Part of the first test for the 2019 F1 season will be broadcast live.

Sky UK has announced it will broadcast five hours of live coverage for each of the first four days of testing at the Circuit de Catalunya from February 18th to 21st. The live coverage will air between 1pm and 6pm each day.

The channel has exclusive live broadcast rights for every round of the 2019 F1 season, apart from the British Grand Prix, which will also be shown on the free-to-air Channel 4.

Further details of testing coverage by broadcasters in other countries is yet to be confirmed. However as Formula 1’s direct streaming service F1 TV uses Sky’s commentary team for its English coverage, the feed could be made available to its subscribers as well.

The opening test will be the first of two four-day tests for the team ahead of the season-opening race in Australia on March 25th. So far four teams have announced details of their planned launches ahead of the test.

Excluding the costs associated with personnel, building the race cars, transportation all over the globe, hospitality, and whatever else Formula One teams spend ridiculous money on, there are the costs to just enter the championship in the first place. Since 2013, teams have paid an entry fee for the year based on how many points it scored the prior season. That price per point is calculated based on the U.S. Consumer Price Index.

According to motorsport.com, every single team, regardless of points earned, is required to pay a base amount of $546,133. Above and beyond that, the prior year’s constructors’ champion must pay $6553 per point earned, while all other teams pay just $5459 per point earned. I’ve never owned a car worth more than three FIA world championship points.

Here are the points totals and corresponding entry fee each team must pay to enter in 2019.

Mercedes: 655 points - $4,838,348

Ferrari: 571 points - $3,663,222

Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer: 419 points - $2,833,454

Renault: 122 points - $1,212,131

Haas-Ferrari: 93 points - $1,053,820

McLaren-Renault: 62 points - $884,591

Racing Point Force India-Mercedes: 52 points - $830,001

Sauber-Ferrari: 48 points - $808,165

Scuderia Toro Rosso- Honda: 33 points - $726,280

Williams-Mercedes: 7 points - $584,346

Interestingly, because Force India re-branded ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix, and only scored 52 points following that re-brand (which came with a re-entry to the championship and a forfeiture of all points earned up to that point, which determines each team’s share of the year end television revenue) they are only forced to pay the entry fee this year based on those 52 points, and not the additional 59 points the prior version of the team earned.

Damn, racing is expensive, y’all.

Hulkenberg would win "straight away" at top F1 team - Sainz

Pirelli plans to give the new 18-inch tyres it will introduce for the 2021 Formula 1 season their first track test later this year.

Last year Pirelli was awarded a new tender to continue as the sport’s official tyre supplier from 2020 to 2023. Part of the deal stipulated F1 will drop the current 13-inch wheel format at the end of next season.

A Pirelli spokesperson told RaceFans that, contrary to reports, it has not already decided to begin track testing of its 18-inch tyres in June. It expects to begin on-track development in the second half of 2019.

However it first needs to obtain a suitable car to run the tyres on. This is made complicated by the fact that the new wheel format is the only aspect of the 2021 technical regulations which is known at present. The move to larger rims and thinner sidewalls will force teams to overhaul their suspension designs.

Pirelli will conduct initial development of its new rubber for 2021 at its research and development facility in Milan, which has been home to its F1 tyre project since returning to the sport in 2011.

The manufacturer previously demonstrated a set of 18-inch tyres using a Lotus chassis during the 2014 season.

When ESPN said it would show the rest of the 2018 Formula One season without commercials after its catastrophe of an opening broadcast in the U.S. last year, it seemed too good to be true. Surely, it was just a way to apologize, and wouldn’t carry over into 2019. Surely, we were getting spoiled to a temporary thing.


Well, we were all wrong. Once again, ESPN will broadcast this F1 season in the U.S. without commercials. Sports Business Daily reported the news earlier this week, and a spokesperson for ESPN confirmed it to Jalopnik on Friday.

This is when we all do a goofy celebratory handshake that someone will manage to screw up two moves in, because, for yet another year, we won’t have to miss a second of dominant race leaders or team orders the whole season.

The almost necessary move to commercial-free coverage in 2018 came one race into ESPN’s new reign as America’s F1 broadcaster. The network picked up the F1 contract before the 2018 season and the series moved there from NBC, which, at the time, had the rights since 2013. Rather than doing its own broadcast like NBC did, ESPN decided to pay for the rights to air Sky Sports’ coverage.

It sounded easy enough, until it wasn’t.

See, Sky Sports gives its European viewers commercial-free F1 broadcasts. Given that this is America and everything is an ad, ESPN wasn’t going that route.

That led to a disaster of a season-opener broadcast of the Australian Grand Prix in the U.S., because ESPN tried to force commercial breaks into a broadcast that didn’t break for commercials. ESPN cut out during key moments in the race, and even breaks during less eventful times were unnatural, because the U.S. version of the broadcast was going to commercial while Sky Sports’ commentators were in full swing.

ESPN apologized for it all, and later announced that the rest of the season would go commercial free. It was a good way to try to keep viewers around, especially with the F1 streaming service launching soon.

Usually, though, things like this are short lived—a band-aid to make everyone happy until they’ve forgotten about how mad they were. It was only natural to assume that someone at ESPN would figure out how to make commercial breaks seem more natural during Sky Sports’ commercial-free coverage, and that the ads would resume after the 2018 season ended.

But ESPN didn’t do that. We’re going another year without any commercials during F1 in the U.S., and that’s cool.

Now, if only the stewards would call a few more safety cars during the races. Some of us have to go to the bathroom from time to time.

Robert Kubica believes the most difficult part of his sensational comeback will be to remain in F1 beyond the 2019 season.

Thanks to his determination and grit, the 34-year-old Pole has won his first big battle: returning to the grid, eight years after a rally crash left him supposedly lost for the sport.

After extensive testing and fulfilling his development role with Williams in 2018, Kubica has been given a second chance to revive his career as a Grand Prix driver.

But remaining in F1 beyond this season could prove more difficult than coming back, according to the winner of the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix.

"The eight-year break certainly does not help me but I have experience and I am aware that I used to drive at a high level," Kubica said, speaking this week at an event in Warsaw organized by Williams sponsor PKN Orlen, which is backing the Pole's comeback.

"I set realistic goals for myself in the coming months and I am sure I will be able to reach them.

"If I didn’t feel prepared, I wouldn’t work on my F1 comeback. [My goal is] not only to enter F1 [again], but to remain there.

"This is the most difficult task. There were many excellent drivers who left F1 after just one season."

Kubica's massive challenge of racing at the pinnacle of motorsport with a physical limitation - the partial mobility of his right arm - could be made even more difficult if Williams fails to improve after its dismal 2018 season.

"The situation of Williams is not easy," Kubica admitted.

"You need to approach it realistically. I hope that the team drew conclusions and this year’s car will be a lot better.

"It is important to have a good start with good car because it is very difficult to catch up during the season."

Regardless, in his typical combative style, Kubica will pull out all the stops to help his team, and himself.

"I will do my best to give the best possible feedback. I hope that the team returns to where it belongs.

"I want to do my job in the best possible way. I want to show that after eight years away from the sport I can be fast. But you need a fast car, it makes the task easier.

"There are always some unpredictable races due to conditions etc… and in these cases you can show something more. But you need a car which is nice to drive.

"My goal is to do a good job and to stay in F1 for longer. And my dream is to be happy with my work."

Hartley was axed by Red Bull after just one full season in F1, a move he recently claimed was the result of a plan that began during the Monaco Grand Prix weekend early in the year.

The Le Mans 24 Hours winner and World Endurance champion had not communicated any 2019 plans so far but has now been confirmed as part of Ferrari's development team.

Ferrari needed to replace two key simulator drivers from 2018, after Antonio Giovinazzi and Daniil Kvyat landed full-time race seats at Sauber and Toro Rosso respectively.

Hartley will be part of a four-driver simulator line-up at Ferrari, three of whom will be new to the programme.

Pascal Wehrlein has been confirmed, after Motorsport.com revealed was set to join Ferrari this season alongside his Mahindra Formula E campaign, as has Formula 2 race winner Antonio Fuoco.

They join experienced development driver Davide Rigon.

New Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto said: "Our team has taken on four undoubtedly talented drivers, who possess innate feeling, with a strong understanding of race cars and tracks.

"These are exactly the qualities required in the skilful role of driving in a simulator, one of the vital pieces of equipment in the Formula 1 of today".

Racing Point has been confirmed by the FIA as the new identity of the team previously known as Force India.

RaceFans has learned from a source that the F1 Commission formally approved name changes last Thursday for two of the 10 teams on the grid for the 2019 season.

The first was Force India’s rebranding as Racing Point, which was indicated when the FIA published its 2019 entry list in December. Team principal Otmar Szafnauer previously indicated new name was a placeholder and that a final choice of identity would be revealed ahead of the new season.

A Racing Point spokesperson declined to comment when approached by RaceFans.

However RaceFans understands the team’s efforts to acquire an alternative name were not successful. These included approaches to individuals holding the rights to heritage F1 team names, one of which was Lola.

The Lola team competed in F1 sporadically from the sixties to the nineties. Its last entry into the championship ended ignominiously: the team collapsed after it failed to qualify for the season-opening round of 1997.

The F1 Commission approved Force India’s change of team and chassis name to Racing Point by a majority of 22 votes in favour versus two against following a four-day e-vote process.

The other name change, which was approved unanimously, will see the Sauber name disappear from the F1 entry list completely for the first time since 1992, before it entered the sport. The team has rebranded as Alfa Romeo, as it announced on Friday.