The 2014 Formula One Season

So THATS why Seb didn't get back out for a third attempt at a lap, the mechanics were too busy dicking about by Caterham.

In all seriousness though, Renault finally seem to be getting to grips with the power-train, or at least Caterham and Toro Rosso are making progress. Kyvat even had a brief moment at the top of the time-sheets this afternoon.

If Red Bull and Lotus could manage to make their cars last longer than five minutes then I'm sure they'd too prove themselves as quick. Once Red Bull get on top of their issues I suspect they'll quickly be back up at the sharp end.

Mercedes still look like they're the most advanced team, although they're encountering a few more problems now, which is fine as long as they fix them.

But two teams are emerging as dark horses at the moment, Force India and Williams. Today Williams finally bolted a set of supersofts on and dropped the fuel, then Massa went out and set the fastest overall lap so far... which was nice.

It's still incredibly difficult to predict a pecking order and I'm likely to be wide of the mark here, but I'm going to stick my neck out on this now anyway;

Group 1

Mercedes - are the hot tip with seemingly the best combination of reliability and pace.

Ferrari - working through their pre season program diligently, expected to be behind Mercedes in out-right form but under estimate them at your peril.

Group 2

McLaren - mechanical base of the car is sound and doesn't share the major issues of it's predecessor, they're looking promising but Button reckons they're behind expectations as yet.

Williams - emerging with the strongest reliability of the field, a car which looks visibly better balanced than it's predecessors and have some highly encouraging race and qualifying sims in the bag.

Force India - have shown competitive pace through out Bahrain testing, are beginning to look increasingly well prepared.

Group 3

Red Bull - Ricciardo's last day suggested that the core chassis is absolutely fine tyvm, but continued woeful reliability thratens to squander any pace the car should inherently have, ought to comfortably join group 1 when sorted out.

Lotus - in a similar fix to RBR, car ought to be competitive enough when the issues are sorted out.

Sauber - looking solid yet not particulary exciting yet, capable enough team.. but lacking the wow driver line-up.

Toro Rosso - almost in a jam as deep as their parent team, but finally beginning to rack up the miles, kyvat showed promising pace last time out.

Group 4

Maurussia - plenty of reliability issues to sort, but emerging ahead of arch rivals Caterham.

Caterham - derided by Kobayashi as slower than a GP2 car.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/01/2014 09:49PM by J i m.

What's interesting me is the pace Marussia have been getting out of the car. They've been setting some half decent times considering how many issues they've had themselves. They might be running on fumes, but I think any team going for glory runs for the sake of glory runs are nuts this year. They'll still be last/second last, but from what we've seen I think they've got a chance of nicking some scalps in the early races.

For me:

Mercedes




McLaren
Williams
Force India

Red Bull (based purely on reliability - apparently the car looks absolutely nailed to the track when it is running. They'll steadily move upwards once they get some miles on the clock, and at this stage you have to say they're certainly still in the title hunt given the length of season)

Lotus (thought they fluked into making a good decision when they found themselves without enough staff/money to make a car, but nope, it's just a shambles)
Sauber
Toro Rosso
Marussia (close in the early races, gap widening as the season settles in)
Caterham



Edit: Yes, as you say it's utterly worthless making predictions like these based on testing, but who cares.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/01/2014 08:00PM by gav.

It'll be nice if Mercedes start the season with a clear edge and then steadily slip back, like Brawn did in 2009. It'll be a good test of them as a team and of the drivers, who look likely to get their best shot at a title this year(or best shot for several years in Lewis's case).

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Lewis Hamilton is 29. Fecking heck. I still think of him as a petulant little boy. Still, he's never going to have a better chance to win a second title. Neither him nor his team have any excuses.

Rosberg is a good excuse

Also, Gavinski, you missed Ferrari off your list...

Whoopsies!

I'd have them somewhere around McLaren. By the sounds of it their engine isn't as strong as the Mercedes, and certainly in Sauber's hands it hasn't been at all impressive (though Sutil managed some fantastic mileage this morning), but I've found it hard to read Ferrari this winter. They didn't seem at all interested in performance until this week, and even then didn't sparkle. Unusually for the Italians, they seem to have taken a very methodical approach to the winter.

Also, Gavinski, you missed Ferrari off your list...

Apparently Vettel is walking around in his "civvies" again which isn't a great vote of confidence for the car getting back out on track again. I'm wondering if RBR will elect to use a filming day or two (if they haven't already used them) for some last minute testing, although with 2 weeks until Melbourne the logistics would be a nightmare.

Bottas has been pounding round setting the pace this morning and I'm desperately trying to not get over excited about it. But it's so hard dammit <M>

It's terribly unsporting of me but after sitting through four years of Formula Vettel I'd give my left testicle (nay, both testicles) to have both Red Bulls die on their arse within the first ten laps at Melbourne.

I really would love Williams to do something special this year (not jumping on bandwagon). Although everyone forgets they had a good year in 2012, 2013 was just so bad as to make us all forget. Force India look tasty too they have an exciting driver lineup.

BO77AS ftw.

Remember Jim that Williams has spent the last two days focused on performance running.

But still, the Williams looks damn good in about all the right areas. The fact that they can ever go looking for performance speaks wonders at this stage.

I'd certainly consider them a contender for the podium from what I've seen, heard and reported.

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Races: 163 - Wins: 23 - Pole Positions: 24 - Fastest Laps: 22
Season 9: Constructors' Champions

Oh, I'm fully aware that they're focussing on performance now and dammit they've just had their first on track stoppage of the whole test season. Hopefully it's a small fix so Bottas can go out for a qualifying sim before the chequered flag, still done over a hundred laps before breaking down, so not too bad at all.

Ah apparently it was a high mileage failure on the internal combustion side of the engine, day over methinks. Many of the teams have driven high mileage parts to destruction today.

Shame, I was hoping that Bottas would beat Massa's from yesterday, but it looks like Hamilton is going to have a crack at that now.

Lewis couldn't quite manage it either, which means Williams officially leave Bahrain as the quickest team.

Yeah the ICE failed, I think the Force India failure and the McLaren issue were also as a result of high wear, good that they can find and pinpoint these exact tolerances.

I think you'd be mad to look past Mercedes, Williams or Force India in Melbourne. All three look very good.

Ferrari, as Gav mentioned, have gone about their business quite quietly, and while they've not posted any headline grabbing times, the car seems there or thereabouts.

For me McLaren have lost some ground, but from I am led to believe they have a huge update package for Oz, which you'd expect to push them up the order.

Sauber racked up a huge amount of laps today, 177 I think, which bodes well for the reliability of the Ferrari power plant, but they don't look fast at all.

All of the Renault teams seem to be making up ground now that the engine problems have seemingly subsided. I'd probably wager on today's running that Toro Rosso and Red Bull are the most likely to lead that group.

Caterham seem to have found some reliability, but look slow as hell, with reports the car is a right handful, with Kobayashi even saying that it is slower than a GP2 car.

Lotus can barely do 30 laps or so without the E22 going up in flames. Not looking good for them.

Marussia have been a real surprise. While their car looks brittle as hell, they have shown some good turns of speed and look within a few tenths of the Sauber.

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Races: 163 - Wins: 23 - Pole Positions: 24 - Fastest Laps: 22
Season 9: Constructors' Champions

Red Bull are staying behind to do their two "filming days", I suspected they were going to do something like that.

On a slightly different note - and I know this might be far too premature - but I wonder what will happen to the Russian GP in light of what's been going on in Crimea? I can't imagine anybody being too keen on the idea of going there if things escalate. Mind you, if they went to the Bahrain GP a couple of years ago...

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You know you want to. [judgegrudge.mybrute.com]

If FOM and the FIA tell them to go they will go. It's as simple as matter as that.

Morally, should they, of course not, but few ever became as rich as Bernie by following their morals.

It is the same case as with Bahrain in 2012. It was a travesty that they went, but in all fairness most fans won't even remember the sideshow that was going on in the background.

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Races: 163 - Wins: 23 - Pole Positions: 24 - Fastest Laps: 22
Season 9: Constructors' Champions

The Russian GP should not take place anyway due to other human rights issues but it will due to money and thats all they care about.

I will not watch the race just like I did not watch the Olympics.

If reports are true the Ferrari has a big problem with fuel, they can get more power out the engine but if they do then they wont finish the race.

Merc have done a great job and on full power that they will use for quali nothing will get close to their engine.

Caterham, what a joke. They wont even get on the grid at this stage.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/03/2014 12:32PM by marcl.

In this kind of situations, eight months is an eternity. Just look at what happened in only one week. The decision on whether to go will be taken as late as possible, just like in Bahrain. Making a decision now would be nonsensical.

I'm torn on whether F1 should go there (and to other countries) in the first place. On the one hand, an entity as powerful F1 could take a moral stance and not go to countries that violate human rights, just to name one obvious thing. On the other hand, I can imagine F1 wants to stay far away from national politics and be a neutral organisation - even though you could say that by going, they give the impression F1 sees these violations as acceptable, which is a political stance in itself. If you take a stance on A, sooner or later you're going to be asked to take a stance on B. Texas is against gay marriage. Bahrain violently reacted to protests. F1 raced in South Africa during apartheid. Turkey is said to be not very nice to the Kurds. China is a one-party state. Hungary recently accepted a law that is said to hinder the press in their work. South Korea is technically at war. Should you take stances about all that? It would be very hard to draw the line and most importantly: who would draw the line? F1 can't even agree on something as simple as a budget cap, I'd dread to see them debate over complex things like human rights. Also, think about reactions of fans (some religious fans may be well pleased with Texas' ban on gay marriage, e.g.) and sponsors (will that Chinese company still sponsor Ferrari if F1 deems China's one-party-system to be unacceptable?). It seems to create more problems than it solves. Even though we all want that human rights are respected everywhere, differing views on them make it impossible for a large entity as F1 to effectively take a stance, without causing an enormous heap of side-effects. F1 in itself is not the right vehicle to achieve universal human rights. The only option is collectively not watching a GP, but we all know that's not going to happen.

Having completed my 2p to this philosophical discussion, I would like state that I find it somewhat worrying that McLaren still have not presented a title sponsor yet. We know they have been talking to several parties, but I haven't heard any news on it for a few weeks now. I remember they first wanted to announce it in December last year, but now we're two weeks off Melbourne.

Nickv Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> Having completed my 2p to this philosophical
> discussion, I would like state that I find it
> somewhat worrying that McLaren still have not
> presented a title sponsor yet. We know they have
> been talking to several parties, but I haven't
> heard any news on it for a few weeks now. I
> remember they first wanted to announce it in
> December last year, but now we're two weeks off
> Melbourne.

I believe Honda's contributing quite a hefty sum of money to cover the lack of title sponsor.

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