2019 formula 1 : Spoilers

[Robert Nixon]

I'm an F1 fan, and since racing starts THIS WEEKEND, well, we better start arguing over stuff right away! All opinions are welcome, and once the racing starts there WILL BE SPOILERS in this thread.

We have driver changes at 8 of the 10 teams, some rookies being thrown into the mix, some veterans that switched teams, some new regulations on aero parts for the cars, slightly more fuel allowed per race, and a top ten finisher in each race that sets fastest lap will earn one point in the championship. Other than that, I'd boil this season down to a few basic questions:

1: Can Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton win again, to make it 6 team championships (and 6 for Hamilton)in a row?
2: Will if FINALLY be someone else's turn to win?
3: Behind the top 3 of Mercedes/Ferrari/Red Bull, who will win the "best of the rest?"

Plenty more stories and questions to be answered, so Practice one kicks it off THURSDAY night at 9pm eastern.

TV coverage of F1 will continue on ESPN/ABC this year, and I've splurged and also bought the F1 TV App for live streaming, so I'm ready to rock!

All times are Eastern, here's the F1 2019 opening races on ESPN, go to bed now!

2019 Rolex Australian Grand Prix
Practice 1 - Thursday, March 14, 8:55 PM - ESPN3
Practice 2 - Friday, March 15, 12:55 AM - ESPNEWS
Practice 3 - Friday, March 15, 10:55 PM - ESPNEWS
Qualifying - Saturday, March 16, 1:55 AM - ESPN2
On The Grid - Sunday, March 17, 12:30 AM - ESPN
Race - Sunday, March 17, 1:00 AM - ESPN

Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix
Practice 1 - Friday, March 29, 6:55 AM - ESPNU
Practice 2 - Friday, March 29, 10:55 AM - ESPNU
Practice 3 - Saturday, March 30, 7:55 AM - ESPN2
Qualifying - Saturday, March 30, 10:55 AM - ESPN2
On The Grid - Sunday, March 31, 10:30 AM - ESPN2
Race - Sunday, March 31, 11:05 AM - ESPN2

Heineken Chinese Grand Prix
Practice 1 - Thursday, April 11, 9:55 PM - ESPNEWS
Practice 2 - Friday, April 12, 1:55 AM - ESPN2
Practice 3 - Friday, April 12, 10:55 PM - ESPNEWS
Qualifying - Saturday, April 13, 1:55 AM - ESPN2
On The Grid - Sunday, April 14, 1:30 AM - ESPN2
Race - Sunday, April 14, 2:05 AM - ESPN2

Azerbaijan Grand Prix
Practice 1 - Friday, April 26, 4:55 AM - ESPN2
Practice 2 - Friday, April 26, 8:55 AM - ESPNU
Practice 3 - Saturday, April 27, 5:55 AM - ESPN2
Qualifying - Saturday, April 27, 8:55 AM - ESPN2
On The Grid - Sunday, April 28, 7:30 AM - ESPN2
Race - Sunday, April 28, 8:05 AM - ESPN2

Emirates Spanish Grand Prix
Practice 1 - Friday, May 10, 4:55 AM - ESPN2
Practice 2 - Friday, May 10, 8:55 AM - ESPNU
Practice 3 - Saturday, May 11, 5:55 AM - ESPN2
Qualifying - Saturday, May 11, 8:55 AM - ESPN2
On The Grid - Sunday, May 12, 8:30 AM - ESPN2
Race - Sunday, May 12, 9:05 AM - ESPN2

Monaco Grand Prix
Practice 1 - Thursday, May 23, 4:55 AM - ESPN2
Practice 2 - Thursday, May 23, 8:55 AM - ESPN2
Practice 3 - Saturday, May 25, 5:55 AM - ESPN2
Qualifying - Saturday, May 25, 8:55 AM - ESPN2
On The Grid - Sunday, May 26, 8:30 AM - ESPN
Race - Sunday, May 26, 9:05 AM - ESPN
Race (Encore) - Sunday, May 26, 3:30 PM - ABC

[SSGForti]

Really hope to see Ferrari win a championship this year and Vettel get his 5th. Mercedes will be strong again. Now let’s see what RedBull has been able to accomplish with Honda.

[ewflyer]

Thanks for all the ESPN channels, dates and times. Appreciated.

I'll be in the grandstand at turns 6 and 7 for the Canadian GP (the "Family Grandstand"). Just booked my AirBnB and purchased the race weekend tickets, looking forward to June.

Hoping that we'll have an interesting and competitive season, although I'm resigned to the fact that Monaco will be another high-speed parade just like it was last year (because that's all it can be).

[tvmaster]

We went to Canada for the 2011 ‘rain’ race - best race ever! The downtown parties are great - the city gets totally on board. That being said...

Hamilton, barring a meltdown, should win again.
Max The Crash Verstappen - if he can stay out of trouble....could threaten. So he won’t.
Vettel will miss all of Kimi’s podiums, as will Ferrari.
Kimi should help the Alfa Romeo brand gain status everywhere in the world except the USA, where FCA marketing execs will wonder why they weren’t on the grid at Long Beach....
Racing Point will make pink trendy again for Tommy Hilfiger.
Ocon will be wondering ‘WTF?’.
Daniel Ricciardo will spend a great deal of time counting tail lights.
Lance Stroll will hopefully prove the Williams really was an awful car.
Williams, in realizing their car still sucks, will begin entering two, FIAT Abarths as a means to regain sponsorship & on-camera time. They’ll have better lap times than 2018.

One-point for fastest lap? Now that an American owns F1, I’m concerned a NASCAR-style mentality continues, where points will be awarded for fastest pit stop, ‘trading paint’, and performing donuts before entering the pits.

And, ESPN will continue to break for commercials JUST as every pit stops begins, while continuing to cut the broadcast off in the middle of the winners national anthem. Will they EVER carry the post-race ‘Paddock Live’ from Sky? Probably not...
Here’s to Kimi’s revenge....

[texanbrit]

It would be interesting to see how the scoring for last year would have changed with the extra point for the fastest lap. I'm too lazy to do the work.

The other big interest for me is the Red Bull/Honda package. How will that fair?

[Robert Nixon]

I confess that I did NOT get up to watch the race live at 1AM, but watched the full thing when I woke up at a normal time, so here goes!

Bottas wins the first corner and therefore the race, so I'm happy for him.
The one point for fastest lap...not a big fan. From what I've read, this rule would have only changed the outcome of World Champion twice since F1 started in 1950. Felipe Massa was one that would have won vs. Hamilton.
I'm a Ferrari fan, so I'm not looking forward to a full season of this...hopefully it was some evil glitch and we don't have to watch Mercedes win again. If you love Mercedes, well, congrats.
Good for Haas and MAG, but Boo for Haas and GRO losing a wheel AGAIN and throwing away points. Surely the midfield will be an awesome battle all year, and for now Haas is best of the rest, but again, threw away points. THat trouble getting
his wheel on cost them about 7 seconds and put him out of the points, so the wheel coming off later was kind of a mercy killing.
I'm still not convinced about Stroll, so this season with Racing Point should be interesting.
Too bad for Renault and Ricciardo, his bad luck continues.
What a great story for HONDA with Verstappen taking a podium, and could have even challenged HAM but he overcooked turn 1 (similar to spinning after turn 1 in Australia). Gasly needs to get up there and mix it up with the top guys.
Williams. Just terrible, what a shame that one of the historical teams is so weak.
Interesting battles all up and down the grid, even the Toro Rosso and Alfa Romeo guys were involved.

I watched the race on the ESPN app, and I don't think they had any commercials. Other than that, I've gotten the F1 Live TV app, so I think that means I can also watch the races without commercials. Also, I didn't see any pre-race show or pitlane walk, so in a way I'm glad...the starting grid walk thing always seems like a great idea, but is usually not worth it in my opinion, whether it was Will Buxton on NBC or Martin Brundle on Sky/ESPN. Just randomly hoping to be able to talk to someone that is about to start a race, and isn't going to reveal any secrets, it just doesn't work for me. Maybe some day they could just interview a real mechanic, or go into the garage and interview the guys that design the car, or drive the trucks or something interesting.

Two weeks to go with Bahrain. Maybe we've got a Mercedes/Red Bull season long fight, maybe just a Bottas/Hamilton battle, or just maybe Ferrari and get their stuff together and fight for the wins.

Have fun going to Canada, I'm hoping to make it to the Austin race this year.

[Robert Nixon]

The German Grand Prix today, holy crap what a fun race to watch! Thanks to changing weather (rain) there were a ton of pit stops, tire changes, cars sliding all over the place, and the outcome was up in the air the entire time, including hours afterward when the stewards penalized the Alfa cars and bumped them out of the points, which moved up the Haas guys, Hamilton, AND Kubica, giving Williams their first points of the year! Some people think F1 is boring or not like the "good old days", but this race was a great show. Just one highlight was Ferrari's Vettel going from 20th (last) at the start and finishing 2nd, including moving from 4th to 2nd in the last few laps. Maybe it's all due to the rain, but man it was the best race of the year by far. Race winner Max Verstappen started in 2nd, but with a terrible start he dropped to 4th right away, later in the race spun out doing a full 360 over some curbs, but managed to keep going and survive 5 pit stops in changing conditions to take the win.

F1 races next week in Hugary, then takes a month long break at the halfway point, so it's likely Mercedes will continue dominating...but just maybe Red Bull and Ferrari (or a bunch of rain) will keep things interesting the rest of the way to November!

[texanbrit]

What did Alfa get penalized for?

It was a great race to watch

[SSGForti]

German GP was great, cant wait to see if RedBull pulls off another win or Merc. Continues to smash the competition. Ferrari needs To find a good grove, they are lost.

What will Haas do with their drivers since they collided with each other again?

[tvmaster]

Ferrari seems to have gone off the rails since Sergio died. Not sure Vettel likes his new teammate either. Good strategy call by Racing Point to gamble on slicks before anyone else - big win for them there. HAAS had such promise, but is a real let down...