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MRC Season 56 F1 Preview

25.04.2024 - Everyone better brace themselves as the dawn of a new MRC F1 season awaits us as we anticipate yet another thrilling season in the top racing category, whether you are a massive follower of the series or a new spectator I'm sure you would be interested about hearing everything involving the teams and drivers, the familiar faces and new comers alike, so buckle up as we explore everything Season 56 has to offer in the pinnacle of motorsports

Disclaimer : Anything that comes off rude or anything of that sort is simply me mimicking how journalists talk about drivers, I in fact do know that I'll most likely not even get close to the level that the current drivers are at, and I respect every one of them

WHERE DID WE LEAVE OFF?

Last Season will sure be memorable for Felipe Campolargo, with the portuguese driver finally getting his well awaited title after 2 consecutive seasons of being runner up in the championship and of course, with the dominant season he had, it was no surprise that his team RedBull were also able to clinch their 25th F1 constructors title, with the Austrian based team finishing 1st in 5 of the last 6 seasons, with the only thing that stopped them from having 6 in a row is that brilliant season by Porsche in S52, now that you have caught up quickly on what happened in the last few seasons, it's time focus on the now! so let's go through this by championship order

Red Bull Racing Vaillante F1
A good example of if it ain't broke don't fix it, with the Indy Series winner and the reigning F1 champion Felipe Campolargo unsurprisingly staying for his 4th season now and most likely going to be hungry for yet another title, in the other side of the garage you of course have Brian Nalbandian, who last season had to fill in the shoes of 3-time world champion Gracjan Wozipiwo who retired at the end of S54, and I'm sure RedBull would be more than proud of the Argentine Rookie who got himself a very respectable 2nd place in the standings and has played a pivotal part in securing their 25th title

Trivia : The Nalbandian name is no stranger to F1 as David Nalbandian is a widely respected legend who won 2 Moto1 titles, and went on to prove he can be just as good with 4 wheels as he is with 2, securing back to back championships for RedBull in Season 41 and 42

Porsche Racing
The German outfit of course has been a constant top runner in the series, and as mentioned previously, it is the team that ruined the party for RedBull, and if anyone is going to end another streak of RedBull dominance, it will probably be these guys, but of course, the team has changed a lot since that season 52 run where Luka Jerman and Gregory Moore finished 1-2 in the championship with only 14 points between them, with both those drivers moving to other teams as the seasons went on, where are they now? Gregory Moore is in Indy Series while Luka Jerman is still in F1 racing for McLaren, and as of the time of writing this press release (23.04.2024) he is currently sitting in a very respectable 7th place in Free Practice for the Bahrain GP, as for their current drivers, they have 2 time DTWS champion Tadej Oblak who has been racing with them for a season so far and has been fairly consistent and getting a couple wins here and there, other side of the garage is his fellow Slovenian countryman Tadej Ozbolt who after showing his talent driving the McLaren in Season 52 -which was his debut season- has managed to secure a drive with the german team and has been a consistent top 5 driver since then will Porsche manage to ruin the part for RedBull again? would RedBull keep their dominant streak going? or will the next team we'll talk about have something to say? speaking of which this takes us straight too...

Scuderia Ferrari
The prancing horse of Maranello have definetly bounced back since that terrible 52nd MRC F1 season, with the Italian team being a constant top 3 runner recently and notably being only 5 points behind Porsche in the constructor standings last season, and I'm sure we won't be passing any blame here but looking at what Novikov was able to achieve with the car last season, Sabine Woeger surely could've done better to secure 2nd place in the standings for the Italian based team, but alas here we are at the start of another season where the team will continue it's upward trend from the look of things, no changes in terms of drivers, and only time would tell how good the car is this season, but all eyes will be on Novikov who will be looking to join his 2 other relatives in the history books of MRC F1, with the Novikov name holding 5 driver titles in total between all of them

Toyota Gazoo Racing
Toyota has been a surprise package since their takeover of the BMW team in season 51, Finishing no lower than 5th ever since, now Toyota has been a bit of an odd one because they've been usually loyal to one driver while the other side of the garage has seen a new face practically every season, now with their long time driver Dmitry Starostachev retiring from F1 and heading to CARS for what seems to be the final few years of his career, the Japanese brand started looking for new drivers, in his place comes Dami Stoppe, who actually drove 2 seasons before in F1 with the Alpine team, and has not really delivered, notably in his second season he was 10 whole places off from his teammate, not a good way to keep your seat that's for sure, but after a 2 year hiatus, and a fair bit of experience under his belt, can he perform and lead Toyota to another brilliant season? well only time can tell, now let's divert our attention to the other car, as Stoppe's indycar rival Alvaros Cobos fills in the second seat, being a NASC Gold and an indycar champion, expectations will sure be big for the spaniard who got thrown straight into a midfield car capable of good results
Overall this seems like a big gamble on Toyota's part, but who doesn't love to see drivers defying the odds and coming out on top
into the next team!

McLaren F1 Team
The british marque has been... inconsistent to say the least, a bit of an up and down team and we expect them to be fighting for that best of the rest spot, as for drivers they have world champion Luka Jerman who we have briefly talked about in the Porsche section of this preview, and he has been paired up with Rephael Drummond who is now heading into his 3rd consecutive season with the team, with not much to note down


Senna Racing F1
The polish team named after the Legendary Ayrton Senna is one of the oldest teams in F1, with Komanch being team principal since Season 10, despite that, they have no drivers or constructors titles to their name, with their highest constructors position being 4th in both Season 20 and Season 48, and that doesn't seem like it's changing any time soon, with their current driver lineup seemingly having no chance of creating history, but they would be more than good enough to keep the team fighting for those top midfield positions constantly, so let's get to know the drivers! on one side of the garage you have Robert Kubica III, a polish driver that has been managed by the team principal himself since a young age and now heads into his second season of F1 with a lot of hope and ambitions, and he won't be the first driver to start his career at this great and historic team, as even his teammate, who has 4 whole seasons under his belt, started his career in Senna Racing back in Season 52

Escuderia Pegaso
The Spanish team heads into the new season just off from their highest constructors standings position in just about under 15 seasons, but surprisingly, the team did not stick with their driver lineup, whether it was the team's decision or the drivers wanted a new challenge that's something we don't know, but what we can provide you with is a rundown of the their old and current drivers, with long time driver Thibau Boutsen moving to Spyker after 5 whole seasons with the team, While Howard Dewitt who was a fairly recent signing, has moved to rival team alpine after just 2 seasons of racing under the spanish team, who who did Pegaso get in terms of replacements? 2 times NASC gold champion Elisabet Alemany and GT expert Pieretto Taruffi are the two that have been tasked of filling the shoes of the previous drivers, with a new lineup and recent form, one can only hope that Escuderia Pegaso can continue on this upward trend and perform beyond expectations

Aston Martin Racing
Aston Martin alongside Toyota are some relatively new comers to the sport, with the British marque entering F1 at the start of Season 50, the team has been yoyo-ing between 7th and 9th in the standings since it's creation, and has been somewhat of a portuguese-brazillian exclusive for a while until the signing of Ash Bee and Visvaldis Cels a couple of seasons back changed that, now heading into Season 56 Ash Bee is still driving for the team while Cels has gone off to continue his rallying career as apparently 8 WRS titles were not enough for the Latvian driver, his replacement is fellow northern european driver and 2 time supercars champion Oiva Hamays who heads into his first season of F1

Alpine F1 Team
After taking over Skoda in Season 40, Alpine has done nothing but slowly go up the ranks going from being a backmarker to a stable midfield team with an outlier being Season 50 with Dmitri Pironi and Pedro Dallara helping their team get a very respectable 3rd place finish in the constructor standings, now both drivers have long moved away from the team, and different drivers came and gone, and this takes us to today, where they have Howard Dewitt which we talked about already, and Chloe de Saint-Germain, and I'm sure a fair few people around the paddock have all said "oh god, another de Saint-Germain" when looking at the news of the french driver joining Alpine, and they have every right to do so, as the de Saint-Germain family has gotten nearly 20% of all driver titles

Ford Motorsport
A historically great team that just out of nowhere fell really hard, and seems like no matter what they do, they just can't get back to their old self, and having scored 0 points in the last 4 seasons, they sure would be hoping that their lineup of Dmitri Pironi and Pedro Dallara would be able to pull off the same miracle they once pulled with Alpine, but only time will tell if sticking with aging drivers was a gamble worth taking

Chevrolet F1 Motorsports
Just like their sworn rivals, Chevrolet have really struggled to score points, but unlike ford, they have actually NEVER scored a single point under the Chevrolet name, and that surely wouldn't change with the wild decision that shocked so many fans made by the team principal to sign two new rookies with a total of a single formula 3 title between all of them, which in all honesty doesn't seem like the smartest of moves, but here's hoping that these rookies can adapt quickly to the challenges of F1 and prove us all wrong

WRT Spyker
Just like Chevrolet, Spyker have struggled to score a single point under their name, but the Beneluxian team will sure be looking to make a change, with Ex-Pegaso driver Thibau Boutsen behind the wheel they sure would have their chances, and they will be hoping that rookie Sue Lawley will be able to be up there as well, other than that, nothing much to note

Lotus Formula One Team
Lotus are another one of those teams that are a one country exclusive, having had full Brazillian lineups for 9 seasons straight now, of course no one can even judge as the team has managed to get some brilliant results in the past, but just like McLaren, they have been quite inconsistent, sometimes you find them up there with the top teams, just to see them all the down the order fighting for the last bit of points, either way, we wish the team and their driver duo of Clecio Osvaldo Pinto and Bruna Lau the best of luck

Mercedes AMG Petronas F1
seems like every team around this area hasn't scored points in a while, yup! you guessed it! Mercedes got 0 points, and now they are heading into a new season with a nordic lineup of Swedish driver Felix Lundqvist who actually drove for the German based team back in Season 50 before eventually getting replaced by fellow countryman Lance Riley who also only lasted a single season with the team, but alas he is back now and the team would be looking to him to score the points, but can't take anything away from his teammate Risto Ryti who does seem like the better driver on paper

Jordan F1 Team
Unlike the rest of the teams in the back of the pack, Jordan have been known to score points, infact they were scoring points up to Season 54 before suddenly out of nowhere, they finished last with 0 points! could it be the complete change of lineups that caused it? possibly, but anyways, heading into the new season they have once again signed Vladimir Romadov who moved to Spyker last season and actually out performed both Jordan cars, so in a way it wasn't that surprising that they called him to get back, as for the other car it will be driven by Danish rookie Liam Leholk II



Now that we've got to know each one of the teams you are probably wondering to yourself, how am I going to stay up to date with everything that is going on when there is 30 whole cars on the grid? well fear not my friend! because I will be writing a recap of everything F1 related every 2 weeks, so be sure to like this press release to show your support!

and sorry if I made any mistakes, I didn't have all the time in the world to do all the research and interview people but I hope I got most things right! :D