2019 Australian GP Preview – By Bob Constanduros
The 2019 Grand Prix season begins this weekend in a mood of considerable sadness and devastation after the news of the death of Charlie Whiting was announced on Thursday morning. Charlie was 66. He was official race director, of course, but he was so much more than that. He was a senior member of the F1 family, someone who had risen from the humble beginnings of a club mechanic – albeit a fantastically talented one – to chief mechanic at Brabham and then a hugely respected race director.
The cause of death has been officially announced as being from a pulmonary embolism which will ring alarm bells throughout the paddock. It emphasises the pressures of our hectic schedule of travelling and shows that we are all at risk, whichever end of the plane we travel in.
Charlie, though, was a very important cog in the Formula One wheel. Not only was he race director – he could be expected to have addressed the press on Thursday afternoon in Melbourne on the new rules – but he was safety director as well, inspected circuits, ruled on technical changes, advised stewards and held responsibility for a whole host of duties which he performed with a lightness of touch and approachability which made him hugely liked. He will be sorely missed.
Many of the senior members in the paddock will have known Charlie from his Formula One days and even before. He prepared the immaculate yellow Ford Escort that his brother Nick raced to such success from their All-Car Equipe base in West Kingsdown at Brands Hatch in the seventies and it was this talent that saw him progress through the ranks to lead Bernie Ecclestone’s Brabham team. Bernie was forefront in choosing his loyal employee to fulfil a vital role in Formula One alongside his colleague Herbie Blash.
As I write this, tributes are pouring in from those who dealt with Charlie. Christian Horner has summed it up well: “I am deeply saddened to hear the terrible news that Charlie Whiting passed away last night. Charlie has played a key role in this sport and has been the referee and voice of reason as Race Director for many years. He was a man with great integrity who performed a difficult role in a balanced way. At heart, he was a racer with his origins stretching back to his time at Hesketh and the early days of Brabham.”
It is the words integrity and balanced which sum up Charlie’s way of working. He did a difficult job supremely well, hence the respect from all quarters. He always had time for everyone and what looked like a serious conversation about a controversial incident could often erupt into gales of laughter at what was actually a typically hilarious joke.
It’s certainly one of the worst ways to start a Grand Prix season. I always look forward to the start of the year and this year was no different to others. Ferrari look good, Red Bull is lacking time, can Honda challenge Mercedes and Ferrari, what do Mercedes have up their sleeves? Can Renault inch closer? Will the rules promote closer racing? There are, as ever, a host of questions to be asked and answered and that’s what we look forward to over the season. It’s what everyone has to concentrate on now as we move into the weekend.
This season sees the start of the introduction of new rules aimed at making racing closer. The overall area of the cars is greater, throwing up the wake of the cars so that the effect of the airflow of cars is lessened on those following, allowing them to close up. In this way, the front and rear wings are bigger, there is also a change to the bargeboards. At the same time, the tyre description has been changed – this is pretty cosmetic – but brake ducts have also been simplified. There are other changes such as an increased fuel allowance to try and eliminate the lift and cruise phenomenon which afflicts cars when they run short of fuel in the closing stages of a race. A rise in weight limit is helping this. There is also a point for fastest lap to attempt to liven up the closing stages of a race – but only for those cars in the top ten.
Of course, there is much more to look out for. Only two teams – Mercedes and Haas – retain the same drivers as last year. Four teams have entirely new line-ups, there are six new or nearly new drivers – three newcomers, three returnees.
And testing in Barcelona threw up lots more questions. Ferrari, of course, seemed to be on top throughout, with the second most number of laps. But they did suffer three equipment failures although the drivers were first and third in the order over the eight days. They were never lower than fourth as a team. Charles Leclerc proved that he could be a threat to Sebastian Vettel.
Mercedes did the most laps and Hamilton set the same record as a driver. They caused one red flag for loss of oil pressure and set the second fastest time, third on corrected time. They needed an aero update for the second week when they rose from mainly the bottom half of the field to second fastest.
Red Bull set seventh fastest time, fourth on corrected but the drivers were only 11th and 17th fastest and the team was only eighth in terms of number of laps. Pierre Gasly crashed twice and they lost further time with another technical problem. On the face of it, they didn’t look competitive but then didn’t have the time to do so; their time was set on the third softest tyre whereas everyone else was on the softest.
Haas surprised everyone with a time that was second fastest when fuel and tyres were taken into consideration. The drivers were 9th and 15th overall and they didn’t do that many laps, causing five red flags because of fuel system and ignition problems. They looked good early on, less so later in the test.
Renault were third fastest overall but then sixth on corrected with the drivers fifth and 12th, causing just one red flag. They improved as the test went on.
The reverse was true of McLaren. They looked good early on with their new driver line-up and were fifth overall, but seventh on corrected time. The drivers were eighth and tenth, but they caused four red flags. The car suffered understeer and then rear end instability.
Racing Point were disappointing in that they did the second least number of laps, set ninth fastest time and on corrected and the drivers set the 14th and 18th times. They were never higher than seventh.
Toro Rosso, having their second year with Honda power, were fourth fastest and then fifth fastest on corrected. They did the fourth most number of laps and the drivers set sixth and seventh fastest time. There were some packaging issues, but for a new driver line-up, they did a good job.
The same could be said of Alfa Romeo, nee Sauber. They looked good in the first test, less so in the second. They were eighth fastest as a team and also on corrected. They suffered one spin but five red flags although they often run the car to empty during tests.
Finally Williams missed the first two and a half days and never really caught up, ending up tenth overall and on corrected. The one good thing was that the car never caused a red flag.
So take what you will of that summary of testing. Thankfully, we shall all soon know the answers but you can be sure that teams will already be working to re-set the balance. As Kimi would say, ‘wait and see.’
Ends
