Into the great unknown -- F1 in 2014
Looking ahead a week to the start of the F1 season, one of the most unpredictable seasons in years, thanks to the wholesale change in regulations. No team has really come away from testing without any worries or reliability issues, even those who have got plenty of running. Even Mercedes has had engine and gearbox issues in the final few days of testing. Still, they are probably favourites going to Australia, with both Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg showing well in testing.
Surprisingly, their closest rival seems to be a resurgent Williams team, now with Mercedes engines. After a few years in the doldrums the former champions have been running extremely well at nearly every test. Felipe Massa has been setting some very fast times for his new team, backed up by the excellent young Finn, Valtierri Bottas. Complete with their excellent new Martini colour scheme, Williams have jumped to the front of the pack again.
Force India, another Mercedes-powered team, have also been going well, fast and with plenty of laps under their belts. It would be good to see Nico Hulkenberg running near the front for the team, especially after he was let down badly by Lotus, due to their funding crisis. Now he must look back at that saga as a lucky escape.
Ferrari and McLaren should be in the hunt, though both seem to lack ultimate pace. However, outright pace might not be the key to winning races, as with restricted fuel, managing the entire race without running out of fuel in the closing stages could prove the real winner. Guys like Alonso and Button might come into the equation late in the early races.
The Renault teams are in all sorts of dire problems. Few of them have done anything like race distances, often stopping with all manner of problems. It will be miraculous if Red Bull and Lotus are still around come the end of the Aussie GP, and hard to see where much substantative improvement will come before the teams get back to Europe. For multiple world champion Sebastian Vettel, 2014 is looking like it might be a character-building experience, but one where he might be able to demonstrate his abilities by wringing results out of a less than perfect car, which would quiet those critics who say he only won because he was in the best car (ie, usually one designed by Adrian Newey).
The Australian race probably won’t tell us who will win the 2014 championship, but it will give valuable insights into which teams and drivers have really got to grips with the new regulations, with small, turbocharged engines allied to advanced energy recovery and re-use systems, making them rolling testbeds for future commercial use, something that hasn’t been true of Formula One cars for decades now.
Surprisingly, their closest rival seems to be a resurgent Williams team, now with Mercedes engines. After a few years in the doldrums the former champions have been running extremely well at nearly every test. Felipe Massa has been setting some very fast times for his new team, backed up by the excellent young Finn, Valtierri Bottas. Complete with their excellent new Martini colour scheme, Williams have jumped to the front of the pack again.
Force India, another Mercedes-powered team, have also been going well, fast and with plenty of laps under their belts. It would be good to see Nico Hulkenberg running near the front for the team, especially after he was let down badly by Lotus, due to their funding crisis. Now he must look back at that saga as a lucky escape.
Ferrari and McLaren should be in the hunt, though both seem to lack ultimate pace. However, outright pace might not be the key to winning races, as with restricted fuel, managing the entire race without running out of fuel in the closing stages could prove the real winner. Guys like Alonso and Button might come into the equation late in the early races.
The Renault teams are in all sorts of dire problems. Few of them have done anything like race distances, often stopping with all manner of problems. It will be miraculous if Red Bull and Lotus are still around come the end of the Aussie GP, and hard to see where much substantative improvement will come before the teams get back to Europe. For multiple world champion Sebastian Vettel, 2014 is looking like it might be a character-building experience, but one where he might be able to demonstrate his abilities by wringing results out of a less than perfect car, which would quiet those critics who say he only won because he was in the best car (ie, usually one designed by Adrian Newey).
The Australian race probably won’t tell us who will win the 2014 championship, but it will give valuable insights into which teams and drivers have really got to grips with the new regulations, with small, turbocharged engines allied to advanced energy recovery and re-use systems, making them rolling testbeds for future commercial use, something that hasn’t been true of Formula One cars for decades now.