2019 Formula One World Championship
It is recognised by the governing body of international motorsport, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), as the highest class of competition for open-wheel racing cars.
Mercedes successfully defended the World Constructors' Championship, securing the title for the sixth consecutive year at the Japanese Grand Prix to tie Ferrari's record from 1999 to 2004.
[33] Sainz, who was on loan to Renault in 2018, did not have his deal with Red Bull renewed and subsequently moved to McLaren to replace two-time World Drivers' Champion Fernando Alonso,[34] who had earlier announced that he would retire from Formula One in 2019.
[38][39] Charles Leclerc left Alfa Romeo Racing after one year with the team, replacing 2007 World Champion Kimi Räikkönen at Ferrari.
[42][43] Marcus Ericsson moved to race in the IndyCar Series in 2019 with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports but remained with Alfa Romeo as a third driver and brand ambassador.
[51][52] In the build-up to the Belgian Grand Prix, Red Bull Racing announced that Pierre Gasly would be demoted to Toro Rosso and Alexander Albon would be promoted in his place so that his performance would be evaluated in view of the team's 2020 line-up.
[61][62] In a bid to improve overtaking, teams agreed to a series of aerodynamic changes that affect the profile of the front and rear wings.
[66] The agreed changes are to mandate smaller bargeboards and limit aerodynamic development of the rear wing endplates to create more space for sponsor logos.
[67] Drivers who weigh less than 80 kg (176 lb) are required to make up this weight with a ballast, located around the seat to minimise possible performance gains.
Charles Leclerc earned the first pole position of his career by setting a lap time 3 tenths of a second quicker than his teammate Sebastian Vettel.
Charles Leclerc, who started 8th, was 4th after losing two spots in the opening lap and was getting steady pace with leader Bottas on the fresh set of medium tyres he got as a result of his crash during qualifying.
After Bottas, Hamilton, and Sebastian Vettel pitted for tyres, Charles Leclerc took the lead and led the race for a long time.
[81] At the Spanish Grand Prix, Valtteri Bottas dominated the entire qualifying session, finishing in first place each time, thus giving him his third consecutive pole of the 2019 season.
The safety car was deployed on lap 44 after a collision between Racing Point's Lance Stroll and McLaren's Lando Norris, which ultimately did not change the positions of the top 6 runners.
[82] At the Monaco Grand Prix, teams and drivers honoured the memory of F1 legend and Mercedes non-executive chairman Niki Lauda, who had died the week before the race.
The stewards controversially gave Vettel a five-second time penalty for this incident as they deemed it an unsafe re-entry to the track and impeding Hamilton.
Vettel's teammate, Charles Leclerc finished in third place, and Mercedes's Valtteri Bottas received the fastest lap bonus point.
During free practice at the next race, the stewards announced that they would not review Ferrari's new evidence, thus the final standings stood with Hamilton in first and Vettel in second.
[86] At the British Grand Prix, the newly resurfaced track surface caused plenty of eventful moments throughout the weekend, with Romain Grosjean crashing his car on the pit exit and Kimi Räikkönen's Alfa Romeo stopping on the Wellington straight, the latter of which brought out a red flag.
[89] The two tracks immediately after the summer break were more suited to Ferrari's top speed advantage, with Leclerc winning both the Belgian and Italian Grands Prix from pole position.
Qualifying sessions for both races were unusual in that Leclerc won pole by a sizeable margin of more than 0.7 seconds on a dry track in Belgium, whereas almost the entire Q3 field missed crossing the line in time for their second timed lap at Monza, as no driver wanted to be at the front of the group as they would not have the advantage of a tow from the car in front – a significant benefit at Monza, the season's fastest track.
[90][91] Vettel ended a winless streak stretching over a year to win at the Singapore Grand Prix for Ferrari, the team's third consecutive victory.
[92] Leclerc took his fourth consecutive pole at the Russian Grand Prix, but at the start of the race, it was Vettel who led, contradicting a pre-race agreement that had been discussed.
The race changed dramatically on lap 53 when Valtteri Bottas retired with an engine problem, bringing out the safety car to bunch up the field.
Immediately after the end of the safety-car period, Ferrari teammates Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel collided on the back straight, causing both to retire.
Following the restart, Lewis Hamilton misjudged an overtaking manoeuvre on Alexander Albon, putting the latter into a spin and dropping him from a podium position to being out of the points.
Gasly and Hamilton were involved in a dramatic flat-out race to the finish line, with DRS being unavailable as this was only the second lap following the safety car ending.
Gasly held onto second place, with his ability to keep Hamilton's Mercedes at bay in a straight fight being a major show of strength for the Honda engine.
Bottas, who started from 20th and last due to multiple engine penalties, was able to recover to 4th place, despite a DRS issue affecting the entire grid for the first 17 laps of the race.
As Daniil Kvyat and Nico Hülkenberg ended the season with an identical number of points, a count-back system was used as a tie-breaker, with the driver's best result used to decide the standings.
