F1 UniONE CAREER S5 (2018 Season)

2017 Season [S4]

2019 Season [S6]

## Overview

Season 5 of the F1 UniONE CAREER is to be contested using the 2018 F1 official game.

## Teams & Drivers

The following teams and drivers are confirmed entrants for the 2018 season.

## Driver Changes

- Esteban Ocon returned to Renault as the reserve driver, replacing the retiring Valtteri Bottas.

- 2012 All-Japan Formula Three champion, Ryo Hirakawa joined Toyota as the development driver.

- Current GP3 driver, Pedro Piquet stepped up to fill the vacant reserve drive at Haas. The Brazilian is expected to move to a full time seat in the near future.

- Nobuharu Matsushita switched alliances from Honda to Toyota. After spending three seasons as the development driver with Honda for McLaren, Matsushita joined Toyota as the reserve driver.

- Reigning F2 Champion, Charles Leclerc joined Sauber for 2018.

## Team Changes

- Red Bull announced Aston Martin as their main title sponsor for 2018, as part of the deal to recieve Cosworth power units.

- Despite having an exclusive customer engine deal with BMW, Haas would announce a change of name for the start of the 2018 season.

- Honda and McLaren parted ways at the close of the 2017 season. Leaving McLaren little time to search for a new engine supplier for the 2018 season. Despite the sizeable pay out the British outfit received from Honda, 2018 would prove to be much of a rebuilding season for McLaren. In a late turn of events, Toro Rosso signed to use the fully designed Honda RA618H Power Units for 2018. This left many to speculate as to the reasons why but many theories point towards Red Bull starting a partnership with Honda in the near future. McLaren later signed to use Renault engines for 2018.

## Mid-Season Changes

Round 4 - Williams unveiled a revised Martini livery, showing the red on the stripe for the first time.

Round 4 - Toyota came to the race weekend with an eye catching new BWT livery, designed to conceal new front wing and barge board upgrades.

Round 8 - Defending Champion, Jean-Eric Vergne walked from Ferrari Following continued frustrations with the Italian outfit to focus of his Formula E efforts.

Round 8 - Adrian Sutil was brought in as Vergne's replacement at Ferrari. Sutil will race with the number 0 on his car, marking the first time since the 1994 season since the there was a car carried the number 0.

Round 8 - Nobuharu Matsushita made his F1 debut with Sauber in place of Sutil.

Mid-Season Test - Daniel Ricciardo was dropped by Renault with immediate effect in favour of 2017 Champion Jean-Eric Verge.

Mid-Season Test - Honda purchased a 20% steak of the Red Bull team. This would lead to a switch to Honda Power Units for 2019 onward, ending a two year tenure with Cosworth.

Mid-Season Test - Alfa Romeo took over from Sauber, after purchasing the team's F1 entry, and would become Alfa romeo Racing for 2019. Sauber would compete for the rest of 2018 only in name.

Round 13 - Antonio Giovinazzi made his first appearance for Alfa Romeo Sauber.

Round 15 - Following continued poor performances, Carlos Sainz was dropped from the Red Bull programme and replaced with third driver Niko Kari for the remainder of the season.

Round 16 - Matsushita returned to Sauber for his penultimate race with the team.

Round 17 - Giovinazzi took back over the Sauber seat.

Round 19 - Matsushita returned to Sauber.

## Pre-Season Testing

### **Williams-BMW**

Williams looked to have carried their momentum over from the second half of the 2017 season and looked to be the early pace setters. As expected, the BMW M-Sport04H Power Unit in the back of the FW40 looked to be the most powerful of the 7 Power Units on the grid for 2018. Williams also looked to have improved significantly in the aero and chassis departments. After the disaster that was the final race on 2017, a whole new strategy department was named. BMW also announced a new partnership with Williams that would run until the end of the 2020 season. However, Martini have confirmed they would not renew their partnership with Williams, which ran out at the end on the 2018 season.

### **Red Bull-Cosworth**

Red Bull were expected to be the dark horse for the 2018 season. The Cosworth Power Unit still lacked in outright power, however the chassis and aero of the RB14 looked to be on par with the other front running teams. Christian Horner was very vocal to the media about his team's Championship chances for the coming season.

### **Mercedes-AMG**

Mercedes were expected to be a front running team once again, however there had been many changes internally within the team. The team were hoping that these changes could bring them championship success for what would be only the second time in the V6 Hybrid era. Multiple rumours had also been circulating that Fernando Alonso would retire at the close of the 2018 season. Mercedes designed a lower drag car to their 2017 counterpart, in an attempt to counteract the power advantage of Ferrari and BMW.

### **Ferrari**

Ferrari stated that they have focused their work over the winter on improving reliability, as Jean-Eric Vergne suffered multiple engine faults and failures during the second half of the 2017 season. As the main focus was improving Power Unit reliability, there was less time to focus on the chassis and aero of the SF71H. However, the Maranello looked to be able to match Williams and Red Bull on long run pace, and aimed to bring upgrades early on in the season.

### **Toyota**

Toyota come into this season off the high on winning the 2018 Le Mans 24H, and had high expectations from their TF118. Toyota kept with their philosophy from 2017 and designed their car with low drag in mind. With the Japanese outfit still searching for that illusive first Grand Prix victory, many within the paddock were waiting to see if Toyota's 2018 challenger was a good as the team say.

### **Renault**

Renault quietly went about their business over the winter break, and looked to be closing in on the established names at the top of the pecking order. With McLaren the only other team running Renault power for 2018, Renault had designed their Power Unit in conjunction with the RS34 chassis. Single lap pace seemed promising, however the team still looked to lacking pace over a race stint.

### **Sauber-Ferrari**

Sauber came into the final race of 2017 with funds having run dry. Ferrari came to the aid of the Swiss outfit, as upon agreeing to sign F2 Champion Charles Leclerc, Ferrari announced they were to purchase 80% of the Sauber team to form an effective Ferrari B-Team. As part of the deal, Sauber must now take on at least one Ferrari Young Driver, however the team are free to choose the second driver. Alfa Romeo also returned to the sport as technical partners were branded as the main title sponsor for the Swiss outfit.

### **McLaren-Renault**

After three unsuccessful seasons, Honda and McLaren parted ways. This left McLaren to switch to Renault Power Units. As the radical MP4-33 was heavily designed around fitting a Honda engine, there was little time for McLaren to re-design the chassis to accommodate a Renault Power Unit. McLaren were already looking to 2019, and utilising the large pay-out from Honda to deliver a championship contending car.

### **Toro Rosso-Honda**

Toro Rosso looked to have hit a wall with their development. After their worst season since 2014 (in terms of championship position), the Italian team seemed set for another close battle in the lower midfield. In a late turn of events, Toro Rosso signed to use the fully designed Honda RA618H Power Units for 2018. This left many to speculate as to the reasons why but many theories pointed towards Red Bull starting a partnership with Honda in the near future. Toro Rosso had focused more on the chassis of the STR13 than the aerodynamics, hoping to find an advantage at the slower speed tracks over the other mid field teams.

## Regulation Changes

### **Safety**

A new safety device named the 'Halo' would be introduced for this season, and in all other FIA open-wheel racing categories. The purpose of the device is to protect the drivers from large debris, such as loose wheels. However, the Halo has come under much criticism, as the time for a driver to get out of the car has more than doubled as none of them have found a solid method for exiting the car.

### **Power Units**

Rules on the Power Unit regulations have been relaxed. Gone are the days of four Power Units per season, and return the pre-2014 regulations of eight Power Units per season. There will also be a new optional element to the Power Units for 2018 - Electronic Recovery System (ERS). Much like when cars used to run KERS, ERS works much in the same way, however the driver will have to manage the harvesting and deployment of the electrical energy. Running ERS in the Power Unit will add 20KG to the overall weight. Despite this, BMW state the M-Sport04H Power Units will run ERS, as they see the power advantage that can be gained will be greater than the added weight to the car. Toyota also confirm they will trial ERS during Pre-Season testing.

### **Tyres**

Pirelli have designed two new tyre compound for the 2018 season, labled 'Hyper Soft' and 'Ultra Hard'. The Hyper Soft tyre is due to make its debut towards the mid-point of the season. The Ultra Hard tyre has not been designed to use in races unless required, as it's more of a back-up tyre in case a situation like at Silverstone in 2013 should re-occur.

## Season Calendar

- For the first time in F1 history, there will not be a Grand Prix held in Monaco.

- France returns to the calendar for the first time since 2008. The last time prior a Grand Prix was held at the Circuit Paul Ricard since 1986.

## Championship Standings

Points were awarded to the top 12 classified finishers using the following structure:

In the event of a tie, a count-back system is used as a tie-breaker, with a driver's best result used to decide the standings.

Click on the points table to enlarge it.

Key;

* Gold - Race Winner
* Silver - Second Place
* Bronze - Third Place
* Green - Points finish (4th - 12th)
* Blue - Classified finish outside of the points paying positions
* Blue ^ - Driver did not finish, but was still classified
* Purple - Did Not Finish
* Black - Disqualified
* White - Driver/ Team did not race