at having more chances to win races,” Grosjean believes.
“But I don’t think that’s going to be before 2021. Ideally you would like as many teams as possible to be fighting for a win. What’s the point of coming just to be always behind the same drivers and teams?”
Raikkonen in the Lotus in 2013 was the last driver to win a grand prix, who was not from one of the top three teams, being Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull. Grosjean agrees they are not going to challenge the top three, but thinks the midfield is where the real racing takes place, and his eyes are on fourth place.
Kevin Magnussen has been an F1 driver since 2014, and he finished second for McLaren in his first grand prix start at the Australian GP, after Daniel Ricciardo was disqualified from second for a fuel irregularity in his Red Bull. Magnussen hasn’t been on an F1 podium since his debut, with fifth place on a number of occasions his best result since. The Danish driver, who was ninth in the drivers’ championship last year, is taken by the car’s new livery.
“It’s pretty cool, isn’t it” he asked at the London unveiling. “It looks angry. Testing will be an exciting time as it will be the first time you get to feel the car and get the first early idea of whether or not we are going to be fast. I’m excited, looking forward to it and feeling positive.”
Another driver excited for a slightly different reason, is ‘reborn’ Toro Rosso driver Danii Kvyat. His F1 career is fairly unique, as probably no other driver has been sacked by two sister teams, and then recalled by one of them.
Kvyat started F1 with Toro Rosso in 2014 and was promoted to the Red Bull team alongside Ricciardo for 2015, following Sebastian Vettel’s departure to Ferrari. In the Hungarian GP in 2015, Kvyat finished second, the highest placing achieved by a Russian driver. He finished the year seventh in the championship, three points ahead of Ricciardo. He was on the podium again in China, three races into the 2016 season, but in Russia for the fourth race, he caused a collision on the first lap that took out Vettel and others. Red Bull immediately demoted him back to the Toro Rosso team, replacing him with Max Verstappen, who rewarded the foresight of the Red Bull management, by winning on debut in the Spanish GP. Kvyat retained the Toro Rosso drive for 2017, but lost it to Brendon Hartley for 2018.
Ironically, Hartley lost the Toro Rosso drive at the end of last year, while his teammate, Pierre Gasly, was promoted to the Red Bull team to replace Ricciardo, who has joined Renault for 2019. You would almost think that Red Bull invented the saying ‘musical chairs.’
Kvyat’s manager is Nicholas Todt, the son of FIA President, Jean Todt. He admits that for his charge it is his “last chance” in F1.
“In Formula 1, it’s always difficult to get a second chance,” Todt concedes. “He wanted to understand what happened and did a great job on the Ferrari simulator. His situation reminds me of the return of Felipe Massa to Sauber in 2004. Two years later he was at Ferrari with Michael Schumacher.
“He returns to F1 less emotional and more mature.”
Kvyat will be joined at Toro Rosso by Alex Albon, who is of Thai-British descent and was an F2 driver in 2018. Hartley meanwhile is one of four drivers hired by Ferrari to work in their simulator. Hartley might be thinking that if Kvyat’s return to F1 was based on his simulator work, then his F1 dream may not be entirely over.
Toro Rosso has launched its new car on-line. It looks very similar to last year’s car. Team boss Franz Tost says that in hindsight, Kvyat’s promotion to the Red Bull team was too early.
“I always say that a young driver needs two to three years to understand and deliver in the complicated world of F1 but Danii showed his natural speed from the very beginning,” Tost stated at the launch. “He showed some very good performances but to perform under pressure is always a challenge, now with hindsight it was just too early.”
Williams have also unveiled its new car, sticking with the white and blue livery, but moving away from the traditional navy blue to fit in with new sponsor ROKiT.
Team boss Claire Williams, the daughter of team founder Sir Frank Williams, in welcoming the new sponsor, knows there is a lot at stake for the team that finished last in 2018 with just seven championship points.
“This is our family’s team, so there is a lot riding on that,” Williams said. “One of the reasons why I took this job was to protect not just my dad’s but my mum’s legacy in the sport. It’s a legacy that we’re enormously proud of. So, there’s that pressure.”
Helping to restore some family pride will be F2 championship, George Russell, and Robert Kubica, who returns to F1 after a rallying crash in 2012 that nearly severed his right arm, threatened to end his driving career. If Williams and Kubica together can revive their fluctuating fortunes, it could be the story of the year.