2019 was finished by lewis Hamilton to the time of his career using a dominant victory in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The Mercedes driver has won 11 races – just over half and has long had a lock on his championship. However, Hamiltons confirmation as king of F1s predictability was a stark contrast from the vivid and persuasive on-track activity of the races.
The impression given by the outcomes which Mercedes have had all their own way was belied by the reality of some intensely aggressive action during the entire year, as new stars emerged, and fast-paced narratives aplenty retained interest high.
Since F1 2019 disappears to the rear-view mirror, so it appears timely to look back on the moments that made the season, and try to put it all into some type of perspective, using a bite-size review of the year.
Lewis Hamilton won 11 races, also made a collection of superb performances and created winning the championship seem a good deal simpler than it actually was. But this wasnt nearly won by him.
Had this article been written in half-distance, Max Verstappen could have it. The Dutchman has been outstanding this season he discovered at 2018 out of Canada. But in the end he is just edgesed by Hamilton.
For Verstappen, there are still a couple too many rough edges. He made errors in the start in Belgium and Italy, and also the mix of foolhardiness and thoughtlessness which cost him rod – and success – in Mexico since he did not lift yellow flags qualifying virtually principles him out by itself.
On top of that, after a slow-ish – to him – start within the first four races, then Hamilton never let off it and set his foot. And he had been outstanding in so many races Bahrain, Canada, France, Silverstone, Hungary, Belgium, Mexico and Austin were all terrific drives.
OK, he misjudged a movement, also made a few errors in Germany. Hes still the golden standard. But Verstappen this year ran him very near.
A lot of contenders with this one. Charles Leclerc was outstanding at Bahrain, as outstanding a functionality as anyone made all year for Ferrari – and it turned out to be a terrible injustice that he lost that triumph to an engine wiring issue. He was likewise ice-cool under pressure in Belgium and Italy, although he gets a black marker for shoving Hamilton wide in Monza.
Verstappen won several races, all them top-drawer inside their own way – his trendy control in the wet in Germany when a lot of others were shedding their cars and their heads; his constant charge through to victory if he came alive late in the race at Austria was awesome; Brazil was a great display of rushing and race-craft in the very best car on the day.
But Hamiltons success in Hungary was perhaps the best of several drives that are great by the world champion. Tracking Verstappen for such a long time, almost pulling off what would have become the overtake of the season round the outside of Turn Four, and then shutting 20 moments as many laps after a late pit stop to pass on the Red Bull to the triumph.
A toss-up between Germany and Brazil. Hockenheim was astonishing, with all these events and twists and turns – the drag strip skating rink in the last two corners that caught out Hamilton, Leclerc and Nico Hulkenberg, a comedy pit stop from Mercedes, Vettel climbing from the rear to second and Daniil Kvyat taking an improbable podium to get Toro Rosso.
However, Brazil made it . It had all – passes for the direct, fantastic overtakes, safety cars, the two Ferraris colliding, colorful drives (Carlos Sainz third from the rear of the grid – wow) and a fairytale second spot for Pierre Gasly.
Actually, you will find lots of excellent races – six in a row from Austria to Italy. And Mexico and Austin were damn great, too.
No competition – it has to be Leclerc v Verstappen in Silverstone. It was epic. Verstappen tried all, also Leclerc – still angry at how he was barged out of success in Austria a week earlier – defended like his life depended on it, and took things right to the border in doing this.
There was one moment – when Verstappen was in front moving into Stowe, just for Leclerc to take back ahead as they entered the corner – which you can not quite believe happened regardless of how often you see it.
Theres no bigger compliment than to say it was reminiscent of the famous scrap between Gilles Villeneuve and Rene Arnoux in Dijon in 1979, but it went for 20-odd laps, yet not just 3.
Leclerc has been pole position king this year, therefore this must be one of the seven pole positions? The best of them was certainly Belgium, in which he had been a gob-smacking 0.748 seconds quicker than team-mate Sebastian Vettel.
Not too fast, though. I asked Ferrari team supervisor Mattia Binotto what he believed was the very best lap with a Ferrari driver annually, expecting him to select one of Leclercs. But the answer has been a surprise – that he said Vettels rod in Japan.
Binotto admitted it had beenhard to say it was better compared to Leclercs in Spa. However, after a few thought he adhered with his guns. It was aperfect lap, he explained – and when you see the onboard footage, he isnt wrong – and it was unexpected.
It came following a streak of nine races where Leclerc had out-qualified that the German and also in the midst of the huge strain that was putting on Vettel. And Binotto paid Leclerc a enormous compliment, too, with an announcement which says a great deal more about the position in Ferrari than only the words :For him to conquer Charles in a qualifying means it was a special lap.
Thus Vettel it is.
Honorary mention, too, for Hamiltons performances in dividing the Ferraris in Singapore and Russia, at both of which he had been more than 0.6 seconds clear of team-mate Valtteri Bottas.
Carlos Sainz had a first season at McLaren. Team-mate Lando Norris edged him in the first half of this year, but the Spaniard generally possessed the second half of the season, and it has raced with adulthood, trendy and controlled aggression annually.
The highlight of a number of drives that were outstanding was rising from last to third – once Hamilton was penalised – in Brazil. Its only. Even Fernando Alonso – that the man he replaced – would have been proud of that one, and thats saying something.
Must be the crash between both Ferrari drivers. It was coming for a while, but nevertheless the shock/disbelief of it was huge. How Ferrari handle them will be among the huge stories of 2020.
For the next year in a row, this is got by Vettel. In actuality, he wins silver, gold and bronze.
In third place, Canada, in which he went off under pressure from Hamilton, and then rejoined in a manner that was adjudged to be dangerous, earning a five-second punishment which cost him success. The punishment was contentious however, he would not have obtained it if he had not made the mistake at the first place.
The silver medal is to get ramming Verstappen up the trunk at Silverstone when fully misjudging an effort to re-pass that the Dutchman in Vale.
Gold trophy – and – worst by far – was for Monza. It had been bad enough he summoned on his own Ascari, an entirely unforced error. But to then invisibly and collide with Lance Strolls Racing Point was a misjudgement which could have been embarrassing to get a pay-driver rookie, let along a four-time world winner.
Theres the crash he made with Leclerc in Brazil to throw into the mix, also.
Leclerc made a clanger – costing himself a possible win in Baku in qualifying by stirring. Stupid, he scolded himself, and it was, even though Ferrari didnt help by sending him on moderate tyres for that run.
There were some stunners this year – Leclerc pulled two crackers at Monaco, on Norris to Loews and also on Haas Romain Grosjean at Rascasse, prior to getting over-ambitious and coming to despair when he attempted the Grosjean once again Renaults Nico Hulkenberg.
On the first lap of Monaco, Sainz went side by side with Alexander Albon via Sainte Devote, out-dragged him up the hill and then did Daniil Kvyat across the exterior of Massenet. This was pretty specific.
As was the movement around the exterior of Pierre Gasly at Village of Leclerc during the British Grand Prix.
However, the winner is Alexander Albon because of his cut-back on Daniel Ricciardo out of Rivage in Spa after which passing the Renault around the exterior of the rapid straight left-hander that follows, in his first race for Red Bull. No-one overtakes there. But Albon did.
This can be such a difficult one, since Albon, Norris and Williams George Russell have all been excellent in their own ways.
Albons highs are spectacularly good. His driveway in the wet in Hockenheim was one of those performances of this year – he had the Toro Rosso up in fourth place on merit and he was racing with Hamiltons Mercedes. It was a grave abuse that Kvyat was when he had been outclassed by Albon the Toro Rosso motorist who ended up on the podium thanks to a late stop for slicks.
Albon lap in Japan, matching Verstappen to Suzuka into the thousandth of a minute on his very first visit, was both superb. Since joining Red Bull but he has been far off Verstappen.
Russell has blitzed Robert Kubica at Williams, completely overshadowing the Poles comeback after eight years outside, out-qualifying him every single race by nearly 0.6secs a lap on ordinary and usually proving way faster in the races, too. And there were a couple of races once Russell hauled the Williams into the rear.
But its tough to estimate Russell since Kubicas degree is still an unknown – he seemed a shadow of the driver – and that the Williams was too slow, therefore he had any rivalry against which to measure himself.
On balance, subsequently Norris advantages it. He, also, has been fantastic. McLarens internal statistics of rate across qualifying and race displays there is almost nothing to choose between him and Sainz on pure rate – theyre divided by tiny fractions on average. And Sainz is a difficult team-mate. Norris was behind Sainz at the championship but his race consequences would look better were it not for some reliability.
All three seem to have bright futures ahead of them.
Over the summer season the Mercedes was demonstrably the best automobile, as 15 wins and an average qualifying advantage of 0.116secs over Ferrari and 0.388secs over Red Bull exemplify, even though some of the victories were Hamilton wins instead of Mercedes ones, and some were handed to them on a plate by Ferrari.
However, by the years end the belief was that Red Bull had captured up them.
year ferrari definitely had the most powerful engine. The advantage was really great from Spa that it triggered competitions to fishing for what might be happening, which led from the FIA to a technical clarifications, and got tongues wagging.
Red Bull and mercedes observed a reduction in Ferrari speed benefit after that and overall competitiveness – although Ferrari stated which down to them ran more downforce at the races in question and that nothing had been transformed in their engine.
But then their power-unit was the best; it was only a question of by how much.
Two of these – F1 missing two of its best figures with all the deaths of FIA F1 manager Charlie Whiting and triple world champion Niki Lauda, in the course of 2019.
The loss of on the eve of the season-opening race in Australia, Whiting, has been a blow to many in the game.
Whiting was a massive character the go-to guy on all things and one of the most well-known people within the paddock. He was checking out developments to the trail on Wednesday night in Melbourne however, also suffered an embolism and the sport lost an undercover hero.
Lauda – F1 pilot, businessman, Mercedes non-executive manager – related prior to the Monaco Grand Prix to lung problems. So much was written about him, there is no need. Suffice it to state F1 is unlikely to find the likes of him, and Lauda was a figure.
McLaren were unrecognisable from the team that finished 2018. After attributing their performance for 3 years, the belated realisation of just how far theyd fallen on Honda engines, after their switch precipitated a restructuring in the group.
They hit the floor and Fantastic work was completed on the new car through the last weeks of 2018 and never looked back.
The arrival of impressive team manager Andreas Seidl in May raised the momentum.
The motorist line-up of Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris is remarkable and youthful and there is a lightness and intent about McLaren, that appear well on the path to recovery.
Easy. Mercedes pit stop by Hamilton in Germany, since they tyres and raced about like Laurel and Hardy, wearing their 1950s replica railings, celebrating 100 years of Mercedes in motorsport, attempting to modify his .
France – F1 acquired a lot of stick from the very first portion of the year because of Mercedes dominance, it was nowhere near since the results made it look and even in the event the races were not too awful.
Had Ferrari delivered on their potential, it ought to have been three to Ferrari and four drops to Mercedes after Canada, and then there could havent been any discussion of domination.
In any event, if it came after seven successive Mercedes wins or not, France was a ferocious race – just as it was in 2018, if its recurrence was left by the Paul Ricard track.
Almost completely uneventful, aside from a little scrapping for the points places, Hamilton kilometers paint on a monitor whose design is demarcated from paint. As the birthplace of grand prix racing, France deserves a place on the F1 calendar. But the game and it deserve greater than Ricard.

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