Selection box - A bumper start to the brand new year - Gearing up for 2015 with some final reviews of last season
Published by Christine
It's been a nice, quiet couple of weeks of rest and recuperation as the world gets emotional waving goodbye to one year and welcoming in the next. Formula One is going through the same transition, with the final wrap ups of 2014 coming in. We managed to squeeze five podcasts in five days to sum up the season and start looking ahead, but we're not the only ones talking about it.
As the chequered flag waves, here's the last episode of the 2014 Formula One Season from Rishi and Kunal on the Inside Line F1 Podcast. Hear them speak about and wonder if the changes at Ferrari and Mclaren will be sufficient to take the fight to Mercedes in 2015 and more.
Along with listening to podcast season reviews, there have been a few pictorial summaries as well. If Formula One does anything well, it's creating some beautiful opportunities for fantastic photography. A season isn't complete without sparks in the night, the whoosh of a car through the trees, and those freeze frame champagne moments. Here are two great galleries of the action last year.
Another year, another Formula One championship in the history books. 2014 witnessed a major shift in the rules of the sport, and with them, a shift in the major players. Mercedes teammates Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg battled tooth and nail for the title. While Hamilton would come away victorious, Daniel Ricciardo made his own mark, claiming three wins during his first season with Infiniti Red Bull Racing.
he young and the brave: 2014 was a good year for young drivers, as (clockwise from top left) Kevin Magnussen, 22, Daniil Kvyat, 20, Valtteri Bottas, 25, and Daniel Ricciardo, 25, all put in good performances across the season. In particular Ricciardo, who outshone four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel with three race victories.
Ferrari's huge changes over the past few weeks have caused quite a stir, if only to ponder exactly what difference they're going to make in 2015. The fact the team signed up their third team principal in a year really stands out for me, but Sky Sports have a timeline of all the strife the Scuderia went through during the season.
Ferrari perform modestly in pre-winter testing. Although only Nico Rosberg completes more miles than Alonso, the F14 T appears to be acutely short of pace – over eight days of testing at Bahrain, Alonso best’s lap time is a second off the benchmark with Raikkonen a further second adrift. "There's a lot of torque in the car," notes the Finn ominously after crashing out at Sakhir.
Ferrari have sent one of their young drivers to Sauber, with the team signing up Raffaele Marciello as reserve driver. Sauber should be next in line for a shake up, considering how well their 2014 campaign went. Perhaps this is the first step.
Sauber, who have signed Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr as their race drivers for the 2015 season, said Marciello's role will include select Friday FP1 outings during the year. “He proved his great talent in junior formulas, and his season in the European Formula 3 Championship with 13 wins and the title victory was particularly impressive," Sauber team principal Monisha Kaltenborn said.
Although drivers tend to be the ones getting the glory, there's been a growing trend towards the engineering team becoming household names. Is that a good thing? This next post argues perhaps not.
I wouldn't be the only person to question the quality of the drivers who have won in a Newey car. I believe that Formula 1 needs to find a way of ensuring that the stars of F1 are the drivers and that when a driver wins a world title we are in no doubt that he was the best driver that year, not that he was in the most aerodynamically efficient car.
Looking ahead to 2015 is the next task on the agenda, and here we have a select few key highlights from the year ahead, as well as a rundown from Maurice Hamilton detailing exactly how the season is going to go.
The [Mexico] circuit is very fast and flowing but was renowned for being very bumpy, with some funds being invested into the circuit to bring up to modern standards. I’m also hoping that while improvements have been made, the circuit will keep it’s traits and give the drivers a great challenge when we arrive for the event in the autumn.
A fidgeting Eddie Jordan tells BBC TV viewers: "I really do believe, as I did when I ran my team, that Sutil, who I know very well, will grasp this great chance of opportunism and circumstance that comes along every ten years as well as every decade and without doubt will win on Sunday which, of course, is today here in…this place we know very well." Standing bolt upright, David Coulthard says: "I honestly don't see how that can happen because Sutil's not racing."
