At the start of every new season, the entire Formula One fan community starts buzzing in anticipation and rightfully so. After a long and at times, grueling winter break, the lack of Formula One races leaves an enormous hole behind for the fans that no other racing series can fill and when the sport starts making a return, the excitement levels hit the roof. We often sit together in groups with other fans and discuss the sport we love and with some confidence, the fans love to predict what will possibly happen in the next few months.
Thankfully though, the nature of the sport is such that quite often, the predictions go off for a toss. Although we could have predicted a few things like Hamilton winning the championship or Leclerc impressing at Ferrari, the unpredictable manner in which these things take place never fails to excite even the oldest of Formula One fans and that is what makes the sport so beautiful.
Approaching the final race of a roller-coaster season, its time for us to look back at a truly memorable year and pick out the moments that showed us the beauty of Formula One and the others that reminded us of the other, dark side of the sport.
This new crop of youngsters have impressed in 2019, showing great maturity and driving abilities through their performances
The Good – Young but certainly not immature
Every other year, we see a new crop of promising young drivers making their way into Formula One and a lot of expectations and hopes are pinned upon their young shoulders. Some unfortunately fail to deliver but this season, the new batch of young drivers has truly left their mark on the sport. Verstappen and Leclerc have been sublime for their age, Albon and Norris have been delivered when it matters and finally, poor old George Russell has been putting in tremendous efforts but alas, isn’t being highlighted. Some of the performances from these young drivers have truly left many in awe and their maturity on the racetrack along with their hunger to race is commendable. No wonder their respective teams just didn’t want to let go of them!
The Bad – Formula One or Formula Yawn?
Regardless of how much Sebastian Vettel would disagree with this, the current breed of the 2019 Formula One cars aren’t the perfect tools for hard and continuous racing. Chasing other cars can be just as hard for drivers as it has been for Williams to score points this season and naturally, there are bound to be some dull races where the action takes place on the pit wall rather than on the racetrack. The dubious French GP was a prime example and the intense criticism of the current cars called for the FIA and Ross Brawn’s team to work even harder on developing cars that can race hard. That said, if a few boring races is the cost for fans to pay for a new generation of striking and more raceable cars, then it is a pain worth bearing!
Some races have kept us on the edge of our chair this season; one of them included the Brazilian GP where this photo finish between Lewis Hamilton and Pierre Gasly became an instant classic
The Great – The sheer drama
While races like the 2019 French GP or the Australian GP from this season do exist, Formula One is never short of drama and thankfully, the pain of the dry races was compensated by some very compelling ones! Races like the British GP, the Austrian GP, the German GP and most recent of all, the Brazilian GP have kept all of us glued to the TV screens and have left us on the edge of our chairs, wondering about how much more drama a race can have!
The fact that a team like Toro Rosso could make it onto the podium places twice this season really does give testament to some of the more memorable races of this season. Races like these have left many wondering about a change to the cars but in my opinion, if the new cars can produce twelve such races instead of five or six, why not give it a shot! Regardless, the captivating nature of Formula One was evident in a few special races of the 2019 Formula One season and hopefully, we will have more of this come next March.
The Ugly – Crossing the line and breaking the rules
It can be a very sad moment to see the competitors of such a prestigious championship attempting to cheat their way to success and the case of Renault this season with their automatic brake bias adjustment system was indeed a moment of disappointment. Being a midfield team, Renault escaped relatively unscathed from the media but had the same offence been committed by any of the Big Three, the aftermath would have been far worse. Although on one hand it feels great to see just how much the teams are willing to do to be successful, we must remember that sports must be contested within the rules.
What makes the scenario worse was the fact that the illegal system existed in Renault’s cars in many previous seasons. With the kind of sharp minds in their think-tank, I still fail to comprehend how something like this could go on for such a long time. Nevertheless, it did serve as a timely reminder to teams to stay behind the line and that can be one of the very few positives from a rather dark moment.
The 2019 Formula One season has been a bit of a mixed bag with its fair share of moments that left behind a sour taste but also many moments that remind us why we keep the sport so close to our hearts. Whichever way you look at this season, you have got to admit that 2019 has been a memorable year and the new season just can’t begin soon enough! Bring on 2020!
Image Credits: Mercedes AMG Formula One Team / Red Bull Content Pool / Renault F1 Team
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