All The Major Happenings Of International Motorsport In 2019

The 2019 motorsports season was an action packed year around the globe, with established greats reaching new levels of success. This season also saw newcomers get plenty of shining moments. Here’s the best bits that happened this year for international motorsports.

Lewis Hamilton Inches Closer To Schumacher’s Title Tally

In the world of Formula One, Ferrari may have had the upper hand in pre season testing, but 2019 was another year of Mercedes dominance. The German marque clinching its 6th consecutive constructors title and Lewis Hamilton took his 6th title, inching ever closer to Michael Schumacher’s all time record of 7 driver’s titles.  His title winning season consisted of finishing every race in the points with 11 wins, 17 podiums as well as scoring his highest ever points tally in a season at 413 points. While on paper this was a dominant season for Mercedes, We did get a string of brilliant races starting from the Austrian Grand Prix.

We also got to see the future generation of the sport shine via the likes of Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris, Carlos Sainz, Alexander Albon and Pierre Gasly. Aside from this, we finally got a look at F1’s regulation changes for 2021 that will feature radical designs as well as budget caps for 2021. 

One Honda Triumphs, The Other Bows Out

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The 2019 MotoGP season was full of action packed races with race long battles as well as final lap thrillers. But it was Marc Marquez who triumphed in the end to take his 6th title in the premier class ahead of Andrea Dovizioso in the Ducati. He also essentially carried the Repsol Honda team by himself to seal the teams championship. His title winning season was all about unrelenting consistency as the Spanish rider took 12 wins out of 19 races and finished no lower than 2nd this year aside from a DNF at Austin, USA. Rookie sensation Fabio Quatoraro also made a mark from Petronas Yamaha SRT, with 6 pole positions and 5th in the overall standings. While he couldn’t convert his poles to wins, he was arguably the only contender to Marc Marquez towards the latter half of 2019.  This bodes well for a potential 2020 title fight between the two riders

Things may have been rosy from Marc Marquez’s side of the garage, but it was a difference of night and day for Jorge Lorenzo’s side. The 3-time MotoGP world champion endured a difficult season plagued with injuries and struggles to get to grips with the RC213V. He never registered a top 10 finish this season and eventually called it quits on his MotoGP career ahead of the season finale at Valencia. 

Hyundai Takes Maiden WRC Title 

We may have been robbed of a thrilling finale for the WRC championship due to the final round being cancelled due to severe bushfires. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that Hyundai Motorsport has now joined the champions club of WRC.  The Korean marque took the title by 18 points over Toyota Gazoo Racing, piloted by the team of Thierry Neuville, Andreas Mikkelsen, Dani Sordo, Sébastien Loeb and Craig Breen. While the WRC has seen a new world champion, the series loses a former titan in the form of Citroen. The French manufacturer was one of WRC’s biggest brands in its history with 102 victories and 8 manufacturer titles. The reasons for this pertain to focus on electrified range of vehicles for the future.

Formula E Gets Its First Double World Champion

Season 5 of the ABB FIA Formula E 2018/19 season saw plenty of new things in the form of Gen 2 cars, as well as the debut of BMW and Nissan as a manufacturer. Mercedes also made its debut indirectly via HWA Racelab. The season commenced back in December 2018, and carried on till July this year with a host of chaotic races. Despite having 8 different winners in the first 8 races, we saw Jean Eric Vergne become the first double world champion in Formula E history and and DS Techeetah claiming its maiden constructors championship.  But it was far from smooth sailing as both the team and Jean Eric Vergne started coming on strong in the second half of the season, with the drivers title going right down to the wire in New York. The 2019/20 season is already underway, but the opening two rounds haven’t been as strong as the defending champions may have hoped, but this is Formula E and anything can change within the course of a season.

Jaime Chadwick Takes Inaugural W-Series Title

 

This season also saw the debut of the all-female W-Series which was created in order to encourage more female racers in the junior categories on the road to Formula One. It featured 18 racers from around the globe selected via a selection process amongst 55 participants. The cars used were based on the Tatuus T-318 used for Formula 3 championships. It consisted of 6 rounds in the period of May to August. A closely fought season saw Jaime Chadwick take the series’ first title by 10 points over Beitske Visser with 2 wins, 3 poles and 5 podiums overall. The British racer will be returning to the series to defend her title in 2020.

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