The Mercedes-AMG Petronas team for the May 10-12 FORMULA 1 SPANISH GRAND PRIX 2019 have five one, two finishes in a row, with Lewis Hamilton winning his third Spanish Grand Prix in a row and his teammate Valtteri Bottas, who started on pole, finishing second.  Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who won the race in 2016 coming in third.  

Practice sessions in Barcelona today were all over the place.  Typically, this European session on the annual calendar is where the teams try out different set-ups and updates to their cars.  Ferrari tried updates packages for their cars that resulted in some very good lap times for Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc, but the question for this weekend remains as to whether Ferrari can take the fight to Mercedes-AMG or will it like the first 4 races where the Ferraris performed well in the Practice and Qualifying sessions but couldn’t get that performance to carry over to race day on Sunday allowing Mercedes-AMG to earn 4 all team podiums in a row.  Midway through P2 on Friday, Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton for Mercedes were fasted.

The drivers for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas team were on the Podium, again, at Azerbaijan with Valtteri Bottas, who started on pole, winning the race and Lewis Hamilton coming in 2nd with times of 1:31:52.942 and +1.524s respectively, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel came in 3rd with a time of +11.739s.  For each of the 4 races so far this year, for the Practice and Qualifying sessions it appeared that Ferrari’s times were better and that the tweaks to their power units were producing more power and that would give the Ferraris an advantage, especially at a track like Azerbaijan’s Baku City Circuit, which has the longest straight, of any of the other Formula 1 tracks/circuits, but that’s why the races are run on Sundays; sometimes what happens in Practice and Qualifying, stays in Practice and Qualifying.

For all practical purposes the practice session, P1, in Azerbaijan did not happen Friday after a mishap.  The Baku track, being a city circuit like Monaco, has manhole covers that must be secured either by welding or bolting them shut.  Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc hit a loose manhole cover and then William’s George Russell, taking the normal racing line, went over the loose manhole cover and it ripped a hole in the floor board of his car.  Since there are more than 300 manhole covers on the Baku City Circuit, P1 had to be postponed so that all manhole covers could be checked and secured, if necessary.  The drivers missing a Practice session is not a big deal, sessions have been missed in the past due to things like rainouts.  The Williams techs will be putting in long hours to get Russell’s car ready for the Qualifying sessions on Saturday.

The Mercedes-AMG Petronas team will go for a 4th race in a row, where both drivers make the podium.  Will they be successful?  Will the Ferrari team issue team orders? So much drama as we head into race 4 of the 2019 season.  The tire selection for the Azerbaijan race will be:
Hard (White – C2)
Medium (Yellow – C3)
Soft ( Red – C4)

See video: The Amazing Double Pit Stop Mercedes-AMG Pulled Off At The Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix 2019

Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas finished number 1 and number 2 for Mercedes-AMG Petronas at the FORMULA 1 HEINEKEN CHINESE GRAND PRIX 2019.  Sebastian Vettel came in third for Ferrari.  It was Hamilton’s 5th win at the Shanghai International Circuit.  Hamilton hit another Formula 1 milestone of leading for 4,000+ laps throughout his career.

Ferrari Team Orders?

At one point of the race Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was in the 3rd place in front of his teammate Sebastian Vettel, who seemed to have more pace, when he was given team orders to let Vettel overtake him, so Vettel could better take the fight to the Mercedes AMG Petronas team.  Needless to say Leclerc was very frustrated.

In my opinion, there seems to be 2 equally good options, instead of giving team orders to let one team member pass the other, you can just let the team members race and battle it out.

The FORMULA 1 HEINEKEN CHINESE GRAND PRIX 2019 will be the 1000th Formula 1 race with the Mercedes Petronas AMG team’s Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton on the front row with Bottas taking the pole position with a time of 1:31.547; Hamilton’s time was 1:31.570.  Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc secured the 2nd row for Ferrari with times of 1:31.848 and 1:31.865 respectively.  Red Bull’s Max Verstappen had a time 1:32.089 and his teammate Pierre Gastly‘s time of 1:32.930 will start in 6th position on row 3.  (Starting Grid)

Starting in 1950 at Silverstone with the British Grand Prix, this weekend, Formula 1 will have its 1000th race in Shanghai at the SHANGHAI INTERNATIONAL CIRCUIT, a track that is very technically challenging that most drivers like to drive.

Track history/stats:

• First race 2004
• First race won by: Rubens Barrichello
• Cost to build: $450M
• Most successful driver: Lewis Hamilton with 5 wins
• The shape of the track is based on the Chinese ‘Shang’ character which means to Ascend and is part of the word Shanghai
• Location for the first race win for Nico Roseberg
• Fastest lap: Michael Schumacher, 1.32.238

The 2019 season got off to an excellent start down under in Melbourne for the Mercedes AMG Petronas team for the Australian Grand Prix with both of their drivers starting on the front row and finishing the race 1st and 2nd, but it was Valtteri Bottas that won the race with his teammate Lewis Hamilton, who started on the pole position, that finished 2nd.  Bottas easily accelerated past Hamilton at the start of the race, before turn 1, to edge past Hamilton and kept the lead for the race.  It was a very sweet, well deserved and very timely victory for Bottas who won the last race of 2017 and last year went without a win.  Hamilton really never got close enough (within 1 second) to use DRS (Drag Reduction System) to try to pass.  For the most part, the new aerodynamic changes implemented for the 2019 season never came into play with the top 6 cars.