Moderator Popular Post BOF Posted January 7, 2014 Moderator Popular Post Share Posted January 7, 2014 It's about time we started this season's F1 thread It's taken a while but here's my take on the details and changes from last season to this. Pre-season Testing dates 28/01-31/01 - Jerez 19/02-22/02 - Bahrain 27/02-02/03 - Bahrain Launch dates TBC - Marussia 22/01 - Force India VJM07 first look 23/01 - Williams FW36 first look 24/01 - McLaren MP4-29, Lotus E22 first look 25/01 - Ferrari F14 T 26/01 - Sauber C33 (online launch) 27/01 - Toro Rosso STR9 28/01 - Mercedes F1 W05, Caterham, Red Bull RB10 Team changes. 1. Cosworth have dropped out of F1 meaning Marussia are now powered by Ferrari. 2. Toro Rosso have joined parent company Red Bull by being supplied by Renault 3. Meanwhile Williams have moved away from Renault and have joined up with Mercedes.Driver changes 1. Kimi Raikkonen is the highest profile mover of the winter as he moves from Lotus to Ferrari. 2. Felipe Massa has made way at Ferrari and moved to Williams to partner Valtteri Bottas. 3. Pastor Maldonado left that Williams seat to take Raikkonen's empty seat at Lotus. 4. Mark Webber has left Formula One and his seat at Red Bull has been taken up by Toro Rosso driver and fellow-Aussie Daniel Ricciardo. 5. Ricciardo's seat at Toro Rosso has been given to the highly-rated Russian and 2013 GP3 champion Daniil Kvyat. 6. McLaren have dropped Sergio Perez in favour of Kevin Magnussen, son of former F1 racer Jan Magnussen. 7. Perez is part of a new-for-2014 line-up at Force India that includes prodigal son Nico Hulkenberg who moves there from Sauber. 8. Sauber have taken Adrian Sutil from Force India and stuck by Esteban Gutierrez who needs to up his game. 9. Paul di Resta rather disappointingly misses out on a drive in 2014. 10. Caterham bring back popular Japanese racer, Kamui Kobayashi and partner him with rookie Marcus Eriksson, Sweden's first F1 pilot since Stefan Johanssen in 1991. Sporting changes taken from wikipedia. 1. There is a limited return to mid-season testing. 2. The 'penalty points' system for drivers will be upgraded and 12pts gets you a ban 3. Unsafe pit releases now get a grid penalty for the next race. 4. Drivers can only use 5 engines per season (down from 8). The engine also includes turbo, ERS & KERS all of which can only have 5 per season. There are various penalties for going beyond that number. 5. The FIA have granted themselves the power to change tyre regulations immediately if the need arises (after 2013's disasters) 6. Pit lane speed limit down from 100kmh to 80kmh 7. First free practice extended by 30 minutes in a bid to encourage teams to use rookie drivers. It will include an extra set of tyres that can only be used in first 30 mins of that session. 8. Drivers will be assigned a number that will follow them for the rest of their careers using a system similar to that in MotoGP. #1 is there for the champion IF he chooses to use it. There are other stipulations around the visibility of the number on the car and around qualification places where number used to dictate place. 9. There's a new 'pole trophy' for the driver who gets the most pole positions. 10. The final race of the season will offer double championship points. This is the most revolutionary change from one season to the next that I can remember in F1.(Summarised) Technical changes taken from wikipedia 1. Engines are now 1.6 litre V6 turbo 2. KERS is now ERS-K, it is integrated into the engine and is more powerful. It's place as a supplimentary system has been taken over by ERS which will capture waste heat from the turbo exhaust. Both systems together will give an extra 161bhp for 33 seconds per lap (!) compared to the KERS which used to give 80bhp for 6 seconds. 3. Teams will be permitted to use electronic braking systems to brake the rear wheels. This is because the power from the ERS-K makes it much more difficult to regulate brake bias. 4. For safety, car noses are lower. Down from 550mm in 2012 to 185mm in 2014. Stepped noses have been outlawed requiring a genuine design rather than a workaround. 5. Fuel flow will be restricted above 10,500rpm in order to promote fuel efficiency. 6. Exhausts will angle upwards towards the wing in order to make exhaust-blown diffusers extremely difficult to achieve. 7. Minimum weight increases from 642kg to 690kg. 8. False camera mountings are now banned. This closes a loophole around benefitting from extra aerodynamic pieces masquerading as cameras. Calendar Red Bull have brought the Austrian GP back to F1 after a 10 year absence. Bahrain will join Abu Dhabi as a twilight race. India miss out but they'll be back for 2015. Korea, Mexico & GP of America miss out after being in the provisional calendar. Russia is new to the calendar. It's the first Russian GP in a century and the first F1 race in the country. The US GP was moved to accommodate a University of Texas American Football game. 1 Australia - Melbourne - 16/3/14 2 Malaysia - Sepang - 30/3/14 3 Bahrain - Sakhir - 6/4/14 4 China - Shanghai - 20/4/14 5 Spain - Barcelona - 11/5/14 6 Monaco - Monte Carlo - 25/5/14 7 Canada - Montreal - 8/6/14 8 Austria - Red Bull Ring - 22/6/14 9 Great Britain - Silverstone - 6/7/14 10 Germany - Hockenheim - 20/7/14 11 Hungary - Budapest - 27/7/14 12 Belgium - Spa-Francorchamps - 24/8/14 13 Italy - Monza - 7/9/14 14 Singapore - Singapore - 21/9/14 15 Japan - Suzuka - 5/10/14 16 Russia - Sochi - 12/10/14 17 USA - Austin - 2/11/14 18 Brazil - Interlagos - 9/11/14 19 Abu Dhabi - Yas Marina - 23/11/14 So there you have it. That's what we're in store for in 2014. I usually take note of all pre-season testing and do a rudimentary 'analysis' of it that creates a pretend-WCC at the end. 'They' say you shouldn't take too much notice of pre-season testing and yet according to my table last season, the final WCC was fairly representative of what went on in January & February, so maybe I'll take a little more notice this year. For informational purposes here is the order the WCC finished last season with my pre-season ranking alongside it. Only Ferrari (predictably) were really sandbagging in the end. WCC - TEAM - Pre-season 1. Red Bull 2 2. Mercedes 1 3. Ferrari 6 4. Lotus 3 5. McLaren 4 6. Force India 5 7. Sauber 7 8. Toro Rosso 8 9. Williams 9 10. Marussia 10 11. Caterham 11 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 cant be as boring as last year. can it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFCforever1991 Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 It won't be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avfc96 Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 Mercades to win both championships, with Hamilton taking the drivers title. Surely its about time the smaller teams even picked up one point in a race? This will be their fifth year in Formula one and they have still yet to score a point. Mclaren to have another year where they make little to no impression at the top of end of the championship with twitmarsh being sacked at the end of the season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimzk5 Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 Surely its about time the smaller teams even picked up one point in a race? This will be their fifth year in Formula one and they have still yet to score a point. . when I first started watching f1 around 96/97 the small teams like arrows, minardi, Tyrell would only score points in circumstances when other cars didn't finish, with reliability as strong as it is now, expecting marrusia, with a budget a tenth of some teams, and having max Chilton at the wheel, have little chance of getting in the points and I can't see that changing anytime soon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 I used to love Minardi when they raced. was very very rare they ever picked up a point. I remember the excitement when marc gene came 6th once Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimzk5 Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 I used to love Minardi when they raced. was very very rare they ever picked up a point. I remember the excitement when marc gene came 6th once Ah, the European gp of 1999, Luca badoer was in line for a 4th place until his engine broke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VT Supporter Genie Posted January 7, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted January 7, 2014 I don't really mind if Vettel wins it again as long as he actually has to do some racing. It says more about the sport than him that he's won 4 championships in a row and I don't think too many people really consider him to be one of the greats. I've love to see Lewis, Vettel & Kimi duking it out at the top of the table. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator BOF Posted January 7, 2014 Author Moderator Share Posted January 7, 2014 and 'nando.Can't wait to see Kimi v Alonso no matter how good the Ferrari is. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VT Supporter villarule123 Posted January 7, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted January 7, 2014 I wonder if it'll improve enough for me to watch more than 5 minutes of a race. Last season was the worst I've ever seen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator BOF Posted January 7, 2014 Author Moderator Share Posted January 7, 2014 The turbos will make it worth it on their own. Having five engines a season with a turbo strapped to it ... I can see explosions :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VT Supporter Stevo985 Posted January 8, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted January 8, 2014 (edited) I wonder if it'll improve enough for me to watch more than 5 minutes of a race. Last season was the worst I've ever seen. My dad has watched F1 his whole life, he's a massive massive fan. In my entire memory, so let's say at least 20 years, I don't remember him ever missing a race. He probably has, but I'd genuinely say I could count them on one hand in that period. Even if he has to tape them and watch them later, even if he's already found out the result, and even if he's on holiday so he doesn't get home for 2 weeks after the race has happened, he'll still watch the race. It's the only sport he likes and he never misses it. That is until last season. Even he stopped watching last year. Edited January 8, 2014 by Stevo985 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator BOF Posted January 8, 2014 Author Moderator Share Posted January 8, 2014 He can't be an isolated incident either. I know I missed a lot of races through sheer lack of interest. Hopefully this season's massive rule change has come in time to pique the interest of those fans. I know it has for me. And I hope it pans out as excitingly as it could do. I'm also remaining hopeful that Abu Double is reversed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
privateer Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Pretty good OP, BOF, but I'd have been more impressed if you'd done it in the style of keenan! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator BOF Posted January 8, 2014 Author Moderator Share Posted January 8, 2014 It might have gotten more likes that way Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
privateer Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 It might have gotten more likes that way Ah, shit, man, just noticed it hadn't got any! Well it has now, even if it is sub-keenan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator BOF Posted January 8, 2014 Author Moderator Share Posted January 8, 2014 It might have gotten more likes that way Ah, shit, man, just noticed it hadn't got any! Well it has now, even if it is sub-keenan. We can only aspire to be like him *shrug* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
privateer Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 It might have gotten more likes that way Ah, shit, man, just noticed it hadn't got any! Well it has now, even if it is sub-keenan. We can only despair to be like him *shrug* Fixed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator BOF Posted January 8, 2014 Author Moderator Share Posted January 8, 2014 Testing dates and launch dates added to OP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimzk5 Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 (edited) Caterham hinting that kamui Kobayashi will be one of there drivers next year, wonder who's being given the chop out of vdg and pic Edit, pic likely to be sacrificed apparently Edited January 9, 2014 by Jimzk5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts