The 2014 Formula One Season

Race craft is a major weakness. Loses places in the first few corners. Loses too much time in traffic. Runs too long on tyres past their peak.

So basically, he'd do well in a front-running car that treats its tyres well. I'm thinking most drivers wouldn't be dissimilar.

He's probably better than some out there, but let's be honest, he either needs to improve dramatically next season or you might as well have a Chilton in the car. On his current form, it doesn't look like he brings anything a current-day pay-driver wouldn't. Ivan Capelli levels of potential with Ivan Capelli levels of fulfilment?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/01/2013 01:01AM by gav.

Bottas hasn't particularly impressed me either. I admit, he's not done badly, but he somehow lacks the "oomph" that marks out a potentially epic driver regardless of what car they're driving. He reminds me of Heidfeld somehow, just in a less competitive car than the ones Heidfeld generally drove. But he's certainly shown he's good enough for F1.

If Hulk doesn't get Kimi's drive at Lotus, I'm actually hoping Maldonado does, since it would give him an opportunity to prove himself conclusively in a competitive car, and he'd probably dominate Grosjean too once he'd settled down in the team.

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I don't think Maldonado would dominate Grosjean.

Grosjean is naturally quick, and he's actually learning from his mistakes now. He's on a string of consistent strong and mature drives. Maybe he isn't yet a bona fide team leader but he's no fodder for the like of Maldonaldo either.

just a bit off topic but does anyone have a rough idea of what the cars will look like next year. i heard somewhere that one designer said the cars will look ugly, or maybe i just missheard


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No, I think it was Adrian Newey who said they weren't going to be the prettiest. I didn't think they'd look all that different to this year's (but with a bigger bulge around the engine) and a lower nose again.

I imagine there will be a few graphic designers and modelers who might produce a few interpretations of how the new cars may look although most of them currently seem busy putting past of fictional liveries on current shapes

Yeah they are fears that the new cars will be fugly but this is exactly the same fear and response we get whenever anything changes and we soon get used to things.

Yeah, I much preferred the cleaner lines of the 2009 cars, and didn't mind the front wings too much (the narrower rear wing never bothered me to begin with).

Don't mind the stepped noses too much either. To be honest, the aesthetics of an F1 car these days doesn't really do anything for me. We'll never get back to the early 90's, 80's and 60's. I can't imagine they sell too many bedroom posters of modern day F1 cars.

That said, the back of the anorexic Red Bull is pure sexy, but I think that's nerdy sexy rather than sexy sexy.

From what I've read the 2014 cars are likely to have a nose similar to that of the 2009 Brawn and Williams.

A real shame as I'm more of a high nose fan having been weaned on the cars of the late 90's.

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

I can't wait for the noses to be fatter and lower like the Brawn.

You know how much I loved low noses from the GPGSL TNR low nose proposal :P


Jenson drives it like he owns it; Lewis drives it like he stole it

Low noses ftw
(Gotta say though, the 1998-2000 Ferraris were beauts! :D )

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GPGSL -
GPGSL-3 - Pizza Party Racing manager and driver
Nations Cup - Team Scotland manager

torana_05 Wrote:
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> just a bit off topic but does anyone have a rough
> idea of what the cars will look like next year. i
> heard somewhere that one designer said the cars
> will look ugly, or maybe i just missheard

Craig Scarborough (@scarbsf1) posted this to his blog a while ago:



His technical drawings are pretty astonishing, so I think it's fair to assume his estimates aren't too bad. I must admit, I didn't know about the narrower front wing and banned beam wing at the rear.

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I did know about the front wing but not about the beam wing or exhaust.
I'm not a huge fan of the narrower front wing or the single, central exhaust on a visual level, but RBR surely can't do any tricks with the exhaust now??

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GPGSL -
GPGSL-3 - Pizza Party Racing manager and driver
Nations Cup - Team Scotland manager

If this is true, I love you Force India! :D [www.crash.net]

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GPGSL -
GPGSL-3 - Pizza Party Racing manager and driver
Nations Cup - Team Scotland manager

It's Scarb's interpretation is on the money then the cars will look just fine in my numble view.

I'll stick it in here as I can't be bothered to make an official Abu Dhabi thread and it is related to 2014 anyway.

Williams were running without the coanda effect exhaust yesterday, to test things for 2014... turns out the car is better without it than it was with it, so they've kept the non-coanda effect here. That's a fairly fundamental error, surely. It's taken them all season to realise the car is better without the exhaust blown diffuser?

Still, looking on the bright side, they'll have more experience than the other teams for next year.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/02/2013 11:51AM by gav.

What's even more confusing is that it hasn't taken them all season to recognize that the exhaust was a key area where they were weak compared to the others as they identified it right at the start of the season. But it does seem to taken them until now to abandon the forlorn attempt to get the coanda working.

At the very least they could have simply testing the coanda on Fridays and reverted to the basic exhaust the the rest of the weekends.

*facepalm* ...Kimi fanboiz... [www.crash.net]

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GPGSL -
GPGSL-3 - Pizza Party Racing manager and driver
Nations Cup - Team Scotland manager

Looks like generic stupidity which occurs amongst generic casual viewers of F1 to be honest.

As we saw last weekend with the disgusting comments directed at Alan Permane and his family, some F1 fans don't know where to draw the line with their enthusiasm for the sport.

Talking to the older fans here, is this sort of driver fanaticism a fairly new occurrence or had it always occurred over the years?

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

It looks worse now due to the rise of social media and certainly is worse due to, for example, crossover from football fans who occasionally are abusive anyway and they've brought that to our sport.

Not wanting to tar people with brushes like.