The 2019 F1 Season – A Handy Guide

GP AZERBAIJAN F1/2017 © FOTO STUDIO COLOMBO PER FERRARI MEDIA (© COPYRIGHT FREE)

The 2019 F1 season once again contains 21 races and runs from March and for the first time finishes in December. Here’s our guide to the who, what and where for this year, which we’ll update as more information comes out from the teams and F1.

This season features the same 10 teams as last year, with the team formerly known as Force India starting their 1st full season under their new Racing Point name, along with Sauber’s rebranding to Alfa Romeo Racing and 3 drivers are set to make their F1 racing debuts in 2019 (Lando Norris, George Russell & Alexander Albon) with 3 other drivers returning to the grid after various amounts of time away (Robert Kubica, Antonio Giovinazzi & Daniil Kvyat) and with Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz, Daniel Ricciardo, Kimi Raikkonen, Lance Stroll & Pierre Gasly moving teams that means that only Mercedes & Haas will retain the same lineups as 2018.

Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport – Car W10 EQ Power+ – Engine: Mercedes – Launch date: February 13th

  • 44 Lewis Hamilton
  • 77 Vatteri Bottas

Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow – Car SF90 – Engine: Ferrari – Launch date:  February 15th

  • 5 Sebasitan Vettel
  • 16 Charles Leclerc

Rich Energy Haas F1 Team – Car VF-19 – Engine: Ferrari – Launch date: February 7th

  • 8 Romain Grosjean
  • 20 Kevin Magnussen

McLaren F1 Team – Car: MCL34 – Engine: Renault – Launch date: February 14th

  • 2 Lando Norris (R)
  • 55 Carlos Sainz

Sport Pesa Racing Point- Car: RP19 – Engine: Mercedes – Launch date: February 13th

  • 11 Sergio Perez
  • 18 Lance Stroll

Aston Martin RedBull Racing – Car: RB15 – Engine: Honda – Launch date: February 13th

  • 10 Pierre Gasly (Australia to Hungary)
  • 23 Alex Albon (R) (Belgium to Abu Dhabi)
  • 33 Max Verstappen

Renault F1 Team – Car: RS19- Engine: Renault – Launch date: February 12th

  • 3 Daniel Ricciardo
  • 27 Nico Hulkenberg

Alfa Romeo Racing (formerly Sauber) – Car: TBA – Engine: Ferrari – Launch date: February 18th

  • 7 Kimi Raikkonen
  • 99 Antonio Giovinazzi

RedBull Toro Rosso Honda – Car: STR14 – Engine: Honda – Launch date: February 11th

  • 23 Alexander Albon (R) (Australia to Hungary)
  • 10 Pierre Gasly (Belgium to Abu Dhabi)
  • 26 Daniil Kvyat

Williams Racing – Car: FW42 – Engine: Mercedes – Launch date: February 11th

  • 63 George Russell (R)
  • 88 Robert Kubica

Testing is once again limited during the season with the 2 days of testing after the Bahrain Grand Prix and 2 days at the Hungaroring before the Summer break in August. Pirelli will be running private tyre tests during the season and we expect the usual young drivers test to take place in early December after the last race in Abu Dhabi

Pre Season:

  • Barcelona Feb 18-21 (Afternoon sessions from 1PM GMT live on Sky Sports F1)
  • Barcelona Feb 26 – March 1

In Season

  • Bahrain March 2-3

Tyre Tests:

  • TBC

Young Drivers Test

  • Abu Dhabi Dec 3-4 (TBC)

For the 2nd year in a row we’ve got 21 races to look forward to this season. But unlike 2018 there isn’t another triple-header as FOM have now said that the 3 week back to back to back run was a “one-off” so as not to clash with the Football World Cup. There are 5 sets of back to back races this year France/Austria, Germany/Hungary, Belgium/Italy, Singapore/Russia & Mexico/USA and the summer break will be for most of August between Hungary and Belgium. The 1000th Grand Prix is scheduled for this season at the 3rd race of the year in China.

Round Race Circuit FP1 & FP2 FP3 & Qualifying Race
1 Australian Grand Prix Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit, Melbourne 15 March 2019 16 March 2019 17 March 2019
2 Bahrain Grand Prix Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir 29 March 2019 30 March 2019 31 March 2019
3 Chinese Grand Prix Shanghai International Circuit, Shanghai 12 April 2019 13 April 2019 14 April 2019
4 Azerbaijan Grand Prix Baku City Circuit, Baku 26 April 2019 27 April 2019 28 April 2019
5 Spanish Grand Prix Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Montmeló 10 May 2019 11 May 2019 12 May 2019
6 Monaco Grand Prix Circuit de Monaco, Monte Carlo Thursday 23 May 2019 25 May 2019 26 May 2019
7 Canadian Grand Prix Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal 07 June 2019 08 June 2019 09 June 2019
8 French Grand Prix Circuit Paul Ricard, Le Castellet 21 June 2019 22 June 2019 23 June 2019
9 Austrian Grand Prix Red Bull Ring, Spielberg 28 June 2019 29 June 2019 30 June 2019
10 British Grand Prix Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone 12 July 2019 13 July 2019 14 July 2019
11 German Grand Prix Hockenheimring, Hockenheim 26 July 2019 27 July 2019 28 July 2019
12 Hungarian Grand Prix Hungaroring, Mogyoród 02 August 2019 03 August 2019 04 August 2019
13 Belgian Grand Prix Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Stavelot 30 August 2019 31 August 2019 01 September 2019
14 Italian Grand Prix Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Monza 06 September 2019 07 September 2019 08 September 2019
15 Singapore Grand Prix Marina Bay Street Circuit, Singapore 20 September 2019 21 September 2019 22 September 2019
16 Russian Grand Prix Sochi Autodrom, Sochi 27 September 2019 28 September 2019 29 September 2019
17 Japanese Grand Prix Suzuka International Racing Course, Suzuka 11 October 2019 12 October 2019 13 October 2019
18 Mexican Grand Prix Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Mexico City 25 October 2019 26 October 2019 27 October 2019
19 United States Grand Prix Circuit of the Americas, Austin, Texas 01 November 2019 02 November 2019 03 November 2019
20 Brazilian Grand Prix Autódromo José Carlos Pace, São Paulo 15 November 2019 16 November 2019 17 November 2019
21 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi 29 November 2019 30 November 2019 01 December 2019

There are a few rule changes for 2019, the most visible ones will be the new aerodynamic regulations around the simplified front wings with and the DRS slot on the rear wing being widened to make DRS more powerful. Also the maximum fuel limit is raised from 105kg to 110kg in an attempt to reduce the fuel saving tactics that have come into play since mid-race refuelling was stopped in 2010

Another noticeable change will be the tyres; instead of the 5 dry compound colours, we will just see 3 all season. While Pirelli have created a variety of compounds with differing hardness and durability, we’ll only see white for the hardest tyre of the weekend, yellow for the medium and red for the softest available.

From this season, the driver’s weight will not be taken into account when weighing the car and instead drivers will have to weigh a minimum of 80kg (176.4lbs) otherwise ballast will be added to the seat area of the car to make up the weight.

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