Formula One is a sport of ingenuity—how can you make racing bigger, better, and faster than everyone else? That’s why I’m shocked it’s taken us so long to figure out that putting a camera on the rear wing of the car makes for a damn cool view. But race fans around the world can rejoice: McLaren has got this one right.

This view is absurd. Helmet cams are cool, sidepod cams are cool, front wing cams are cool, but this is totally different. I love angles that let me pretend I’m a race car driver, but this is just pure car porn, plain and simple.

Ugh. Beautiful.

Is is just me, or does is the sound in this view so much nicer than in other angles? It’s a little muted, sure, but it just seems clearer than what we’re used to.

I doubt a rear wing cam is going to become part of a standard race day broadcast—damn those pesky aerodynamics!—but I’m hoping more teams will pick up on the trend for long test sessions and media runs.

The Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, has run into trouble over its state subsidy after its application for state funding was rejected because it did not include a human trafficking prevention plan.

That state funding is a potential $25.8 million lifeline for a track that hopes to keep Formula 1 coming to Austin.

What is clear is that this will not affect the 2019 race. The reimbursements are made many months after each race, so the fee paid to the Formula One Group is not dependent on COTA receiving the state funds, although the money is obviously an important component in the overall revenue of the circuit.

As recently as 2016, COTA boss Bobby Epstein told the Austin Statesman-American than even a $5.5 million hit in state funding would put the F1 race in jeopardy.

The odd thing is that even if COTA officials did make a mistake and not include the human trafficking prevention plan in the application, as the state demanded, the state of Texas still sent out a preliminary approval on Sept. 24 last year, five days after the application was made.

But how could that have happened if the human trafficking plan was not there?

One must assume that the bureaucrats also made a mistake when they issued a preliminary approval. State officials notified COTA officials about the reversal in the decision on Oct. 8, when Bryan Daniel, the executive director of Economic Development in the Office of the Governor, wrote to COTA's race organizing committee pointing out they had missed the deadline for the human trafficking paperwork, which should have been filed on Sept. 19 but was not sent in until Oct. 3.

"The submission for this event was thus not in compliance with the statutory condition for funding," Daniel wrote. "Therefore the 2018 Formula 1 United States Grand Prix is not eligible for funding under the MERP due to the failure to timely submit the required human trafficking prevention plan. For that reason, the September 24th application approval letter is hereby rescinded."

One can be forgiven for thinking that this mess -- on that involves both parties -- might better have been forgotten and not made public. On the other hand, one might argue that it did present the governor with the opportunity to save $25.8 million, which was the amount that the circuit requested for the 2018 race. The state, therefore, must believe that COTA could find the money to keep the race going for a year.

COTA co-owner Epstein says that Texas wants to continue with the current arrangements.

"The governor's office has no desire to see the race go away," he says. "They recognize it has value."

The numbers back this up. The Texas Major Event Reimbursement Program paid COTA $116.8 million between 2012 and 2016, the first five years of a contract that runs until 2021. During this time, it was calculated that the race generated tax revenues of $170 million, which means that the state profited from the race to the tune of $53.2 million in tax revenues over the five-year period --, in other words, it was worth $10.6 million a year.

According to information posted on COTA's website, the F1 race generates $423 million in direct visitor spending in the Austin area from COTA events, $306 million in annual payroll to Austin-area workers that is attributed to COTA annual activities and operations and 46,100 jobs that were supported by COTA's activities.

The state awarded COTA $27 million in state funding following the 2017 race, and for the 2018 race, COTA applied for $25.8 million.

But if everyone wants the arrangement to go ahead, and both sides made errors, why is there is a problem?

“In this case, the law is clear that if a human trafficking prevention plan is not submitted 30 days prior to an event, a reimbursement from the Major Events Fund cannot be issued," said the governor's spokesman John Wittman. Although he admitted that the state and COTA have "a productive partnership that has had a tremendous economic impact on the city of Austin and the state as a whole". He added that the state is "already working with COTA for next year's race."

But that still leaves COTA with a $25.8 million hole in its budget.

It is believed that an appeal process is ongoing, which may reverse the decision.

The circuit admits that the prevention plan was not submitted by the deadline but says that it continued with the anti-human-trafficking efforts that it had outlined before its 2018 MotoGP race at COTA in April and argues that the tracks' human trafficking policies stayed in place throughout the entire 2018 race season.

The packaging of Honda’s Formula 1 engine was a “little bit too aggressive” in pre-season testing and the manufacturer is planning fixes in time for the Australian Grand Prix.

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner lauded the installation of Honda’s engine as “a thing of beauty” at the start of pre-season testing at Barcelona, while Honda said it had not come at the cost of reliability.

Neither Honda teams suffered major concerns in Spain but its F1 technical director Toyoharu Tanabe has admitted he was made “nervous sometimes” as new partner Red Bull and Toro Rosso got to grips with the 2019 product.

Tanabe told Motorsport.com he was “not confident enough” with the progress that had been made, despite the manufacturer’s best pre-season performance since returning to the F1 grid in 2015.

“We don’t have a serious problem with the current installation, but we found some issues because of the tight packaging,” said Tanabe.

“The shape was a little bit too aggressive, so we need to make it a little bit different.

“It’s not a big concern.”

Honda applied some fixes at the track but will also amend the design at the factory to introduce a “permanent countermeasure” in time for the season-opening Australian GP on March 17.

“So far, it’s not serious,” Tanabe said. “It means we can be ready for the first race, with the items we have issues here.”

Red Bull’s switch to Honda engines is one of the major talking points heading into the new season, and the partnership’s initial target was to not slip back from Red Bull’s position with its previous supplier Renault.

Honda is keen to avoid early expectations and when asked if he was happy with the performance improvements, Tanabe joked: “Never happy, actually!

“Of course we have a target. And a target through the year as well.

“We are not so confident with the current achievement. Still there are a lot of areas we need to work on to catch up to the top competitors.”

Though Red Bull won four races last season with Renault, it had started the year several tenths behind Mercedes and Ferrari.

The early indications from pre-season testing are that Honda’s winter gains, which include eating into its qualifying-mode deficit, will mean Red Bull begins 2019 in a similar position.

Tanabe said: “We reviewed not 100% but [almost] every single part, and then applied slight modifications for the weight, or reliability.

“On the internal combustion engine side, [we targeted] more efficiency in the combustion era.

“We will try to gradually improve it.”

The organizers of the Mexican Grand Prix have missed a deadline to retain their position on the 2020 Formula 1 calendar, but negotiations are ongoing regarding a contract extension.

This year’s race is the final edition of the current contract for a race that only returned to the F1 calendar in 2015. A statement from the race organizers confirmed that a cut in government funding has resulted in a missed deadline to agree a new deal in order to retain the race’s position on the schedule, but say they are continuing to explore further options with both F1 and local authorities to keep the race.

Mexico is one of five events that do not have contracts beyond this season – Great Britain, Italy, Spain and Germany are the others – but F1 CEO and chairman Chase Carey insists he is unconcerned by the number of deals that currently need negotiating.

“We have contracts where 2019 is the last year and we have to either create a new agreement or go our separate ways,” Carey said during Liberty Media’s latest earnings call. “There’s nothing really unique to this that wasn’t true last year.

“We had a number of renewals last year, just as we had a number of renewals the year before. There are different issues to each one. That’s the process we’re engaged in now, with renewals for 2020. We’ll always have three or four negotiations we’ll have to go through (every year).”

Carey is confident there is the scope for new races to join the calendar as direct replacements for any that drop off, and says they are not limited to options in new markets.

“As we’ve gotten a few years under our belt, I think we feel pretty good about the trajectory of the ability to continue to have a healthy business,” he said. “We think there’s room to add a bit to the race calendar. We have places all around the world that would like to add races, including not just new markets, but some traditional markets like western Europe.”

One such race in western Europe is the Dutch Grand Prix, with the Netherland Sports Council (NLsportraad) today confirming Zandvoort as the only viable location for a future race as it seeks both public and private financial support. FFormula One Management (FOM) has set a hard deadline of March 31 to complete a business case.

Ferrari has dropped 'Mission Winnow' from its official name for 2019.

The move, not announced publicly but clear from the latest version of the FIA entry list, follows speculation Ferrari is in the spotlight for reportedly clandestine cigarette advertising.

'Mission Winnow' is the new message from Ferrari's main sponsor Philip Morris.

"We know that many have doubts about us and our motivations," Andre Calantzopoulos, Philip Morris CEO, told La Repubblica newspaper.

"But with Mission Winnow, we want the world to know the change we have done and our dedication to rigorous science and innovation that leads us to a better future."

Lewis Hamilton says he doesn't have "a lot of good things" to say about Pirelli's 2019 tyres, judging the compounds as too hard and the selection itself as confusing.

In a bid to prevent blistering and overheating, Pirelli has manufactured all its tyres according to the thinner-gauge tread specification that was used last year at selected races.

But Hamilton's first impression was that the rubber was a bit too hard, a point he sarcastically illustrated by posting a video on social media of his dog Roscoe struggling to bite into a Pirelli tyre!

"That is why I said he concurs with me, they are a little bit hard," contended the reigning world champion.

"What do you want to know, if the tyres are any good? I don’t really have a lot of good things to say on that, so best I probably don’t say anything.

"As we get into the year, it is going to be a challenge. They are more challenging this year than they were last.

"And we have all these different names of tyres – C5, C4, C3, C2 and C1. Which is for me personally even more confusing than all the colours that we had."

Indeed, F1's exclusive tyre supplier has changed its identification system replacing compound names with hard to soft codes ranging from C1 to C5.

"We will get used to it, and it will be the norm," he added.

"Valtteri [Bottas] seems to be enjoying driving the tyres out there and I will get a bit of a better feel for what the tyres are like.

"I’ve been driving on more fuel so it is never a good feeling generally in any year when you have more fuel on board.

"But we are all in the same boat and I will try to understand them the best I can."

Sixty four hours. That’s how long F1 teams had for testing their 2019 cars at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya before the start of the season. So who made best use of that time and who was left wanting more? With the help of data, we rank the teams from 10 to 1 ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix…

10. Whatever way you look at the stats, they make grim reading for Williams. They missed the first two-and-a-half days of running, which in turn meant they were still doing aerodynamic tests deep into the second week while everyone else was working on performance.

They managed 567 laps, which is just less than half of Mercedes' grid-leading tally, and were the only team not to get into the 1m 17s bracket, leaving them cut adrift at the back of the pack. They also lack long-run data, while the returning Robert Kubica has admitted he is lacking confidence heading to Melbourne.

Williams can at least take comfort from the fact the baseline car appears better than last year’s model – but you could argue that wasn’t difficult, so disappointing was the FW41. It’s going to be a busy few weeks for Williams ahead of what could be a very long season for the iconic British team.

End of season prediction: 10th

9. Force India traditionally focused on reliability during pre-season, before bringing an upgrade to the first race of the season – and it seems they are sticking to that mantra under their new guise Racing Point.

The car was basic and as a result didn’t trouble the top times – their best effort courtesy of Lance Stroll was 1.335s off the pace when comparing times on the softest Pirelli compound tyre – the C5.

Their long run pace was more encouraging: On one metric they showed as the fourth strongest team, but given the car is set to get a big facelift for Melbourne, with plenty of new parts, the Silverstone-based team has the potential to make a big step forward in the pecking order pretty quickly.

End of season prediction: 8th

8. Smooth. That would be a good way to describe McLaren’s pre-season, which will no doubt have been a massive relief to the team. They even graced the top of the timesheets in the first two days of the second test.

But when looking at tyre-corrected times, which of course come with the caveat that we don't know the fuel loads, they are around sixth overall on ultimate pace and that is nothing to be sniffed at. Their long run pace, however, was not so strong, and they drop to around eighth, ahead of Toro Rosso and Williams.

Their mileage was good with 873 laps putting them sixth in the charts and let’s not forget McLaren are in the midst of rebuilding. So a smooth winter like this was just what the doctor ordered and gives them a foundation on which they can build.

End of season prediction: 7th

7. At the end of the first week, Alfa Romeo looked comfortably best-of-the-rest behind the big three teams, but their form tailed off in week two as reliability niggles and a failure to extract performance crept in.

They dropped from third to fifth in the mileage charts, though 922 laps is nothing to be sniffed at. What is of more concern is their one-lap pace. They were eighth in the pure performance rankings, with Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi failing to get into the 1m16s.

Their long-run pace was more encouraging, with the various metrics our data team have produced putting them between fifth and sixth in the pecking order. Add in a closer relationship with Ferrari and more influence from Alfa Romeo and you’d expect them to get stronger as the season goes on.

End of season prediction: 6th

6. A car that shares the traits of a Red Bull, with several parts from last year’s RB14 no less, is going to be pretty handy and so it proved during pre-season testing with Toro Rosso showing encouraging pace.

In terms of ultimate pace, Toro Rosso were fourth in the pecking order with Alexander Albon and Daniil Kvyat evenly matched at around 0.6s off the pace. Their long run pace was less impressive, however, as they sit around second-to-last in the pecking order.

That said, one of their biggest priorities was getting plenty of mileage, especially given Albon’s first time in an F1 car was at the team’s shakedown just days before pre-season testing, while Kvyat has been out of F1 for more than a year. On that score, they nailed it, completing 935 mostly untroubled laps.

End of season prediction: 9th

5. The timesheets didn’t look too pretty for Haas come the end of testing, but the American outfit will not be too bothered about that, because showing their outright pace was not top of their agenda. Instead, the focus was getting mileage and honing their long run pace – and it is here that they excelled.

On one of the metrics our data team generated, which should be caveated as it is unknown what fuel loads everyone is running, Haas are quickest of all on long run pace. Another puts them third in the pecking order, which is still mighty impressive. Perhaps we shouldn’t be too surprised given they use a lot of parts from Ferrari, who are currently the pace-setters.

There were reliability niggles though, with Haas bringing out the red flag on several occasions during testing. So there is work to do if Haas are going to fulfil the potential of a car that looks intriguingly quick.

End of season prediction: 5th

4. This was not a terrible pre-season for Red Bull by any means, but it was not something worth writing home about either. The first six days went swimmingly, as their new marriage with Honda got off to a sensational start. But Pierre Gasly’s crash on the penultimate day – his second of the test - threw them onto the back foot.

They had been bringing new parts every day, and spares were limited, so the significant amount of damage Gasly caused was problematic – and even meant Max Verstappen was limited to just 29 laps on the final day. They were eighth overall in the mileage charts, ahead of only Racing Point and Williams. In terms of pure pace, Red Bull were seventh in the pecking order, eight tenths off the pace. But their programme was disrupted and they were unable to do a lap on low fuel the C5 – the softest Pirelli tyre.

But on a positive note, our data shows Red Bull’s long run pace looks very competitive compared to Mercedes and Ferrari and in some metrics, they are the ones to beat. Both drivers echoed that sentiment and if driver body language is anything to go by, they are pretty excited about their chances heading into the season.

End of season prediction: 3rd

3. You may be surprised by Renault’s positioning in our ranking, but there is evidence to support our thinking. While testing chat was centred around Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull, Renault flew under the radar, quietly getting on with their programme – largely troublefree - and ticking all their boxes.

The result was the third-highest mileage of any team – only Mercedes and Ferrari did better – and the third quickest low-fuel time of the two weeks, having led the way after week one, around 0.6s off the pace. It goes someway to backing up their claims that they have made gains over the winter, particularly with the engine.

Now, the chances are, Red Bull will move ahead into third-place as the season wears on, but encouragingly for Renault – and indeed Formula 1 – it looks like the boys and girls in yellow and black have cut the gap to the big three. A podium or two, perhaps, is no longer such an unlikely scenario – particularly given they have such a strong driver line-up in the form of Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg.

End of season prediction: 4th

2. It says a lot about Mercedes’ dominance in recent years that looking like only the second-best team after pre-season testing is seen as something of a disappointment.

While the data suggests they are trailing Ferrari, rarely do the Silver Arrows tend to show their true colours until the season gets going proper. They brought an upgrade package to the second week – something that was planned, rather than as a reaction to their slow start in week one – and made gains across the board.

Mercedes also ended up with the most mileage – 1,190 laps in total – and the W10 looked particularly handy in the slower, tighter final sector at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. It’s why there’s no need for the world champions to panic – and they have form of being able to deliver when the chips are down.

End of season prediction: 2nd

1. On pure pace, Ferrari’s SF90 emerged as the fastest car in pre-season testing. It was quick straight out of the blocks and enjoyed an upward curve in performance throughout the eight days to end pre-season on top of the pile.

When it comes to low-fuel pace, the advantage was just 0.003s over Mercedes, but that gap increased when looking at long-run performance. According to our data, Ferrari were around 0.4s clear if they started the simulation with a minimal fuel load, with that gap increasing if they had more fuel onboard.

It wasn’t all plain-sailing for Ferrari, though. They encountered a wheel rim failure, a cooling problem, an electrical fault and an exhaust issue, which collectively limited their running and mean they finished second in the mileage charts, 193 behind Mercedes. The SF90 is clearly quick. Could reliability be their weak point in 2019?

End of season prediction: 1st

Team preference? What team preference? New Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto says newcomer Charles Leclerc will be “free to fight” his four-time world champion team mate Sebastian Vettel this season…

At the launch of the SF90, Binotto suggested “if there are particular situations our priority will be Sebastian” however he has moved to clarify the Prancing Horse’s stance.

“Obviously the two will be free to will be free to fight,” said Binotto. “We will not ask Charles to be slow, or Sebastian to be fast. I need both of them to run to the maximum, try to do their best.

“But certainly, if there is any ambiguous situation at the start of the season, Sebastian is the one who's got today more experience, many years he's with us, he's already won championships, so he's our champion.”

Newcomer Leclerc was impressive throughout testing, his headline time just 0.01s adrift of Vettel’s pace-setting time, and he dealt maturely when reliability issues – that limited him to 463 laps versus Vettel’s 534 – struck.

“Charles is a good driver,” said Binotto. “He is certainly a very fast driver. In Barcelona he focused on himself, understanding the car, working with a new team, new engineers.

“They’ve [Leclerc and Vettel] done very similar lap times. I think that proves that Charles is certainly a fast driver. I think we knew it since the past.

“It’s now many years he’s with Ferrari, he spent last year with Sauber, so nothing with Charles is a surprise in that respect so it’s not the testing in Barcelona that is telling us that was the right choice. It was certainly the right choice but the season will tell us a bit more.”

Leclerc will become the youngest driver to make his Ferrari debut since 1961 when the season gets under way in Australia at Melbourne’s Albert Park on March 17.

Williams chief technical officer Paddy Lowe is taking “a leave of absence” from the Formula 1 team, Motorsport.com has learned.

Lowe's future at Williams was under scrutiny following the production delays that meant it missed the first two-and-a-half days of pre-season testing at Barcelona, and the performance of the new car when it did emerge.

He said in Spain that he had not considered his position once those problems had become known, and claimed that pinning the blame on one individual or making hasty personnel changes would be unwise. However, one week before the F1 season will begin in Australia, it has emerged that Lowe has stepped away from his role.

A team spokesperson confirmed to Motorsport.com that Lowe “is taking a leave of absence from the business for personal reasons”.

Formula 1 teams will need to carry "a lot more" spare front wings in 2019 as a result of the regulation changes introduced this year, according to Racing Point technical director Andrew Green.

The front wing is one of the car design areas that has been revised for 2019, in an attempt to allow cars to follow each other more easily, thus boosting the chances of overtaking.

Apart from having fewer elements, this year's front wings are wider, having gone from 1800mm to 2000mm in width.

The increased size means the wings are now more exposed and therefore could be damaged more easily than in the past.

That will translate into teams having to take several more spares to grand prix weekends, according to Green.

"Normally we would look at bringing five wings to a race," he said. "I think we are going to be up to seven to nine.

"We'll see how it goes, obviously if we start going through them quite quick we might have to have more than that."

"Budget-wise it's probably the same because they are definitely easier and cheaper to manufacture.

"So we're going to end up carrying a lot more wings in spares, a lot more."

Green reckons drivers will need to be more cautious at the start of this year's races in order to avoid losing parts of the wing when running close to other cars.

"They are a lot wider, a lot more susceptible to damage," Green said. "We are already taking the bottoms off over kerbs and we're not really pushing them very hard.

"The drivers are going to have to be pretty wary of them going into Turn 1 on the first lap."

Stefano Domenicali, CEO of Volkswagen brand Lamborghini, says that VW has no plans to enter Formula 1 anytime soon.

Volkswagen is instead well represented in Formula E, with Audi already there and Porsche set to follow. Domenicali, the former Ferrari boss, told Italian media outlet La Gazzetta dello Sport that the "dieselgate" scandal of 2015 and subsequent financial and public relations hits hurt VW's F1 hopes.

"After everything that happened, the Volkswagen Group decided to invest in Formula E, also as a means of communication in terms of forward-looking technology," Domenicali said. "Of course, I would like to be back in Formula 1 someday, but the times are not right for that."

As for his old F1 employer, Domenicali believes that Ferrari appears to be on the verge of a great season.

"But I don't want to say more," he said.

He also didn't want to say much about Ferrari's new team boss, Mattia Binotto.

"It would be wrong to comment on a company that has a firm place in my heart," said Domenicali. "I can only wish Mattia all the best. He is a good friend and has rightly earned a great reputation in recent years."

The FIA World Motor Sport Council has approved plans for an extra Formula 1 world championship point to be awarded for fastest lap, starting from the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

The initiative now has to be passed by an e-vote of the Formula 1 Commission in order to be added to the sporting regulations before the first race.

It had already gone through the Sporting Working Group and the Strategy Group, and would usually go to the Commission before the WMSC - but on this occasion the e-vote was not completed beforehand, so the usual approval procedure was reversed.

A point was previously awarded for fastest lap during the first 10 years of the world championship in 1950-59.

It was crucial to the outcome of the drivers' championship in 1958, when Mike Hawthorn pipped Stirling Moss to the title by a single point, having set two fastest laps more than his countryman.

The rules will follow a similar format to the one employed in Formula E, with the bonus point only being awarded if the driver concerned finishes in the top 10.

Had an extra point been awarded in 2008, Felipe Massa would have beaten Lewis Hamilton to the world championship - although this comes with the caveat that at the time no drivers were competing on the basis that fastest lap was relevant.

That is the only instance since 2000 where fastest-lap points would have altered the drivers' champion.