The 2019 Season

[Penfold]

?33/month would be an extremely good price to get Sky Sports bundled with their basic package which all customers must take - ?40/month probably more realistic - and the bastards would insist on that sum being paid every single month.  Tack on another ?15 to ?20 per month for BT Sport should you want to watch live IndyCar.  Kind of pricey just for watching motorsport....

Site insisting on replacing the Pound sign with a question mark.  I could understand it for the Euro but Sterling isn't going anywhere.

[Chrill]

Guess why I edited the pound sign to simply write "33 pounds". Silly Matt and his weird formatting. Hulkenberg and Raikkonen need themselves some umlauts.

[Penfold]

Figured as much but couldn't be bothered to go back and change all of mine.

[Chrill]

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/sauber-becomes-alfa-romeo-racing/4331468/

Sauber changes it's name to Alfa Romeo Racing.

I'm a bit sad about this. Sauber is a legendary name. Sure, so is Alfa Romeo, but why couldn't they have kept the Sauber name? Alfa Romeo Sauber Racing sounds good too!

[Penfold]

Inevitable but 'tis a shame to see the Sauber name vanish.

My re-jigged (& re-named) 2019 Constructors top ten:

1. Ferrari
2. Mercedes
3. Red Bull (wouldn't be surprised if they had the best car - if one excludes powertrains from the equation)
4. Renault
5. McLaren (I think they may actually end up quicker than Renault but with their drivers failing to bring home as much bacon)
6. Ferrari 2 (aka Alfa Romeo)
7. Ferrari 2b (aka Haas)
8. Force India (faster car than this suggests but the Stroll factor must be considered)
9. Williams
10. Toro Rosso

[Chrill]

I recall posting my list before, don't know if it was in this topic, but I'll revisit it and do it again:

1: Mercedes
2: Ferrari
3: Red Bull
4: Alfa Romeo
5: Renault
6: Haas
7: McLaren
8: Racing Point
9: Williams
10: Toro Rosso

I think Toro Rosso and Williams will both be scoring points every now and then, basically teams 4-10 will be closer than in previous years.

[Matt]

I unfollowed ?Alfa Romeo Racing? on Twitter. I only cared about them because they were Sauber. I guess there is still Williams?

[Penfold]

Doesn't look like there'll be much joy coming from the Williams bench this year.  Of course, I'm a die-hard McLaren fan - sadly no treatment known to man can cure me of this terrible affliction.

Talking of upgrades planned by teams for Melbourne, Racing Point has a massive update in the works.

[Chrill]

Williams ran OK today, they even set almost competitive lap times.

[Chrill]

Already after Bahrain, there will be an in-season test. As always, two days must be completed by a rookie (over the course of two in-season tests), so which drivers are eligible to take part for which teams?

Mercedes: George Russell (only for the Bahrain test)
Ferrari: Antonio Fuoco, Mick Schumacher, Davide Rigon (but he old)
Red Bull: Dan Ticktum, Juri Vips, Alexander Albon (only for the Bahrain test)
Renault: Antoine Hubert, Guanyu Zhou
Haas: Pietro Fittipaldi
McLaren: Lando Norris (only for the Bahrain test), S?rgio Sette C?mara, Nyck de Vries
Racing Point: uhm... None?
Alfa Romeo: Mick Schumacher
Toro Rosso: Dan Ticktum, J?ri Vips, Alexander Albon (only for the Bahrain test)
Williams: George Russell (only for the Bahrain test), Nicholas Latifi

So, I'm guessing teams will try to use the "only completed 2 GPs" rule to let drivers such as Albon, Norris, and Russell to be considered rookies in the Bahrain test. Racing Point need to find a rookie with money fast. How about Artem Markelov or someone like that?

[Penfold]

Surely Williams is the team most in need of a rich rookie?  Received Pronunciation should be able to float along on Stroll's sea of money.

If only some young, fabulously wealthy racer would change his name to Richard Rookie....

[Penfold]

Sirotkin back to Renault to take on third driver duties: https://www.racefans.net/2019/02/27/sirotkin-returns-to-renault-as-reserve-driver/

This next one is not exactly a surprise: McLaren has confirmed that Alonso (remember him?) will participate in selected tests during 2019 to aid their development programme.

[Chrill]

Williams has a rich rookie in Latifi, Racing Point has none.

[Penfold]

Forgot about him.

[Matt]

I think McLaren is mismanaging the Alonso situation in a way that only McLaren could. He should not be getting any tests. All that will happen is drama that is detrimental to the team. He tests faster than their current drivers? He should replace them. The team performs well this year? He wants to come back. That much he has already said. But they have two drivers already and Monisha Kaltenborn is not team principal.

He said he was retiring, although he was somewhat equivocal even then. Make a decision and stick with it. I understand that it is impossible to do that given the size of his ego, but F1 does not need him, and he does not need F1.

No idea if this comparison will make sense to non-Americans, but it reminds me of the Leno and O?Brien situation with The Tonight Show.