Monday 4 August 2014

The half way point of F1 2014


The four week summer break is in full swing as the factories shut down and all team personnel supposedly get a decent holiday. Don’t worry though, there’s less than three weeks left until racing returns, so let’s have a very original half term report for the season so far, even though we’re actually nearly 58% through the season now, so a sort of half term report. Here we’ll pick some of the most impressive drivers, teams and results of the season so far. Of course with the highs come the lows, so we’ll wipe the feel good factor off with some of those too.

But let's start off with the racing, that has been a particular high this year. No one could tell how these new regulations were going to go but the battles throughout the field have been brilliant. Yes, I'd like the cars to make just a little more noise, but no one cares about that so much anymore. I'd also like the cars to be a bit faster, but they will be a lot quicker by next year I'd think.

So the counter point to this is the people in the highest echelons of Formula 1 slating the sport saying it's not good enough. The product is fine, but it seems those running the sport aren't sure how to sell it anymore, surely it's simple? Great racing powered by ever advancing technology that'll make your own cars better. That's the jist of it at least, it's a shame that while they ignore social media as a means of promotion they'll introduce video game gimmicks like double points or potentially standing restarts when no one was complaining about this in the first place.

Anyway let's go in no particular order with something impressive. Actually someone impressive, and I don’t think you have a better candidate than Daniel Ricciardo who has come to the top table of Formula 1 and astounded everyone, even the team who picked him. He adjusted to the new era of Formula 1 brilliantly, has consistently beat his quadruple world champion team mate Sebastian Vettel, won two races, and raced hard, consistently and without fear. All with a beaming smile, the class act of 2014 so far.

We’ve kicked off with an impressive driver, so we’ll follow that up with a disappointment. I don’t think you can get more disappointing than the performance of Kimi Raikkonen so far this year. Not so much the way he’s driven, which to be fair he’s barely had a clean weekend all year with a variety of mechanical dramas and incidents. But the much anticipated rivalry of Kimi vs Fernando Alonso has been entirely irrelevant, Alonso, the master that he is has adapted to the new regulations well and can drag any car to positions it shouldn’t be whereas Kimi has singularly failed to master this new Formula 1, although there are signs it’s beginning to come to him.

Alonso though has once again been brilliant, after a slightly subdued 2013 this year has shown him on great form in a car which if anything is the worst he’s been provided with by Ferrari since he joined them. He so very nearly grabbed a victory in Hungary and it would have been richly deserved.

A rivalry which has most certainly not let us down is the one between our championship contenders Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes. The Silver Arrow squad had been preparing for this season probably before anyone else, their power unit is by far and away the best and their chassis a fine match. They’ve been the dominant team, so it’s to their great credit that they’ve given their drivers free reign to race how they want, mostly.

Hamilton and Rosberg have grabbed their opportunity well. Rosberg particularly has impressed with his attitude and his speed compared to Hamilton. Pretty much anything that has come his way he has taken advantage of which you need to do in order to build a championship. He’s not just leading because Lewis had problems, he’s still had to deliver when it’s mattered. Six pole positions to Lewis’ four is probably the most impressive statistic.

Hamilton of course was always going to impress this year. In a car that finally matches his talent once again he has demonstrated his ample speed in a variety of ways. He’s had dominant wins, defensive victories, charges to the podium. Whatever it is, he can do it. It’s a shame he’s had a number of reliability problems which have meant his qualifying has been affected, although he made several mistakes too. That he’s come back from that and lies only 11 points behind Rosberg shows how well he’s done and how much stronger his head is these days, although sometimes you still sense a bit of fragility. It’s time for the damage limitation races to stop though and get back to winning ways because the most impressive thing about Rosberg is his consistency which doesn’t look like dropping any time soon, this is a fight to the end.

Williams have also impressed this year. At the beginning of the year it looked like they were wasting their obviously good pace, but as things have gone on and particularly it seems since Rob Smedley came over from Ferrari to take up the position of Head of Vehicle Performance they have been making the most of their potential. Three podiums and one pole position, the only team to have beaten the Mercedes to the top slot on the grid, show they are heading in the right direction.

They seem most at home on the quick tracks as a result of their Mercedes Power Unit and slippery aerodynamics so maybe look out for a surprise result at Spa or Monza, the next two races on the schedule. Valtteri Bottas has been particularly notable this season, scoring all three of the teams podiums and being the most consistent of the two drivers. Felipe Massa seems refreshed after his time at Ferrari but has got involved in too many accidents, whether they be his fault or not. Bottas looks to be the go to driver of the team and he’s certainly taking the title of the grid’s top flying Finn.

By contrast Lotus have been a huge disappointment so far this season and it doesn’t look like it’s going to get any better for them this year. Everyone knew this former world champion team from Enstone were in huge financial trouble last year, there was much said about drivers and staff not getting paid on time or at all.

Well that was supposedly sorted out but it didn’t stop a number of high profile figures from leaving including designer James Allison, Eric Boullier and Kimi Raikkonen. It obviously affected how they approached this year too, they missed the first test and their power unit and car still don’t seem to work in harmony all that well resulting in a number of retirements particularly for Pastor Maldonado who has had a wretched year.

There might be more of a sense of optimism if they’d shown a hint of consistently decent pace but it’s not forthcoming. I feel particularly sorry for Romain Grosjean who looked like he was coming of age last year and certainly a potential race winner if not more. He’ll have to put those plans on hold for now and I hope the frustration won’t result in his driving taking a dive.

Of course a lot of their trouble comes from the Renault power plant who have been a massive let down this year to their teams and to the championship. They were months behind schedule during winter testing but although they've made progress it's not enough although thats mostly to do with the engine freeze until the season finishes. 

While we’re talking of disappointments I’m not sure you can go far without talking about three major ones; Sebastian Vettel, McLaren and Ferrari. Well I’ve talked a great deal about Vettel here, so read up, but in brief he’s just not got how to drive these cars and he’s being beaten by a newcomer to the team comprehensively. However, there are signs things are getting better.

There aren’t too many optimistic signs for McLaren or Ferrari this year. How can these two legends of the sport once again fail to come up with the goods. Ferrari have slipped further back, although Alonso did bring them a sniff of victory in Hungary, but other than that it’s once again been his genius that’s elevated them far above where they should be.

McLaren continue to struggle. It started so well with a double podium, Kevin Magnussen looked awesome, Jenson Button looked strong. Button still does look impressive, he has more than double the points of Magnussen so is leading the way in that respect, although at other times he has looked lost as has the team. Even when an opportunity presents itself such as in Hungary they cast it aside and say it doesn’t fit their logic. Their logic is unfortunately skewed  at the moment, but with Honda coming on board a fresh start is on the horizon. Unfortunately for them it’s not much to do with their power unit and more to do with their chassis as to where the problem lies…

Let’s end this bit with some good cheer, Magnussen has been a good rookie for McLaren and was expected to be the best new comer to the grid, but Daniil Kvyat has been by far the most impressive arrival to the 2014 grid. A Red Bull young driver, he’s come into the Toro Rosso team and immediately been on it. He was GP3 champion last year, scoring points on his debut in Australia when just 19 years old. He’s qualified in the top 10 a number of times, only reliability holding him back in the races. He’s got a strong future in front of him.

And finally let’s sign off with some great results to reminisce about from the first half. Marussia’s ninth place in Monaco was remarkable and unexpected, but just brilliant. Felipe Massa’s pole position for Williams in Austria broke Mercedes hold on the Saturday top spot, it was great to see such a beautiful livery lead the grid round at the start.

The Mercedes 1-2 in Bahrain after such an epic wheel to wheel fight gave the world a huge thrill and a giant sigh of relief when it was truly realised Mercedes would let the championship contenders race to the flag. A number of Alonso’s drives have been superb, the battle between him and Vettel at Silverstone was superb. But in terms of bravado Ricciardo summed his season up when he took on two world champions in Hungary and beat them. Admittedly on fresher tyres but he still had to make the moves.


I’m sure there’s many obvious ones I’ve missed but I’m equally sure there’s a lot more to come and what better place to kick off the sort of second half of the year than at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium. The most impressive of tracks, the most mixed up weather and the perfect place to let battle recommence. 

all photo's taken from autosport.com

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