F1 Features

- The fallout from last Sunday’s tedious French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard continued throughout Thursday’s media briefings in Austria, with a spotlight being placed on F1’s future and where the sport is anticipated to go from 2021 onwards.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, Ferrari is in desperate need of sparking its 2019 Formula 1 season into life.

Formula 1 heads to Spielberg for this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix, which rounds off the first back-to-back events of the 2019 season.

While even the most hardened Formula 1 fans were resisting the urge to doze off over the closing stages of the French Grand Prix, the race unexpectedly sparked up with a last-lap scrap over the final points places which inadvertently plunged the sport into a fresh controversy.

In what was far from a classic French Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton once again underlined his current superiority in Formula 1. 

In the aftermath of Lewis Hamilton’s dominant victory in Sunday’s French Grand Prix that extended his championship lead and saw him edge ever-closer to Michael Schumacher’s all-time wins record, you would have forgiven the Mercedes driver for a little self-indulgence.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes – 10

-    Lewis Hamilton swept to the 79th victory of his Formula 1 career in dominant fashion on Sunday, leading every single lap of the French Grand Prix.

Mercedes’ domination of qualifying at Paul Ricard on Saturday proved to be just a taste of things to come in the race as it crushed its Formula 1 rivals once again in the French Grand Prix.

A lot has changed for Eric Boullier in the last 12 months, with his return to Paul Ricard this weekend seeing him operate in a drastically different capacity over his home grand prix weekend.  

- Lewis Hamilton took the 86th pole of his Formula 1 career in dominant fashion on Saturday at Paul Ricard, heading up a front row lock-out for Mercedes.

Even amid all the post-race furore over the time penalty, Sebastian Vettel’s dominant display over the Canadian Grand Prix weekend stoked some hope that Ferrari could begin a fightback against Mercedes this year, stopping the silver streak of success to start the season in its tracks.

- The FIA-appointed stewards held a hearing for Ferrari’s request to review the penalty given to Sebastian Vettel at the Canadian Grand Prix that cost him the race win.

- One of the big talking points at Paul Ricard on Thursday was, predictably, Sebastian Vettel’s time penalty in Canada, with drivers agreeing that it was a harsh but – going by the rulebook – fair decision by the stewards.

Almost two weeks on from the chequered flag falling in Canada and Sebastian Vettel losing victory due to a controversial stewards’ ruling, the dust is showing few signs of settling in the debate.

Formula 1 returns to Europe for the first of two races in a row - and the start of a busy stretch before the summer break - at the French Grand Prix. 

A combination of factors saw Mercedes face its "biggest struggle" of the 2019 Formula 1 season at the Canadian Grand Prix, yet it was still able to prevail.

The seventh round of the 2019 Formula 1 season, the Canadian Grand Prix, will unfortunately be remembered for all the wrong reasons.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes – 8

The fall-out from Sunday’s controversial Canadian Grand Prix and the penalty handed down to Sebastian Vettel has shown few signs of slowing down overnight, with the majority of the Formula 1 world decrying the stewards’ ruling in Montreal.

- It would have been a dream narrative for Lewis Hamilton to win in Canada after coming back from an unusual mistake in FP2 that meant he went to the race without a proper simulation under his belt, and later would suffer an hydraulic leak that forced Mercedes to do some extensive work to ge

Well that escalated quickly… After six fairly forgettable races to start the season that offered just two race winners, Formula 1 finally burst into life for 2019 on Sunday in Canada on a dramatic afternoon – chiefly because of what happened off-track as opposed to on it.

It’s the hope that kills you. That’s what Ferrari fans – and, frankly, neutrals eager to see an end to Mercedes’ recent domination of Formula 1 – would have been thinking heading into qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix on Saturday.

- The joy of Sebastian Vettel’s race engineer Riccardo Adami when he told the German he was on pole for the Canadian GP showed it all: Ferrari desperately needed to get it right and take the chance that Circuit Gilles Villeneuve gave them to be ahead of Mercedes.