2019 Regulation Changes Mix The Grid Up

Mercedes struggle with cooling until the summer break due to a design flaw in their front wing philosophy opening the door up to a mixed up early season.

Ferrari clearly have the best engine package on the grid early on however its customer teams Alfa and Haas get an early march on the championship, with an inspired Kimi dragging his Alfa into title contention. The Marenello team hits their sweet spot mid season after a slow start in the chassis department with a loophole in the regulations that gets patched up after a few races, but not before new boy Leclerc puts his Ferrari into the championship lead.

Throughout the season momentum swings between teams race by race leaving the title pretty much wide open by the summer break. As you can imagine, fans are  loving the unpredictability mixed with closer following cars on track.

Over in the RB stable Verstappen is exctracting the most out of a difficult car early on before reliability gremilins creep in later on in the year. The pace of the team leader is putting new recruit Gasly under serious pressure and he eventually gets swapped with rookie Albon from Hungary onwards. Their fortunes completely switch at this point as Gasly hits top form at the junior team scoring 2 podiums, including a P2 finish after a race long battle with Albon in Mexico.

As the season hits the business end the top teams rise to the front and Hamilton claims his 6th world title after a scruffy showing in a crazy Brazilian GP in which Leclercs slim hopes of a last race decider were shattered by his teammate Vettel, who soldierd on in an environment increasingly built around the Monegasque starboy.

Lewis' triumph was seemingly helped by 2 engine failiures in a row for Leclercs Ferrari, However the foundations of his title were certainly built on his early podiums with the sub par Mercedes early in the year. He was, along with Kimi, the constant in an ever changing pecking order early on and this certainly helped him claim a famous number 6 in a classic season for the sport