Thoughts on 2014

[Melman Giraffe]

ZX10R NIN said:

The Vambo said:

ZX10R NIN said:

I thought Hamilton would dominate Rosberg this season

He did, well done.

He won he didn't dominate, there is a difference

To be fair if Lewis had better reliability at the start of the season ha probably would have dominated. I believe he still out raced Nico!!

[Scuffers]

Ahonen said:

Jabbah said:

Scuffers said:

All ecu code is the same, as checked by the fia

Customers get the exact same as the factory team.

The same doesn't go for the maps though. They get base maps but each team needs to customise them (with the help of the supplier) to extract the maximum from the package they have developed.

Yes, correct. There are slightly different levels of control system. As with so many things there is an extra cost if Sir would like to purchase the 'maximum performance' variant.

are you sure about that?

under the homologation stuff I am sure there were rules put in place over the maps themselves (in terms of having to be above board as to what was what etc) and equality between teams?

Speaking to friends at HPE, I do not get the impression that the customers are treated any differently in terms of what they are supplied (to the point, the guys bolting the engines together have no idea who will end up with them).

I do think there is some 'wins' for Merc on packaging, but I don't believe it's night and day stuff, after all, Merc are the only team to have ERS failures with the engine, the customer teams have not hit that one (which implies something in Merc's packaging is more marginal or they are using it harder than the others).

[marshall100]

Norfolkit said:

Echo all of the above plus one thing, how the hell has Kimi kept his seat at Ferrari, what's he done this year to deserve being kept on?

Don't think he's done anything to slate the team or the car, meanwhile Fred has made all the noise....

Car better be more to his liking next year, but with Ferrari enjoying some turbulence, I very much doubt it.

[Europa1]

To me the new engines have improved the spectacle:
- the amount of torque they generate means it's easy for the drivers to get the ambition/talent equation wrong - there have been some great "moments" from all of the drivers at various points during the season;
- coupled to the above: you can hear the tyres squeal when the back end steps out; and
- you can hear the noise of the the crowd.

And as feats of technology they are incredible.

And now I'll duck...

[Jabbah]

Scuffers said:

are you sure about that?

Wouldn't bet my life on it.

Scuffers said:

under the homologation stuff I am sure there were rules put in place over the maps themselves (in terms of having to be above board as to what was what etc) and equality between teams?

If the rules are strongly worded enough to stop any wiggle room then it may put a stop to it.

Scuffers said:

Speaking to friends at HPE, I do not get the impression that the customers are treated any differently in terms of what they are supplied (to the point, the guys bolting the engines together have no idea who will end up with them).

As part of the contract to supply engines they have a dedicated Mercedes team that work with them to extract the maximum performance. In that respect they are not treated any differently. Would be interesting to know exactly what the rules cover in what maps and data must be shared between teams. Let's say at the beginning of the year all teams are supplied the same "optimised" map that has some head room. Assuming the Merc works team has the largest and best engine team they will be able to extract more performance through the year and maybe much more at the beginning. Would they have to share that?

It is in the interest of Merc to have all the Merc powered teams performing as well as possible though beating other manufacturers so your're right in that even if such things weren't covered by the rules, it would make no sense to not provide as much info and support as necessary to get them performing as well as possible.

[andy-xr]

I enjoyed it this year. Had some personal downsides, mainly because I dont pay for the F1 channel on Sky, so wasnt able to watch some of the races.

I think generally that was a good year, fine with the engine sounds, doesnt bother me whether they scream or whisper. The way they've been engineered is pretty cool, the amount of hybrid stuff on them blows my mind. Fuel limits = good. Red Bull testing those limits = good. Getting a bloody nose for exceeding those limits (RB or anyone) = good.

The new regulations show drivers up for what they are. You see with people like Vettel, when he's got a car under him he likes he really drives it well. When it's not so good, he struggles to adapt. I think he's jumping into the fire with Ferrari

Few highlights: mostly Lewis vs Nico stuff, but also some really good racing between Alonso and Button. Daniel Ricciardo has been a complete superstar this season, drove way better than I expected what should have been a #2 seat

Lowlights: Bianchi overall, and McLaren being ttty for not announcing the driver lineup in a decent timeframe. McLaren as a whole really, they've underperformed so badly over the last 4 years that you start to wonder whether they'll ever get it together or just call it a day. Caterham and MArussia showing that F1 isnt a level playing field, and having 2 teams practically disappear mid season isnt a good look for the sport.

[Jabbah]

Thoughts on the year:

- Really like the technical side so loving the new engines
- Prefer the noise of the old engines
- Surprised by how close Rosberg was throughout the year
- Surprised by how much Rosberg wanted it
- Impressed by Hamilton's more mature approach
- Not surprised by silly arguments over who had the worst reliability
- Williams ended up Mercedes closest competitor
- Ricciardo - Wow!
- Vettel was lost without his blown diffuser
- Wavering McLaren support over driver issues
- Double points caused so much strife and then didn't matter
- Politics

[fatboy69]

Cars - ugly as hell.

Engines - noise is crap (hopefully this will be remedied for 2015).

Racing - some great racing behind the Mercedes.

Teams - awful pity to loose Marussia & maybe Caterham for 2015.

Jules - such a tragedy that a potentially top class racer has been lost in such a cruel way. At least he is home now, by that I
mean back in France, and we can only hope & pray for a miracle.

Champion - Lewis thoroughly deserved the title this year even though at times earlier in the season the title looked beyond
his grasp. Well done Lewis. A worthy World Champion.








Finally - Michael Schumacher. As with Jules such a tragedy. Thoughts & prayers with both families.

[Scuffers]

Jabbah said:

Thoughts on the year:

- Really like the technical side so loving the new engines
- Prefer the noise of the old engines
- Surprised by how close Rosberg was throughout the year
- Surprised by how much Rosberg wanted it
- Impressed by Hamilton's more mature approach
- Not surprised by silly arguments over who had the worst reliability
- Williams ended up Mercedes closest competitor
- Ricciardo - Wow!
- Vettel was lost without his blown diffuser
- Wavering McLaren support over driver issues
- Double points caused so much strife and then didn't matter
- Politics

in response!

I still don't like the characterless engines (and not enough power)
Technical side? of what? driving to a target laptime all the time?
Yes, impressed that Nico was not left for dead and pushed ever harder.
Yes, Impressed by Lewis and the way he went about the year.
very impressed with Williams, looking forward to what they can do next year.
Ricciardo - what's to not like?

additionally, still hate the tyres, one hard lap and they are stuffed, the drivers are still driving to the tyres, not as fast as the cars can go (even with fuel limits)

I do, however, really appreciate that with the lower aero on these cars they are having to be driven more, and are sliding about more, the more aero we can shed, the better IMHO.

[Jabbah]

Scuffers said:

I still don't like the characterless engines (and not enough power)
Technical side? of what? driving to a target laptime all the time?

I think the engines have different character, not less, and the drivers seem to love them for the torque they produce. I would say the driving to a target lap time is more a result of the rules with the max flow rate and overall fuel usage during a race. If you increased those then you would increase the power and not have everyone short shifting. The different ways of recovering energy from the engines and control of the turbo I find very interesting though. IMO it will be a shame if they move to simpler engines with old style ERS.

Scuffers said:

additionally, still hate the tyres, one hard lap and they are stuffed, the drivers are still driving to the tyres, not as fast as the cars can go (even with fuel limits)

I do, however, really appreciate that with the lower aero on these cars they are having to be driven more, and are sliding about more, the more aero we can shed, the better IMHO.

I'm with you on the tyres, they could definitely be improved although they are better than being able to do the whole race on a single set. Lower aero is great too, less the better! (But still with wings of course)

[spats]

Europa1 said:

To me the new engines have improved the spectacle:
- the amount of torque they generate means it's easy for the drivers to get the ambition/talent equation wrong - there have been some great "moments" from all of the drivers at various points during the season;
- coupled to the above: you can hear the tyres squeal when the back end steps out; and
- you can hear the noise of the the crowd.

And as feats of technology they are incredible.

And now I'll duck...

Europa1 said:

To me the new engines have improved the spectacle:
- the amount of torque they generate means it's easy for the drivers to get the ambition/talent equation wrong - there have been some great "moments" from all of the drivers at various points during the season;
- coupled to the above: you can hear the tyres squeal when the back end steps out; and
- you can hear the noise of the the crowd.

And as feats of technology they are incredible.

And now I'll duck...

Agreed on the engines. I normally put the 6.1 amp on during the race, makes the difference I think. But even without that they sound great. You have the turbo spooling up, the deep engine note and you can hear the tyres and even the crowd.

So Ups this year was :
The engine
The race for the number one spot being great to watch
Watching DR taking the Bull by the horns
Williams coming back to give a good show
Double points NOT deciding the actual result
Apart from the "dong" in the front wings, the cars looked great.
The decision to stop so much driver "coaching" during the race was a good one too.

The Downs:
Buttons future being uncertain due to management numpties
Jules crash
Bernie the troll
The loss of 2 teams

[MiniMan64]

Norfolkit said:

Echo all of the above plus one thing, how the hell has Kimi kept his seat at Ferrari, what's he done this year to deserve being kept on?

Agreed.

I had wondered if perhaps with the arrival of Vettel if Bianchi was finally destined for the seat but fate intervened.

[Scuffers]

Jabbah said:

I'm with you on the tyres, they could definitely be improved although they are better than being able to do the whole race on a single set. Lower aero is great too, less the better! (But still with wings of course)

way I see it, we need to go back to a tyre war.

from the teams perspective, it would reduce the cost of their tyre bill (at the moment they just have to pay what they are told), it would push tyre development (actually move tyre tech forwards in a non-artificial way), would provide another layer of competition, etc etc.

they need to have tyres that are properly soft (and thus offer great performance, but wear out correspondingly faster, NOT go off and fall apart), against more durable, slower tyres (that once again, don't fall apart at the first signs of being pushed hard).

if we could then go to single-element front wings, job done.

[KaraK]

I liked 2014 on the whole, thought we had a good number of exciting races regardless of Merc dominance. Anyway here's some of my ramblings on a few things from 2014..

• Engines - overall I liked them, the extra torque gave us some interesting slides etc and to be honest the sound grew on me after a couple of races.

• Rosberg - I've been critical of Rosberg in the past for not really bothering to turn up on Sundays and while he has shown that he can't really hold a candle to Hamilton in wheel-to-wheel racing he was clearly more committed this year. In my mind his dignity in defeat on Sunday went at least some way towards repairing the damage to his reputation after Monaco/Spa.

• Hamilton - I wonder if this year has started to make people sit up and take notice that the Taz of old has been replaced by a much more cerebral and mature racer. LH seemed a lot less emotionally/mentally fragile then in previous years and controversially I think he might just have learned a thing or two about the benefits of being smooth from a certain Mr Button during their time together. Add in the fact that he has got the difficult second title under his belt and he could be seriously difficult to beat next year.

• Ricciardo - Massively impressed, I've always rated him as solid (and likeable). But he's got some serious chops as well! One of the better wheel-to-wheel guys in the field IMO.

• Williams - Always had a bit of affinity for them as they were "my team" growing up, it's great to see them back in the hunt!

• Vettel - Confirmed what I always thought really, the blown diffuser really suited him and without it he struggles to extract the best from the car. Whether he will adapt in time I'm not sure but after 19 races he doesn't seem to have mastered it yet. You'd expect better from someone who many hold up as a true great.

• Button - Quietly got on with it and IMHO drove brilliantly all year. Doesn't deserve the way McLaren are mucking him around.

• Double Points - What a crock! Glad it didn't really make a difference in the end. Controversially while I'd much rather not have it at all I actually think Bernie's idea of it being the last three races would have been better then just the one.

• Raikkonen - he got a great deal of flak this year but really there wasn't any surprises for me. Since he first entered F1 his achillies heel has always been that come-what-may he needs a car with a sharply responsive front end. The F14-T didn't have this so he was at sea all year.

• Crowdfunding - I know I'm probably one of the minority here but I actually applaud Caterham for doing this. People can talk about Marussia being more "deserving" all they like but the Administrators at Caterham got off their arses and did something that worked. Fair play to them really. Now if we can just get a crowdfunding off the ground to get rid of Maldonado...

• Bianchi - Yes motorsport can be dangerous (and it probably always will be) but accepting that doesn't mean we don't want it to be as safe as it can be. The racing is what I want to see not people getting hurt. Watching the excellent Rush just after seeing the Japanese GP brought home to me that we have made big progress in making the sport a great deal safer at least. Fingers crossed his recovery goes as well as it can do!

• Tyres - Slightly surprised to see so many people still talking about the tyres ruining the racing - surely the Sochi snooze-fest showed that they are actually hugely beneficial to it?

• Random secrecy - the whole saga about people not being confirmed in various seats (even when we all know what is happening) and the weird way that no-one is allowed to tell how the third-car regs would work was baffling and to be honest it all got rather boring rather quickly.

• Rookies - Kvyat impressed, Magnussen was "ok", I'd have liked to see him in a midfield team next year to give him a chance to learn the ropes a bit more, in fact IIRC that was the orginal plan for this year. Ericsson was anonymous but he was driving for Caterham so maybe we'll find out a bit more about him next year when he's at Sauber. Will Stevens seemed to do pretty well all things considered - making your debut in the season finale with essentially no notice and for a team that was only barely in existence would be a tough ask for anyone so I think he deserves a bit of a pat on the back.

[wanacoop]

I was very excited about this season, with all the big changes. The main thing I wanted to see,was any other team challenge redbull!! I was sick of the bleddy finger, and f1 revolving around it.
So I have been delighted to see teams beating redbull, and amazed that riccardo has been so good, so soon. I'm intrigued to see how Vettel compares to kimi, as he's been simply average this season.

I've found it a boring that the mercs have had it so easy, the gap was just too big. Has any car in history been as dominant as that? Impressed by Lewis and nico, although I did think Lewis would hammer him.

I was expecting a far closer duel between the Ferrari's really. Is alonso that much better than kimi? Hard to believe he is.

I thought reliability would have been far more of an issue, impressive how good these engineers are!

All in all not bad, nice to see Williams doing well, but not a great year for me, the mercs were just too good, it was just a race between two men.

[entropy]

Scuffers said:

additionally, still hate the tyres, one hard lap and they are stuffed, the drivers are still driving to the tyres, not as fast as the cars can go (even with fuel limits)

Not sure I fully agree. Primes have generally been good but certainly the options have been crap at some races.

The flipside is the Russian GP when the tyres were too hard it was considered a boring race by consensus even though the cars were driven on the limit.

But really the main worry wasn't thermal degradation and being careful about not overheating the tyres, it was more about managing the graining phase because this part of tyre performance has always been a black art.

[S0 What]

Oldwolf said:

Firstly, thrilled that Lewis won the WDC
Secondly, massively imprssed with the Aussie Smiler
Third, sad if JB doesn't get a top drive for 2015, except I personnally would like to see him in WEC next year

Other thoughts, Sky have done a great job, Martin Brundle is very good, I like Rosberg less than I did atthe beginning of the season but more than I did half way through.

All in all I've enjoyed this year

I'm with you there, allowing for the threat and arival of merc tech issues i think it wasn't too boring in the respect of 1 car allways winning?
I must admit to feeling for Nico when he asked to finish the last race, you could hear he was totaly deflated and just wanted to finish the season on track.

Simon has really come on in the sky team, i really didn't rate him in the first year but this season he really seems to have gelled (sp?) with the rest of the team, i spose messing about in planes and jetskis will do that

Next year will be the big tell, can DR walk over his new team mate as he did this year and will seb show the broad range of talent so many people think he doesn't have (i'm still on the fence on that one myself) in the Fezza?

Toto and Lauda were a revalation to me, a breath of fresh air in the pitlane IMHO, they handled the season pretty dam well.

Mclaren left me despairing, again.
Williams resurgance was a sight to behold, i'm so happy to see then kicking the bigger teans arses once again appart from the compleatly, totaly badly worded "valtteri is faster than you" they had a great season.

Edited by S0 What on Saturday 29th November 23:49

[rdjohn]

I went to the 3rd day of the Jerez test. At that time the RB could hardly leave the garage and the Sauber could not travel the length of the pitlane. Only the Mercs and Williams could complete a number of laps, as they wished.

So for me just getting these engines to work, without them running out of fuel seems one of the big accomplishments of the year. RB coming second in the WCC and actually winning some races shows the depth of their resources and, if Renault can get their act together, they should be able to pressure Mercedes at even more circuits in 2015.

But this was always destined to be Mercedes' year and fortunately Nico and unreliability stopped it being a Lewis walkover.

The saddest elements remain Jules, the continuing decline of the small teams and the sheer contempt of the sport by all those who comprise the strategy group.

[stephen300o]

This is the season I have had the least interest in since starting to watch in the mid eighties, all the factors of an overly dominant team, undramatic cars and a stale tv production made it quite missable.

[Jonsnow606]

Been watching f1 since the early 90's, and I must say, I've thoroughly enjoyed this season. I can't think of a more entertaining season.
Granted, we had one of the most dominant cars in history, but we also had 2 top drivers, and the championship that went down to the wire. Some of the battle the pair have had have been very entertaining to watch.

If we have another season similar to this one next year, I'll be a happy man. Especially if Lewis makes it 3 at the end of it