The F1 Thread 2014 Season

That's what testing is for I guess, especially with such radical changes.

I'm routing for Ferrari this year anyway - Forza Kimi!
 
F1 needs another McLaren vs Ferrari season, I mean I want to see Mercedes win really but Ferrari vs McLaren is always great.

Lauda vs Hunt
Senna vs Prost
Hakkinen vs Schumacher
Alonso/Hamilton vs Raikkonen
 
Any more info on that? Do they think it will be a big advantage possibly?
Supposedly goes a fair way to replace the beam-wing that was banned for this season.

Newey's said he thinks it's illegal without having seen it, but he always says that about stuff he hasn't thought of in fairness.
 
Any more info on that? Do they think it will be a big advantage possibly?

Yes, with the lower beam of the wing now removed under 2014 regulations, the talk is that this suspension acts as a airflow route to the monkey seat allowing downforce at slower speed, and reducing overall drag at high speed. Difficult to see if it will give any advantage as testing times are pretty irrelevant at this stage, i would say the only indication fans would see is how well the McLaren turns in is in the mid speed corners at testing (Youtube is the best place).

It's not an easy thing to copy mind, McLaren's design interlocks with about 4-5 different pieces specific to their car. So teams who do try it, might not get the same performance benefit. I'd be surprised if nothing is mentioned before Bahrain, not in protest of the concept, just that they'll struggle to replicate it.
 
Have to say, and I know it's early days, but Red Bull look in trouble right now. They've missed the first test before and still won the championship, but that wasn't in a year of massive changes and it also wasn't due to severe reliability problems. Still, you can never count them out.
 
Plenty of time to get things sorted before Australia, If they're still having issue at the Bahrain test then they might be in trouble. Hard to tell if it's a Renault issue as they're not saying much at the moment.
 
Bit of both Red Bull and Renault by the looks of it, no Renault engined car is having a good time of it right now but Red Bull seem to be having the worst of it due to the packaging. I think with the limited testing and extent of the rule changes this is about as bad a start as you could hope for, but as you say there's still time to turn it around. Will chuckle if they don't though.
 
Holy cow. Might explain why Boullier said there'd be more than just Lotus missing the first test a few weeks back.
 
That is one sick sounding engine. Hopefully they can get it sorted so we have a very open and competitive field.
Supposedly goes a fair way to replace the beam-wing that was banned for this season.

Newey's said he thinks it's illegal without having seen it, but he always says that about stuff he hasn't thought of in fairness.
Yes, with the lower beam of the wing now removed under 2014 regulations, the talk is that this suspension acts as a airflow route to the monkey seat allowing downforce at slower speed, and reducing overall drag at high speed. Difficult to see if it will give any advantage as testing times are pretty irrelevant at this stage, i would say the only indication fans would see is how well the McLaren turns in is in the mid speed corners at testing (Youtube is the best place).
It's not an easy thing to copy mind, McLaren's design interlocks with about 4-5 different pieces specific to their car. So teams who do try it, might not get the same performance benefit. I'd be surprised if nothing is mentioned before Bahrain, not in protest of the concept, just that they'll struggle to replicate it.
Thanks for that guys.
 
Pretty much a disaster test for the Renault powered teams, I mean they can put a brave face on it but given the limited mileage of pre-season tests these days it puts them on the back foot with very little actual meaningful running. They essentially will have to start from scratch at the next test given they probably don't even know how good their base car is, let alone adding to it.
 
Pretty much a disaster test for the Renault powered teams, I mean they can put a brave face on it but given the limited mileage of pre-season tests these days it puts them on the back foot with very little actual meaningful running. They essentially will have to start from scratch at the next test given they probably don't even know how good their base car is, let alone adding to it.
Even that's assuming they can get the engine running properly for Bahrain, which according to rumours is far from a given.
 
Even that's assuming they can get the engine running properly for Bahrain, which according to rumours is far from a given.

Yeah that too, 19 days isn't much time to correct issues if its a fundamental flaw.
 
Anyone else feeling that this is going to be the most exciting F1 we will be seeing in half a decade? You have the complete change of engine and body of the car, a new teammate for Vettel and some dire testing for Red bull, a mouthwatering combo of Raikonnen and Alonso for Ferrari, Brawn stepping down from Mercedes, Boullier replacing Whitmarsh with Ron Dennis and Honda coming into McLaren, and the most accident-prone combo of Maldonado and Grosjean. It's going to be incredibly exciting I reckon, roll on the 16th March!
 
The cars are considerably slower but they're also tricky as hell to drive so it should make for exciting racing.

Hopefully.
 
£100m disagrees with your statement. They've already started pumping the money into McLaren.

Wow, I didn't know that. That's a lot of money. Jesus.

I'm still hoping we see the white and orange cars back next year :D
 
It's not particularly clear either way, just reports for the moment. Makes sense for them to be investing now though, they want to be at the front from the off in 2015. Wonder what the rules are on using an oldish car as an engine mule these days, considering Renault's problems of late. They do have quite a good track at their disposal, after all...
 
Only just seen that Gary Anderson has left the BBC, he was the best part of their coverage ffs.
 
Someone had to go with McNish there, however I agree it's a silly move on the BBC's behalf.
 
Interesting viewpoint from someone in the industry at reddit

As somebody who has worked in F1 during Gary's time at the BBC, this is a good move. The man is completely out of touch with the industry having been absent from it for over 10 years. Everybody in the team groaned when we watched his explanations of technical aspects of our car - they were pure speculation from his part and wrong 90% of the time - however he portrays then as facts.

I understand that people are interested in all these details (including myself now that I am not in the industry any more), but if the BBC can find somebody with more recent experience to replace him, then their coverage will be much better for it.
 
Red Bull again not having a good time in testing.
6449b5b3-0f7c-4a81-996d-ac60e7fdf5d3_800.jpg
 
Lap times
1. Nico Hulkenberg (Force India) 1:36.8

2. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) 1:37.8

3. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 1:37.9

4. Kevin Magnussen (McLaren) 1:38.2

5. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) 1:40.2

6. Adrian Sutil (Sauber) 1:40.4

7. Robin Frijns (Caterham) 1:42.5

8. Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso) 1:44.3

9. Romain Grosjean (Lotus) 1:44.8

10. Felipe Massa (Williams); Jules Bianchi (Marussia) no time
 
Seems silly, its like they want to change stuff for the sake of changing it at this point. They already basically just changed the whole Formula and now they want to start dabling in stuff thats been around for donkeys years "because".
 
No tyre warmers is a stupid idea, they have been around for ages and IMHO are needed.
Sending cold rubber on to a wet and cold track is asking for an accident, it OK some saying it will test the drivers more and they might be right, I just think it would be taking risks that don't need to be taken.
I can understand the new engines and wanting to reduce the cost of F1 but this new ones is risking drivers lives.
 
Don't we already get the occasional crash as a result of someone coming out on fresh rubber. Removing the tyre warmers, will only increase that. Though it may hinder teams undercutting each other as well to a small extent, as out laps are likely going to be slower.
 
I remember donkeys years ago someone spinning coming out of pitlane and going straight across the main straight and crashing, something that could have been deadly if the timing was unfortunate. I think it was Berger but I'm not sure, I think his car broke or something but the effect from lighting up stone cold tyres coming out of pitlane would have the same effect.

If they seriously are doing it because of green issues then they are living in cloud cuckoo land, banning tyre warmers whilst ferrying 24 cars and thousands of staff around the world in jumbo jets is the equivilant of farting in a hurricane. I understand why F1 would go greener with hybrid technology because this funnels back into road cars, removing tyre warmers is just change for the sake of it, nothing good can come out of it.