Category: 2019 Formula 1 Season

2019 Spanish Grand Prix

The struggle for race performance has found the Rich Energy Haas F1 Team with only 8 points in the 2019 Formula 1 constructors championship. Kevin Magnussen has been the teams sole points winner while their star, Romain Grosjean, has languished with three retirements and an 11 point finish in China. The team has been strong in qualifying but find themselves down a position or two after the first few laps. The team has failed to maintain race pace.

The Spanish Grand Prix begins the European leg of the F1 season. And with the new continent comes new upgrades to the cars.

From the beginning of the weekend both cars were strong. Haas brought a slew of new upgrades, and the results on track were impressive. They were high on the leader boards throughout the practice sessions, within the top 10, and they locked out the fourth row of qualifying. Romain Grosjean will start the Spanish Grand Prix in 7th position while his teammate Kevin Magnussen will line up next to him in 8th. The two Haas drivers were separated by just .011 seconds in their final qualifying session. The cars are fast and the drivers continue to prove evenly matched.

By lap 17 of 66, the two Haas Cars maintained 7th and 8th position. Grosjean lead his teammate. The Haas duo were about 10 seconds behind Gasley’s Red Bull, who lagged Vettel’s failing Ferrari by 3 seconds.

After the cycle of pits, and a lap 52 safety car Kevin Magnussen was able to defend his starting position and finish in 7th place. Romain Grosjean was not able to maintain position throughout the pit cycles, but still finished 10th. This is Grosjean’s first point for the 2019 season.

The Haas F1 Team entered the Spanish Grand Prix with just 8 points, and have nearly doubled their total to 15. More importantly, they have leaf frogged both Alfa Romeo and Renault to move from 8th to 6th in the constructors world championship.

Next we are off to Monaco. It is difficult to predict how the Haas cars will perform, so we are keeping our expectations low, but our hopes hi!!!

Bon jour!

2019 Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Haas, Cream of the Crap

The Azerbaijan Grand Prix is a road race through the city streets of the ancient walled city Baku which juts on a peninsula into the Caspian sea.

The day would belong to Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas. By lap 3 the Mercedes Silver Arrows of Bottas and Hamilton were able to seperate a 5 second gap. Bottas Started on pole and held his first position through the first few turns as his teammate was challenging to pass. Once Bottas secured P1 he would never look.

Kevin Magnussen started in P12 and would finish 13th. Haas split the strategy for their two drivers. Magnussen was on a 2 stop strategy. He started on soft tires hoping to find early pace. He never would.

Romain Grosjean was on a one stop strategy. He started on medium tires and would not pit until the 34th of 51 laps. Two laps later Grosjean retired from the race with brake issues.

So again Haas has failed to score any points and are holding at 8 points total. Leading Toro Rosso with 4 points and Williams with 0.

Haas has risen… they are the cream of the crap!

Next stop…. Spain!

2019 Chinese Grand Prix

Haas Drops

Mercedes find perfection

The 2019 Chinese Grand Prix began with a whiff of hope for the Haas F1 Team. Both Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean started the race on soft tires and a row 5 lockout starting 9th and 10th respectively.

It seems that the Haas chassis is just not as competitive as it’s mid field competitors in Toro Rosso, Alfa Romeo , and Racing Point. And the Ferrari power plant is just not up to the task of defeating the horses driving Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton in their Silver Arrows. The AMG Mercedes Team continued their 2019 campaign by being dominant all weekend. But for the Haas Team, they dropped to 10th and 11th by the end of lap 1 when Sergio Perez jumped 4 spots in his Racing Point to 8th position. Haas failed to collect any points with Grosjean finishing 11th and Magnussen 13th.

Both Haas cars started on soft tires. Kevin Magnussen pitted on lap 35 and switched to medium grade Pirelli tires. He was able to work his way up to 11th from 17th, but lost pace by lap 46 of the 56 lap race and settled to his aforementioned result of 13th. Romain Grosjean was on a two stop strategy but never threatened.

Valtteri Bottas was able to capture pole on his quest for his first Formula 1 championship. But the day would belong to Lewis Hamilton as Bottas did not get a strong start and his teammate beat him to turn one. It’s how Mercedes finished the day.

But for the Haas Team, the prospect are not bright. The team is not finding any race pace and are not benefiting from their qualifying efforts. The Ferrari engine package appears to be stronger and more reliable than the Renault of the Red Bull, but there are just not enough prancing horses in that power plant to catch the Germans.

With all of their competitors scoring points, Haas drops to 8th position in the constructors standings. Magnussen has all of those 8 points. Grosjean is yet to ring the bell. The next race is Azerbaijan on April 28th. We’ll see you then.

2019 Bahrain Grand Prix

The race was a disaster for the Rich Energy Haas F1 Team. The team had a strong weekend throughout practice, and had a very promising qualifying session as both cars reached Q3 and finished with the Haas car of Magnussen qualifying in P6, and Grosjean in P8. Grosjean was levied a 3 place penalty for blocking the Mclaren of Lando Norris, so the Haas cars started 6th and 11th respectively.

Lap 1 was the beginning to the end of romain Grosjean’s day. He was bumped off track in the first turn by the pink Racing Point Force India of Lance Stroll. Grosjean returned to the race in last place. He later retired from the race in lap 18 with damage sustained by the lap 1 impact by Stroll. Two races and two retirements for Grosjean. His season can only get better… we hope.

For Magnussen, he ended the race in P13. No points for the Haas team.

Magnussen lost one position by the end of lap one and was down to P7. Magnussen was loosing pace early and could not maintain pace. By lap 11 he was down to 14th position. He pitted on the 11th lap, returned in 15th position, which is where he would remain for the the rest of the race. With just 3 laps remaining, as if on queue, both Renaults of Hulkenberg and Ricciardo blew up and experienced catastrophic engine failure. It was almost scary how both engines failed at the same time. But those two retirements would inch magnussen up to P13, but still no points for the Haas team.

But as to the race, it was a an epic win for Lewis Hamilton, with his teammate Valtteri Bottas taking second. Charles Leclerc was leading the race with 10 laps remaining when he lost the HTU hybrid recovery unit on his Ferrari. Leclerc was under power, but slower. The two Mercedes Silver Arrows were able to overtake the wounded Ferrari, and max Verstappen was lining up the Ferrari himself when the two aforementioned Renaults failed, bringing out the safety car, and saving Leclerc from the clutches of Verstappen’s Red Bull. The race would finish under caution and Leclerc would take the first F1 podium in his short career.

2019 Australian Grand Prix

Formula 1 racing is off to start the 2019 season with the Australian Grand Prix. In what was a terrific race, there are lots of story lines, but first, on with the Rich Energy Haas F1 Team.

Kevin Magnussen started the race in the 7th position and finished 6th, earning 8 points for both the team and himself.

Grosjean had a monster qualifying round and started ahead of his teammate in 6th position. Like 2018, the day was aligning up for a big points total for the Haas squad. But again like 2018, lightning struck again. Grosjean pitted on lap 16, and the car was delayed on the stop due to problems with the left front tire. It was odd when 16 laps later, lap 32, that Grosjean retired from the race with a loose left front wheel… his right front wheel came off and needed to be re-tired!!! But I say odd because replay indicates no problems with that left front tire for the sixteen laps following the pit stop. Onboard footage of Grosjean’s lap 27 pass of the Alfa Romeo of Antonio Giovinazzi clearly indicates that the left front wheel is still attached and spinning perfectly. The wheel nuts are designed to either lock, but a failed or mis-installed wheel nut usually become immediately apparent. Odd that it took Grosjean’s left front wheel three laps to come loose.

The pendulum of good fortune swung in Magnussen’s direction when he pitted. His primary concern was re-entering the race on lap 15 after the pit ahead of his Renault competitor Nico Hulkenberg, and he did. It was a key moment in KMags race, and the team pulled it off. Magnussen ended up back in 6th position after Grosjean’s retirement, and only lost that position after his pitstop as cars ahead of him extended out their first pit stops.

So for Haas it was a great score of 8 points, but it should have been 14. But one thing for sure, The Rich Energy Haas F1 Team is fast…. Faster than the entire F1.5 field so far.

Aside from the Haas team, there were other story lines worth mentioning.

Valtteri Bottas dominated the day for both his team and the field. Bottas emerged into 2019 much more focused and determined than where he left off in 2018. There were reports of Valtteri doing some serious soul-searching over the off-season, and it was apparent, straight away. His demeanor was much more focused. There is no other way to put it but, he seemed a bit less nice to his teammate, Lewis Hamilton. Last year he saw Lewis as his teammate first. This year Bottas seems to be looking at Hamilton a bit more as a competitor first, and teammate second.

But Bottas was brilliant all day. Lewis Hamilton started on pole, and Bottas lined up in the second position. It was an all Mercedes front row. Bottas was ahead of his teammate by the time he exited turn 1, and never looked back. Bottas was taking his Silver Arrow to the limit, and the 5 time world champion Lewis Hamilton, in equal equipment, could not catch him all day. The teammates’ composure after the race was also telling. Bottas spoke with a sincere sense of possibility, while Hamilton was clearly looking for answers. 2019 may be the year we see another Finnish F1 Champion… if he keeps this up. But it’s a long season.

The big story for the local F1 fans in Australia was Daniel Ricciardo’s first appearance with Renault F1. His day was done before turn 1.

Ricciardo started the race in P12, one spot behind his teammate Nico Hulkenberg. During the sprint for turn 1 at the start of the race, Ricciardo took the inside line. He got a bit squeezed and was forced into the grass. His front wing caught some grass and was completely destroyed. It broke off of his car and flew away. Luckily his car was not broken otherwise, so he pitted ad received a new front wing. Unfortunately he re-entered the race at the back of the pack. Ricciardo ended up retiring from the race in lap 31, the third retirement from his home grand prix.

I have to wonder what Ricciardo was thinking when he left Red Bull. He had terrible reliability issues last year at Red Bull with that Renault engine. This year Renault is using Honda engines. So what does Ricciardo do? He moves to Renault? I expected Renault to compete for the front last year, and they did not. What did Ricciardo see which encouraged him? I’m not sure…. Sometimes that change of scenery seems like a good thing at the time. Regardless… his Red Bull replacement driver, Pierre Gasly is not proving to be a threat to Haas, so all is good with the world.

So that is it for week 1 in the 2019 Formula 1 season. It looks like the Haas car is very fast and clearly the favorite for the mid pack race… 4th position in the constructors championship is realistic. If Grosjean can get a clean race under his belt the team will be hard to beat!!!

Great job Rich Energy Haas F1 Team! See you in Bahrain!