The 2014 Formula1 Thread!

[satyajitmenon]

I have much more respect for Alonso this season than I've ever had. To see him put that car in places it has no business being in, made the season much more interesting to watch.

If Vettel can work with Ferrari over the next few years to bring them back to their winning ways, similar to how Schumacher did, it would help establish his legacy as not just a good driver, but one of the best. There are many F1 fans who do not give him the amount of credit/respect is due a 4-time Drivers Champion. The challenge he's going to face is that he doesn't have that killer combination of Jean Todt and Ross Brawn at the helm.

 

[JulesMaximus]

I have much more respect for Alonso this season than I've ever had. To see him put that car in places it has no business being in, made the season much more interesting to watch.

If Vettel can work with Ferrari over the next few years to bring them back to their winning ways, similar to how Schumacher did, it would help establish his legacy as not just a good driver, but one of the best. There are many F1 fans who do not give him the amount of credit/respect is due a 4-time Drivers Champion. The challenge he's going to face is that he doesn't have that killer combination of Jean Todt and Ross Brawn at the helm.

Or Adrian Newey and Christian Horner...

Vettel has been outclassed by his young teammate at nearly every race this season.

Daniel Ricciardo 238 points
Sebastian Vettel 167 points

 

[The Boston Dangler]

both hamilton and rosberg drove at career-best levels this year, superior car aside. nico didn't lose the title in this race, hamilton won it with his 5 straight wins in the 2nd half of the season. let's not forget, this was ross brawn's car - what a way to retire!

meanwhile at ferrari...
alonso said changing the team principal earlier would have made no difference to him. "the problems are bigger than 1 man."

today, ferrari dropped mattiacci for maurizio arrivabene, a philip morris man of 27 years. btw, philip morris is sponsors ferrari for $250 million/year, despite a ban on tobacco ads.

 

[LTC8K6]

Sergio Marchionne is on the Board of Directors of Philip Morris...

 

[The Boston Dangler]

Sergio Marchionne is on the Board of Directors of Philip Morris...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergio_Marchionne

quite the busy beaver

 

[Railgun]

I know this is a stretch, but I would love to see, at the end of the season, or perhaps in the middle during the break, an IROC like race...just a single race, of completely identical cars.

The last 5 years, Hamilton has been 4th or 5th while Vettel pretty much dominated with Alonso behind in most cases. This year, given the monster of a car that MB had, and that no one could develop anything close really, it was a total reversal.

That being said, I'd love to see a pure drivers race in F1 with this kind of series. It would be so much more of an interesting race and really close the book on who is a better driver. I would think that we can all agree that two cars flying ahead of the rest of the field got pretty tiresome before too long. Great battles in the middle of the field, but as Sky goes, not all that much focus on them. I didn't watch BBC at all for any of the races so no idea how their coverage was.

I won't even get into the cluster that is how these teams receive money. I really hope Bernie gets his thumb out of his ass and fixes it.

 

[JulesMaximus]

I know this is a stretch, but I would love to see, at the end of the season, or perhaps in the middle during the break, an IROC like race...just a single race, of completely identical cars.

The last 5 years, Hamilton has been 4th or 5th while Vettel pretty much dominated with Alonso behind in most cases. This year, given the monster of a car that MB had, and that no one could develop anything close really, it was a total reversal.

That being said, I'd love to see a pure drivers race in F1 with this kind of series. It would be so much more of an interesting race and really close the book on who is a better driver. I would think that we can all agree that two cars flying ahead of the rest of the field got pretty tiresome before too long. Great battles in the middle of the field, but as Sky goes, not all that much focus on them. I didn't watch BBC at all for any of the races so no idea how their coverage was.

I won't even get into the cluster that is how these teams receive money. I really hope Bernie gets his thumb out of his ass and fixes it.

Well, Alonso and Hamilton were teammates for one season and Hamilton was as fast or faster than Alonso on a number of occasions... in the same car.

 

[felang]

I know this is a stretch, but I would love to see, at the end of the season, or perhaps in the middle during the break, an IROC like race...just a single race, of completely identical cars.

The last 5 years, Hamilton has been 4th or 5th while Vettel pretty much dominated with Alonso behind in most cases. This year, given the monster of a car that MB had, and that no one could develop anything close really, it was a total reversal.

That being said, I'd love to see a pure drivers race in F1 with this kind of series. It would be so much more of an interesting race and really close the book on who is a better driver. I would think that we can all agree that two cars flying ahead of the rest of the field got pretty tiresome before too long. Great battles in the middle of the field, but as Sky goes, not all that much focus on them. I didn't watch BBC at all for any of the races so no idea how their coverage was.

I won't even get into the cluster that is how these teams receive money. I really hope Bernie gets his thumb out of his ass and fixes it.

Formula E is great for this reason alone. Don´t really care for the "green" car hype but both races so far have been action packed.

 

[manimal]

Well, Alonso and Hamilton were teammates for one season and Hamilton was as fast or faster than Alonso on a number of occasions... in the same car.

The British team clearly went behind the native when they realized he was very competitive not unlike Red Bull this year. Alonso saw the writing on the wall and it ruined his confidence like it did for Seb this year. Alonso in the last few years is a much better driver at dealing with adversity. He has publicly said he didnt like the philosophy and direction of the car since they were building the car around Hamilton. If it was Ferrari and a kid italian driver comes along I would expect them to do the same.




We should learn alot about these drivers next year if they unlock the engines. With all the budget talks i am afraid we will see more MB dominance. Its unfair to expect the Honda power unit to come in this strong. They got very few laps in during the test yesterday.

 

[Railgun]

Formula E is great for this reason alone. Don´t really care for the "green" car hype but both races so far have been action packed.

I've only seen the first ra....yaaaaaaaawwwwn...ce so far.

 

[tweakmonkey]

I would think that we can all agree that two cars flying ahead of the rest of the field got pretty tiresome before too long.

This is how F1 almost always turns out unfortunately

Just a few come to mind... Mclaren-Honda, Benetton, Ferrari, Brawn, RB, Mercedes.

 

[JulesMaximus]

The British team clearly went behind the native when they realized he was very competitive not unlike Red Bull this year. Alonso saw the writing on the wall and it ruined his confidence like it did for Seb this year. Alonso in the last few years is a much better driver at dealing with adversity. He has publicly said he didnt like the philosophy and direction of the car since they were building the car around Hamilton. If it was Ferrari and a kid italian driver comes along I would expect them to do the same.

We should learn alot about these drivers next year if they unlock the engines. With all the budget talks i am afraid we will see more MB dominance. Its unfair to expect the Honda power unit to come in this strong. They got very few laps in during the test yesterday.

Last year I would have agreed with you but with the title fight this year with Nico Rosberg I think Hamilton has really matured. I fully expected his usual tantrums and emotional outbreaks but he has stayed focused and has shown a lot of poise and class which has really elevated my opinion of him as a person and a driver.

Call me a fan.

 

[Skurge]

This is how F1 almost always turns out unfortunately

Just a few come to mind... Mclaren-Honda, Benetton, Ferrari, Brawn, RB, Mercedes.

It's better than 1 car following the other every race. At least there was a fight for almost each win.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

I would think that we can all agree that two cars flying ahead of the rest of the field got pretty tiresome before too long. Great battles in the middle of the field, but as Sky goes, not all that much focus on them. I didn't watch BBC at all for any of the races so no idea how their coverage was.

i haven't watched bbc since they went to only partial season coverage. i watch sky as it's miles better than the domestic program, but pre-sky bbc was the best. even itv was better than the american shows, then and now.

f1 is closer in this era than ever before, even with merc or red bull untouchable while hrt, marussia and caterham languish at the back. in "the good old days" of deathtraps and black and white film, you'd often have a gap of several minutes between 1st and 2nd.

there are several conflicting demands, and the results are sometimes underwhelming:

we want to evaluate drivers and cars independently, yet neither has any value without the other.

they spend all day saturday putting the fastest cars in front, then we're disappointed when the fastest cars simply drive away from everyone else.

we want teams and drivers (any sport, actually) to achieve the absolute maximum possible, yet resent them for being too successful or for trying too hard.

 

[LTC8K6]

Randomly invert the first ten starting positions?

Add weight to the podium finishers?

Get rid of the DRS so that it's not obvious when a pass will be made?

 

[The Boston Dangler]

Randomly invert the first ten starting positions?

Add weight to the podium finishers?

Get rid of the DRS so that it's not obvious when a pass will be made?

i'd go even further - pay out race points for qualifying as an incentive, then invert the entire grid.

keep driver-adjustable aero, but get rid of the conditional use

success ballast is as bad as drs is. iirc, the most prominent series that use it are american sports cars (formerly alms and daytona, now united under tudor) and dtm (german nascar).

 

[LTC8K6]

I would really like to go to a general car formula, a general engine formula, and multiple tire mfgs.

I can't see much evidence that strictly regulating the cars and engines into "sameness" has helped much.

I say let the teams build different cars and engines under a more general set of rules, and let them improve them during the season if they can.

Let them use whatever gearbox they choose.

 

[KingstonU]

Woo Hoo! That was a great season! And the results for the AT Garage fantasy league that was started at the beginning of the year, and I came in First Place!



http://www.fantasyracers.com/

 

[foghorn67]

It's better than 1 car following the other every race. At least there was a fight for almost each win.

Yep. It may not be perfect, but Nico got a better season than what Webber has got or Patrese or Berger and so on. For that reason alone, I can understand why people compare this season to the Senna/Prost teammate years.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

thrown out for 2015:

double points for the last race
ban on driver assistance over the radio
proposed standing restarts after safety car

 

[JulesMaximus]

thrown out for 2015:

double points for the last race
ban on driver assistance over the radio
proposed standing restarts after safety car

That is a really stupid idea. Forming up on the grid again after every safety car? The only thing this is likely to do is bring out more safety cars.

 

[LTC8K6]

That is a really stupid idea. Forming up on the grid again after every safety car? The only thing this is likely to do is bring out more safety cars.

Maybe it will better allow them to get people where they are supposed to be after a SC?

Let's have 3 wide starts for even more excitement! :biggrin:

6 rows...even if you are last, you could be first after turn 1! :biggrin:

 

[The Boston Dangler]

another huge crash for f1 veteran mark webber, this time in wec's 6 hours of sao paulo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIcFTIlj70c

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/motorsport/30271784

mark and rubens. there's enough car crash between the 2 of them to kill dozens of people.

 

[merlion]

A good article from MotorSport magazine on the Alonso-Ferrari saga this past season:

http://www.motorsportmagazine.com/f1/ferrari-in-2014/

 

[foghorn67]

Confirmed! McLaren announced Button and Alonso.