2014 Formula 1

[Senninha]

Following four years of domination by Sebastian Vettel and his Red Bull team, the FIA is bringing in some sweeping changes to Formula 1 for 2014. Will lady luck remain with him? Will the brilliance that is Adrian Newey produce another championship winning car? Or will the other 500 or so collective brains find the loopholes and introduce the ‘inspirational design’ that is both legal and performance enhancing … at least until the other copy it!

If you have the slightest interest in F1 you will know that last year was the last of the V8 era. For one last blast click here … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhXHdKm775s
This year the cars will have bigger electric motors, more electric power and more time to deploy this power, all attached to smaller 1.6l V6 Turbo engines with limited amounts of fuel.
A video capturing the changes can be seen here … http://www.formula1.com/news/technical/2014/0/1133.html

So expect cars to run out of fuel, destroy engines and the new 8 speed gearboxes due to overheating, run out of braking as they have a lot less engine braking to assist them, and to spin up the rears as drivers battle to control a rise in torque with no traction control other than the throttle pedal … just the way it should be!

Another full calendar this year with 19 races to be enjoyed … there was potential for 22! The 2014 calendar in full:

16/03 Australia
30/03 Malaysia
06/04 Bahrain
20/04 China
11/05 Spain
25/05 Monaco
08/06 Canada
22/06 Austria
06/07 Great Britain
20/07 Germany
27/07 Hungary
24/08 Belgium
07/09 Italy
21/09 Singapore
05/10 Japan
12/10 Russia
02/11 United States
09/11 Brazil
23/11 Abu Dhabi

The driver changes for 2014 offer some stability, some new blood and I’m sure in the case of Ferrari, some fireworks. Teams, drivers and engine suppliers listed …

RED BULL - Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo : Renault

MERCEDES - Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg : Mercedes

FERRARI - Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen : Ferrari

LOTUS - Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado : Renault

McLAREN - Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen : Mercedes

FORCE INDIA - Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez : Mercedes

SAUBER - Adrian Sutil and Esteban Gutierrez : Ferrari

TORO ROSSO - Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniil Kvyat : Renault

WILLIAMS - Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas : Mercedes

MARUSSIA - Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton : Ferrari

CATERHAM - Kamui Kobayashi and Marcus Ericsson : Renault

And for those of us with lasting memories of the Great McLaren Honda years, Honda returns with new engines using V6 petrol and hybrid power for the 2015 McLaren ... and some new sports car

Lights out at 1.30am on Friday 14th March

[Senninha]

And the real high tech change for 2014 is .....

.... to keep the championship ‘alive’ right to the end of the season, they have signed off on the allocation of Double Team and Driver points for the last race in Abu Dhabi … next they’ll have Dermot O’Leary presenting to add further suspense!!

Further tech reviews ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkVG...layer_embedded

[Senninha]

Some of the more interesting design elements ….

[NSXGB]

Hey! Kamui is back! Excellent.

[Senninha]

Hey! Kamui is back! Excellent.

apparently paying £2m for his seat and not taking a salary .... I hope he can get that thing to score some points ... He'll certainly add some spider to that end of the grid

[nobby]

Here is hoping for a non dominant red bull team this year, and hoping McClaren can make some improvements before the big mate up for 2015.

just want to see a bit of mix and for someone to challenge other than Vettel

changes should be interesting based on your thoughts Paul, but can't see me sitting up for the 1st race

[havoc]

Any word yet on which team Ann Summers are going to sponsor?