Pirelli has completed its final two days of 18-inch Formula 1 tyre testing this year, with Mercedes and George Russell completing the 2019 programme in Abu Dhabi.

Williams race driver Russell, returning to the wheel for Mercedes after driving its 2019 car in the official post-season test last week, completed more than 200 laps over Sunday and Monday at the Yas Marina circuit.

Sunny weather allowed Russell to complete 100 and 118 laps on the two respective days as Pirelli's 2021 development testing came to an end for the year.

Pirelli tasked Renault, McLaren and Mercedes with its initial 18-inch wheel testing using mule cars

Renault's Sergey Sirotkin completed 213 laps at French Grand Prix venue Paul Ricard during Pirelli's first test in September.

McLaren's Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris were the race drivers to test Pirelli's 18-inch tyres, when they tested at Paul Ricard last month, completing more than 100 laps between them.

The programme will increase to 25 test days in 2020, and comprise all 10 teams, before the definitive 2021 tyres are used in a three-day group test following the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

George Russell had the measure of Robert Kubica at Williams in his rookie F1 year, but the young Brit admits he was often outdone by the Pole in one specific area.

Russell and Kubica entered 2019 with very different ambitions. The former was focused on learning his trade in his freshman year while the latter was out to prove to himself and to his detractors that he still had the ability to compete at the highest level despite an 8-year forced absence from the sport.

However, the two drivers shared a common goal: to beat each other!

With a 100% success rate over Kubica in qualifying, Russell comprehensively came out on top in the teammate battle at Williams

But the 21-year-old admits that the experienced Pole had the upper hand on race day when the lights went out.

"My story of the last half of the season has been that of getting overtaken by Robert on the first lap, not making good enough starts, not being aggressive enough, then having stronger pace and struggling to overtake him before overtaking him at the mid-point of the race," Russell explained.

At Formula 1's season finale in Abu Dhabi, once again Russell finished ahead of Kubica although it had taken him the better part of 24 laps to clear his fellow Williams rival.

"The pace at the end was very, very strong for us, I just need to improve on those opening laps," he said.

"Equally I need the car underneath me as well, but it was a good way to finish the season."

McLaren has parted ways with Guillaume Cattelani, its head of aerodynamics, a move that prefigures changes in the Woking-based outfit's tech department.

Cattelani had been employed by McLaren since 2014, having previously worked for Lotus in F1 and acted as the aero chief for Peugeot's Le Mans programme between 2006 and 2012

According to a report from Motorsport.com, the French engineer could be headed to Haas at the end of his obligatory period of gardening leave set to end in the early part of next year.

Cattelani's involvement with the US outfit wouldn't be surprising given a past relationship he enjoyed with Haas design partner Dallara.

McLaren embarked on a management reshuffle in 2018 before hiring current team boss Andreas Seidl and technical director James Key who both moved to Woking earlier this year.

FIA president Jean Todt says he still hopes to expand the Formula 1 grid to up to 12 teams in the future - as long as the new entrants can be genuinely competitive and sustainable.

The last time that 12 teams took part in the championship was 2012, at the end of which the struggling HRT squad went into administration. Caterham departed two years later, while Manor's subsequent exit was offset by the arrival of the new Haas team.

F1 hasn't attracted any new entrants since then, while recent question marks have been raised over the long-term commitment of big names like Mercedes, Red Bull and Renault.

Even Ferrari threatened to pull out of F1 if it didn't agree with the new rules and regulations planned for 2021 by the sport's new owners Liberty Media.

But Todt is confident that the grid won't shrink any further, and indeed has set his sights on a modest expansion over the next few years.

“I would prefer to have 12 teams,” Todt said according to Motorsport Week. “I think that’s the proper number to hold the Formula 1 championship.

"Saying that, it can work with 10 teams - if you have 10 good teams [who are genuinely] competitive then it can work.

“I think our priority - I think we’ve said before - is that we want healthy teams, quality more than quantity," he continued.

“I’d like to have an 11th team, but I’d like to have an 11th team that is competitive and healthy and brings something to the sport.

"To me, having an 11th team that sits at the back of the track is not adding anything for the fans that would improve the sport."

Todt conceded that one of the big problems with the current state of the sport if the domination by three big players, a large midfield, and then struggling backmarkers such as Williams who are perpetually mired at the back of the grid.

"I’d rather 12 healthy teams to ten healthy teams, but I don’t want ten healthy teams and two struggling teams," he concurred. "If we could be convinced it’s really a proper team really to join, myself, I would be quite happy to have 12 teams in Formula 1."

But are there actually any prospective viable candidates out there for a place on the F1 grid?

“We have often teams willing to commit, and sincerely we have never been convinced by the solidity of the teams," Todt admitted.

“Most of the people I’ve had preliminary conversations with want to see rules in place that provide the framework for a healthier business model.

“We want owning a team to have a franchise value, as in other sports," he added.

"As part of that we’ve talked about what is the process to enter a new team [is] how do we make owning a new team something that is a good business proposition, not just a pursuit of passion."

FIA president Jean Todt wants the governing body to place more emphasis on Formula 1 track design to help the racing spectacle.

In 2019, three different teams won races and five scored podiums, but Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton won their sixth constructors’ and drivers’ championships respectively. While Todt says on paper the season looks predictable, he believes there was plenty of exciting racing and identifies track design as being central to ensuring there is more of that in future.

“Globally this year, I think it has been a great year for Formula 1,” Todt said. “Of course if you just see the result you see big domination from Mercedes again and Lewis Hamilton, but clearly they deserve it; they did the best job, but it still has been a tight fight.

“You see Ferrari took multiple pole positions, Red Bull Honda demonstrated they could win. You have new teams coming up like McLaren, who did a great job. So globally, on the sporting side, it has been a very interesting championship.

“Probably we have understood a bit more — and maybe we should have understood earlier — the importance of the track design, and it’s something we need to address better because it’s nothing to do with the regulations, teams or governance.”

The Hanoi Circuit — which released details of an updated 23-turn circuit on Wednesday — has been developed with input from Formula 1’s motorsports team, with the commercial rights holder and FIA working closely together on a number of other topics during the past 12 months. Todt says the collaboration has been as good as he has known in his time in F1, and praised F1 CEO Chase Carey for getting a budget cap approved for 2021.

“For the 2021 regulations, there were a lot of question marks about whether it was going to be accepted, whether it was going to move forward. The cost cap, I must say I give a lot of credit on the cost cap to Chase, because myself I am a bit old to understand all of the process to be able to control it and it has gone through.

“All the teams have been contributing and accepting that as part of the 2021 regulations. Whether it will give the effect we hope… we can only hope. But I think there has been a lot of effort, never so much effort, and so much (collaboration) as a group working positively together to prepare the future of Formula 1.”

A decision over the potential Miami Grand Prix should be made during the winter months, according to Formula 1 chairman and CEO Chase Carey.

An agreement is in place between F1 and the race organizers to hold a grand prix around Hard Rock Stadium, but is facing local opposition. While the contract has yet to be approved by the relevant authorities, Carey is hopeful progress will be made and a final decision announced over the coming months, while the sport also explores other options in the United States.

“Miami, first, we’re really down to a political (situation),” Carey said. “I think there’s aspects of it that are pretty well finalized. It’s a local political arena, divided views, we have to work our way through, I think it’ll get worked through pretty quickly as they’ve had a series of meetings.

“We’re optimistic but we don’t want to handicap local politics so I think it’ll be determined in the short term, the next month plus. However that gets resolved. we’re engaged in other opportunities in the U.S. — and that’s not a negative statement about Miami, but we’ll see (if) we’re really in the final stages of getting it over the line or not.

“We wouldn’t really be commenting on Miami if the public stuff hadn’t become public. We‘re not going to comment on speculation; we’re engaged in a range of places. We have the luxury today that demands exceed the supply, I think I’ve said before. We’re engaged in every habitable continent in the world, in a serious discussion.

“We wouldn’t handicap those, we view discussions as private until we had a deal, Vietnam and Zandvoort we didn’t say anything until we had a deal and announced we’re racing, and Miami because it had a public access to the process it became public while we’re still trying to work through things."

Although he is uncertain over Miami’s future, Carey believes the race would become an iconic one on the F1 calendar if a deal can be approved.

“Whether it happens or not I think Miami would be a great race — we’d have a great track, a great location for our sport. We’ve said before we want to be in cities that capture the world’s imagination. Miami certainly would be among a handful at the top of any list among other cities.

“If it comes together I think it’ll be a great event. If it doesn’t we’ll move to other locations, but we think it’ll be a great added dimension to all our fans, not just American fans. I think Miami would be the type of race that really defines Formula 1.”

It looks like Ferrari leadership has slammed the door on any thoughts about Max Verstappen or Fernando Alonso replacing four-time F1 champion Sebastian Vettel in 2021.

At the Maranello team's end-of-season banquet, Ferrari leaders Mattia Binotto and Louis Camilleri confirmed that Sebastian Vettel's 2021 seat might be up for grabs. But the talk about a possible replacement was mainly about Lewis Hamilton, as Binotto swept away any lingering speculation that Fernando Alonso might return to a red cockpit.

"We have talked about him, but he no longer sits with our plans," Binotto said.

That would seem to be another blow to any plans Alonso has about a possible F1 return—Red Bull doesn't seem to be interested, either. Alonso isn't likely to return unless it's to a team that has a chance of winning.

As for Red Bull driver Verstappen, Camilleri is still furious with the Dutchman after he accused Ferrari of cheating with its 2019 engine.

"These declarations generally don't take you very far," Camilleri said of the Red Bull-Honda driver, who is not ruling out a change of teams for 2021. "Max is 22 years old, so why give him credibility when we are Ferrari? Sometimes silence is more powerful."

Elsewhere, Italian publications quoted Camilleri as having said: "A driver who accuses Ferrari of cheating cannot think of being with us. Mattia said we had FIA inspectors everywhere. His (Verstappen's) words created all sorts of problems within the team."

Sebastian Vettel says F1's top drivers don't respond to his Christmas greetings.

The Ferrari driver had a fraught year alongside new teammate Charles Leclerc, but he told Blick newspaper: "Charles gets a present from me anyway."

When asked by veteran F1 correspondent Roger Benoit what the Christmas present will be, the German answered: "Then it wouldn't be a surprise.

"Lewis, Max and Kimi will get a nice card from me like last year. And like last year, I probably won't get an answer this time either," Vettel smiled.

Williams have announced the sale of the majority stake of their Williams Advanced Engineering to EMK Capital as they look to further the long term growth of the product.





The deal will see Williams retain a "significant minority interest" in the product. EMK Capital, an equity firm will continue to invest and support the product to aid its growth in the years to come.

The deal between the two parties is expected to be completed within the next few weeks.

"This expertise and our technologies in areas such as electrification, lightweight structures, aerodynamics and precision manufacture will become even more relevant and in-demand globally going forward," Craig Wilson, Managing Director of Williams Advanced Engineering, said in a statement.

"This new ownership structure will enable WAE to take advantage of these emerging opportunities and comes at a pivotal moment allowing us to further invest in new areas of capability and technologies in order to realise the full potential of the business.”

Lewis Hamilton admits to being rattled by Valtteri Bottas 2.0 at the start of 2019 - his Mercedes teammate having won the season opening Australian Grand Prix.

After the first four Grand Prix of 2019, Bottas and Hamilton were level on points. Both had two victories and two second place finishes as Mercedes enjoyed a perfect start to the year.

"The first couple of races are usually not perfect for me," said Hamilton. "They’re still not bad, still better than average, but then there’s all the outside pressures of ‘Bottas 2.0’ and I’m thinking, ‘We’re 2-2 at one stage, two wins apiece’. "I’ve got to stay solid in my mind, I can’t allow the outside [to affect me]… but being human it’s very hard not to notice those things."

By the time the summer break arrived in August, Hamilton had shrugged off the challenge of Bottas and had taken his personal win tally for the season to eight.

Despite being the all time record holder for pole positions in Formula One, it was not a vintage year for the six-times champion. Only starting from the front five-times in 2019, fewer times than Charles Leclerc, Hamilton only managed to convert the position into wins twice.

"It was not intentional not to wow [in qualifying]," added Hamilton. "I’ve been searching for that wow lap this year and honestly, I’ve had good laps but they’ve not shown in the order, necessarily.

"I think some of my second places that split up the Ferraris, for me felt like relatively quite wow laps but because I wasn’t on pole by half a second it doesn’t appear that way for you, but for me internally it did."

The 2019 F1 world championship was a roller-coaster season with numerous ups and downs. 2019 saw Lewis Hamilton win his sixth drivers’ championship at the US Grand Prix and Mercedes F1 also clinched their sixth consecutive constructors’ championship. There were various driver changes in the 2019 season:

1. Daniel Ricciardo going to Renault F1 Team replacing Carlos Sainz Jr.
2. Pierre Gasly getting promoted from Toro Rosso to Red Bull Racing, then getting demoted to Toro Rosso.
3. Daniil Kvyat rejoined Toro Rosso. He partnered with the Formula 2 driver Alexander Albon, who replaced Brendon Hartley. Alex Albon later swapped with Pierre Gasly.
4. Carlos Sainz Jr moved to McLaren to replace Fernando Alonso.
5. Sainz partnered with 2017 European Formula 3 champion Lando Norris, replacing Stoffel Vandoorne.
6. Charles Leclerc left Sauber, replacing Kimi Räikkönen at Ferrari.
7. Räikkönen returned to Alfa Romeo, with whom he had started his career in 2001.
8. Reigning Formula 2 champion George Russell joined Williams and Robert Kubica made his comeback, replacing Sergey Sirotkin at Williams.
9. Esteban Ocon left Racing Point and joined Mercedes as a reserve driver. Lance Stroll replaced Esteban Ocon

Here is a list of the most awaited moments from 2019 F1 season:

1. Guenther Steiner ‘Paddock Ban’

Haas driver Kevin Magnussen was handed a five-second time penalty at the Russian GP that demoted him from eighth to ninth. Steiner blamed Emanuele Pirro. “If it wasn’t for a stupid, idiotic steward, we would be eighth,” he told Magnussen as the driver did his in-lap. The FIA considered three punishments for Guenther Steiner. The first was a fine of 250,000 euros, the second was a points’ deduction for Haas and the last option was a ‘Paddock ban’.

2. German Grand Prix:

The German GP started with wet track conditions and all 20 cars started the race on wet tires. There were six retirements during the race. The most prominent moment of the race was the unexpected pitstop of Lewis Hamilton that lasted 50.3 seconds. Mercedes didn’t have the best of outings – with Hamilton finishing in 9th and Bottas retiring. Vettel secured 2nd after starting at the back. Daniil Kyvat took Torro Rosso’s first podium in over a decade.

3. Belgian Grand Prix:

This race saw Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly swap seats. The race is also remembered for Anthoine Hubert’s tragic demise in the Formula 2 feature race. Charles Leclerc became the first driver to claim a maiden win at Spa since Michael Schumacher at the 1992 Belgian Grand Prix.

4. Italian Grand Prix:

Leclerc went into Monza with great confidence after winning the Belgian GP. The Grand Prix ended with Leclerc claiming his second consecutive race win. Ferrari had won their home Grand Prix for the first time since 2010. During the race, Vettel lost control and spun. In an attempt to rejoin as quickly as possible, Vettel got into the path of Lance Stroll. Vettel struck Stroll, damaging his front wing, and further causing Stroll to spin out. Vettel was penalized with a ten-second stop-go penalty and received 3 penalty points on his FIA super license.

5. Brazilian Grand Prix:

The drama this race contained is the only thing an F1 fan wants to see. Alex Albon was eying his first podium when Hamilton collided with him. Both Ferrari drivers collided on lap 66, resulting in a safety car – which turned the race upside down. Verstappen won the race with Gasly finishing 2nd and Hamilton 3rd. The stewards summoned Hamilton for his incident with Albon. Hamilton was subsequently given a five-second time penalty which dropped him from third to seventh. His penalty promoted Sainz to third, resulting in Sainz clinching his first podium. It was also Mclaren’s first podium after 5 long years.

For the third year in a row, Formula 1 has seen its audience figures grow across both TV and digital platforms compared to the previous season.

The total global TV cumulative audience stood at 1.922bn, the highest since 2012, which represents an increase of 9% compared to 2018. This is the third consecutive year of growth. In the top 20 markets (based in ranking of TV audience) it reached 1.781bn, with the same increment year-on-year.

As they were last year, the top five markets by cumulative audience are Brazil, Germany, Italy, UK and the Netherlands, all with audiences higher than 100m. Among the top 20 markets, meanwhile, there have been exceptional increases; in Poland (+256%) and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region (+228%,) mostly driven respectively by new contract arrangements and Robert Kubica’s return to F1, and the new agreement signed in 2019 with MBC Group. Greece (+75%), the Netherlands (+56%), Italy (+29%) and Germany (+23%) were the countries with the highest increases, while the audience continues to grow in the United States (+7%) and in China (+5%).

In terms of unique viewers, during 2019 the sport remained stable in the top 20 markets at 405.5m (+0.3%), while there was a slight decrease globally (-3.9%), with the overall number of viewers standing at 471m. Brazil, China, Germany, USA and Italy are the five markets with the highest reach. Poland (+569.7%) with 8.4m viewers and the Middle East (+ 239.6%) at 17.6m registered the highest growth. Within the top 20 markets Germany (+45.6%), the Netherlands (+31.1%) and Greece (+18%) had double-digit growth.

Nineteen out of the 21 Grands Prix had a higher cumulative audience compared to the previous season. The Italian Grand Prix had the highest of the year with 112m viewers (+20% YOY), which is also the highest since the 2016 Mexican Grand Prix. Three more events also had more than 100m viewers – Monaco, Brazil and Germany – and a total of 14 had more than 90m, with an average audience of 91.5m.

In terms of the different sessions of a race weekend, 2019 saw an increase in both race (+7%) and qualifying (+5%) live broadcasts, while there has been a double-digit improvement in practice (+24%), delayed race (+11%) broadcasts and magazines and support programmes (+16%).

In 2019 the number of users across Formula 1’s social media platforms again grew significantly, with the total number of followers on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube reaching 24.9m (+32.9% compared to 2018). The increase was particularly notable on Instagram (+69.3%) and Twitter (+66.1%). Formula 1’s social media channels confirmed their status as the fastest growing of all major sports leagues in the world.

Engagement on F1's social media platforms saw positive gains too, with total impressions up by 48.3% (15.5bn), video views by 60.9% (3.1bn) and minutes watched almost doubled, reaching 3.2bn (+89.9%). Interactions, meanwhile, totalled 405m across the four social media platforms (+82%).

F1’s core digital platforms had a great season, surpassing 1bn page views (1.124bn), almost doubling them (+82.3%), compared to last year. On the F1.com website, the number of pages viewed reached 409.8 (+22.9%) while the official F1 App has seen a three-digit increase (+152.3%), up to 714.2m views. On both platforms, video views and minutes watched rose significantly, up to 54m (+45.2%) and 84.5m (+19.5%) respectively. The number of unique users reached was 55.9m (+16.3%): 52.1m on the website (+15.3%) and 3.7m on the app (+33.5%), with a +25% increase of the average number of users per race week.

The second season of the official Formula 1 podcast Beyond the Grid continued its successful story, with 43 episodes throughout the year reaching up to 15m listens in 2019.

The Formula 1 fan base in the 27 markets monitored by Nielsen remained above 500m during 2019 and continues its youthful expansion, with 62% of the new fans accumulated in the last two years under the age of 35. China (81.3m), Brazil (54.7m), Mexico (45.5m), USA (34.6m) and India (31.1m) are in the top five positions by number of fans.

F1 fans’ excitement levels are already mounting ahead of the start of the 2020 season – and to whet your appetite even more, Season 2 of Netflix’s stunning Formula 1: Drive to Survive launches on Netflix from February 28.

Building on the success of Season 1, which opened up the pinnacle of motorsport to a whole new audience, Season 2 will see the cameras go behind the scenes once again for the 2019 F1 season, which saw Lewis Hamilton claim his sixth drivers’ title, as his Mercedes team claimed their own sixth consecutive championship.

Tune in from February 28 to get a no-holds-barred look at what it’s really like for the drivers and team personnel to live and work in the F1 circus, as the key storylines of the 2019 season – including that dramatic German Grand Prix, which F1 fans recently voted the Race Of The Decade – are re-opened and explored in glorious HD.