The 2014 Formula One Season

Indeed, but at least his has the opportunity to. The most important thing though is for Williams to build a more competitive car. More Williams announcements soon... Smedley? Brawn?

...and I hear that Virgin might be bringing some of their £££ wherever Brawn's headed

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

Rumours are strengthening that Kevin Magnussen is replacing Sergio Perez.

[www.bbc.co.uk]

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Happy to see Massa get a chance at a new team! In fact, if he can go out and do a good job at Williams it could shape the legacy of his career, in terms of whether we remember the good or the bad. Interesting to see Massa work under Pat Symonds after Singapore 2008!

But anyway, now I have a new team to support Hopefully they get Brawn and Smedley too!

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X (@ed24f1)

Autosport are reporting that Magnussen has signed for McLaren, but aren't quoting any sources. Rare for them to be so bold, so I'd imagine it's a done deal.

I can't remember so many driver changes from one year to the next... it's nuts.

And two races left in 2013 and we know there's at least one more driver change to come this season!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/11/2013 08:17PM by gav.

What kind of money does Perez bring? If the Lotus-Quantum falls through (which seems to become more likely by the day), Perez might be able to fill their financial gaps. This would remove any reason to keep Maldonado in F1 for any longer and he'd be left without a seat. Oh, in an ideal world...

It's hard to say how much money Perez has, and whether they would follow him somewhere or stay at Sauber with Gutierrez. I'd certainly rather him at Lotus than Maldonado though!

I guess Force India has also been mentioned as a potential home for drivers with money.

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X (@ed24f1)

Rumours have been doing the rounds around Force India for a while, apparently they are set to lose their Sahara support, which would make a pay driver a necessity.

So, who do we have in the mixing pool of drivers currently available now?

We have Maldonado, Hulkenberg, Sutil, di Resta, Chilton, Pic, van der Grade as well as Perez if you're to believe Andrew Benson.

That doesn't take into account any of the GP2 guys either. I know Calado seems to have his foot in the door at Force India.

You have to feel for Fabio Leimer, the blokes just gone and won F1's major feeder series and he has been linked with absolutely nobody.

Good to see you're still about Nick btw.

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

It seems unless that F1 team bosses aren't very impressed by GP2 drivers at the moment except the ones who come with a lot of money. Formula Renault 3.5 series is said to generate stronger fields hence much of the paddock raving about the potential of Magnussen whom it seems likely has been given Perez's job. As annoying as Benson is for his penchant for announcing speculation as fact this deal has been hinted at for quite some time.

The media at large still assume that Hulk to Lotus is a done deal, but if the quantum deal is as dodgy as has been insinuated then a monied driver still fits the bill which explains the delay in any announcement. Maldonaldo probably has the most money but if Perez can taken some Mexican dollars then he may well be the favoured option.

Meanwhile Eddie Jordan could well be on the money yet again, the Hulk goes back to force India, his results would be worth their weight in gold to them. Whilst Maldonaldo would land at Sauber.

With Massa now joining, Smedley almost certainly going with him(How can he not? ) and quite possibly Ross Brawn joining for next season as well, Williams is suddenly looking like a handy team with real potential. If they manage to get their 2014 car right and take advantage of the regulation changes they could suddenly become a real force again.

This is the most exciting silly season I can remember, compounded by the lack of knowledge of what the 2014 regs will do to the running order. Fun times!

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I hope Merc gets their engine right!

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

Quote
EC83
This is the most exciting silly season I can remember, compounded by the lack of knowledge of what the 2014 regs will do to the running order. Fun times!

The naive 14 year old self thought this in 1994, when Benetton, Williams, Ferrari, Jordan*, Sauber** had shown the potential to win races. Yet 1995 provided an even bigger gap than before!

I've let me head speak above my heart since.

That said, you're right - 2014 has so many unknowns and as said, the number of moves over the winter are on a never-before-seen scale.


* Jordan, yeah, small team, but at Spa in 1994 Barrichello, on his one-stop strategy, was on for a podium at the very least (and inheriting the win when Schumacher was disqualified), and given the new Peugeot engine, who knew what might happen? A small jump forward was all that came along. And a bit more fire.

** Sauber were steadily moving forward since they'd entered in 1993, and in Frentzen they had a driver touted as better than Schumacher from their sportscar days. While I still think Frentzen was vastly underrated, in 1995 he and they only moved backwards. Should have won at Monaco the following year though - he was in form similar to Panis, but went and rammed that form into the back of Irvine.

People also forget that the leaders who have evidently been the best at reacting to regulation changes just so happen to be Adrian Newey and Ross Brawn. And their teams are already 1st and 2nd in F1.

The reg changes may have the potential to shake up the order but the teams with the best people and resources are still best set to get the most out of them.

Very true. The only reason people feel RedBulls domination may end, is the regulation changes. Bar that there is no reason to assume RedBull won't be at the front next year.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/12/2013 12:16PM by Nickv.

I did state earlier in the thread that a Red Bull with an inefficient blown diffuser (see early 2012) is a weaker car relative to those around them, so with zero chance of any blown diffusers next year, I'm clinging onto the hope that there's another team which can genuinely take the fight to them throughout the season.

They still have Newey though who remains the most renowned areodynamist in F1.

We're all hoping RedBull is relatively weaker next year. However, their development team structure won't change much (I think one guy went to McLaren?). They have coped with regulation changes every year, though these were much smaller. If they aren't as dominant next year as they are now, it is likely to be due to one team finding a loophole like the double diffuser, rather than a structural problem in the RedBull car. Either that, or the Mercedes engine is really that much more powerful as some people say. On that subject, I thought the engine freeze was to be lifted and we'd have some genuine engine development going on from next year. Now I read on this blog that:

The Power Unit Homologation process in place with the FIA states that engines must be delivered by the engine manufactures to the FIA no later than February 28. Any subsequent changes will be reviewed by the FIA after requesting feedback from the other engine manufacturers regarding their opinion of the changes. Any engine changes post homologation should be for reliability or cost reduction purposes. In effect, your competitors will need to agree that your change is not a performance enhancement before the FIA will permit you to race with it.

That's pretty much an engine freeze, right? Have I just imagined the engine freeze lift?

I kind of assumed that the freeze was lifted because one of the whoe points of the new engine formula was to increase the relevance and technology transfer to the motoring industry. But that definitely sounds like a freeze to me which only makes sense from a cost containment point of view.

I've read through the power unit parts of the Sporting Regulations and the Technical Regulations and found the following.

The TR say that an engine freeze is phased in between 2014 and 2018. Every year, less parts can be modified. The SR say that an engine provider has to deliver an engine to the FIA for homologation before February 28 2014. My conclusion is then that after homologation, you can't change anything without consent of the other manufacturers. However, in between seasons, you can change the parts the TR allow you to change. Then your new engine is to be homologated by the FIA before the start of 2015. It isn't explicitly said so, but it's the only way in which the SR and TR don't contradict eachother. In effect, we'll still have engine performance development, but just behind the scenes. The effects will be seen between seasons. Some engines may make a development jump in between seasons, rather than slowly catch up during a season. Possibly making one large jump rather than several small steps is cheaper in the production process or something, but I can't see it making a significant difference.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/12/2013 03:37PM by Nickv.

All the internal R+D, bench testing etc will still be going on in the background it'd just be that they wouldn't be able to race the developments until the new season?