As some of you may have noticed we have inadvertently stumbled into a new year, and by this point in time you, the people of the internet and potentially the real world (where ever that is...) have discovered that the novelty has worn off. Leaving you with the cold realisation that this new year is just as dull as the last 12 months we were all forced to endure - it's the same old routines and tedium merely branded with a different date. I know what both of you audience members are thinking (even that is probably an exaggeration and I am probably only talking to a list of web-crawlers and search engines.... in that case Hello Google) the last thing that you want in that world of disappointment is another rant from this point of the internet... But I was never particularly good at giving people what they want. Or caring too much about that predicament...
So what is the purpose of this specific digital outburst, well I wanted to go over the plethora of changes we've got coming in the new season with the first official test in three weeks time. A test that might be a little problematic considering that none of the teams have actually released their new car, so I can foresee everyone turning up to see Alonso and Hamilton just running around Jerez instead. Caterham don't even have any drivers at the moment officially contracted to drive, and they seem the closest to having something to test. All of this is a repercussion of firstly the utterly desperate state of funding within the sport, and the rather significant technical and sporting regulations we are going to be encountering this season.
The Engines
As it has been known for a while, the change to the engine regulations are touted as the most significant change from 2013 to now. It was decided that having big angry V10's was a bad idea, so they were downgraded to V8's - and now even that has been deemed excessive, replaced with 1.5L V6's. On the surface that seems like a puny amount of power to be placing in the highest discipline of single seater motorsport, considering there is a 2.5L V6 sitting on the drive of Blog HQ - and although watching Raikkonen start the season in 4WD truck with only 149hp might be... different, it seems wrong. But these engines will be turbocharged which adds a very interesting dynamic to power delivery, producing a hell of a lot more torque (and that is a hell of a lot in metric units). This will make the cars more difficult to drive - or so we are told, but come Australia the engineers will have fixed that, they always do - because of huge amounts of potential wheelspin even in third and maybe fourth gear (allegedly). The more cynical among you may suggest that all these added details may be exaggerations made by drivers and teams based on estimations ran through their simulators, we won't really know how the powertrain will influence driving stability until the first car starts testing.
However all this doomsaying about impossibly difficult cars might prove to be very interesting, because if the cars are much more challenging to drive then it will backfire dramatically on the teams who have brought in drivers for money. You see, hopefully weaknesses in driving ability will be exacerbated by this development and make them more error-prone, thus forcing teams to re-think the decision making process in driver selection. Perhaps this is why Sirotkin hasn't been shoehorned into Sauber with quite the same amount of haste as it was promised mid season... or why Chilton hasn't been immediately confirmed at Marussia. The knock on effect of this might be that the teams have to pay more attention to talent, and give them the kick up the proverbial backside they need to sort out the insane budget escalations.
The V6 isn' the only alteration to the powertrain of the 2014 grid, KERs has been given a complete overhaul making it much more powerful than it ever has been. The allocation has also been significantly increased - from 6s per lap to 30 seconds (so the majority of the A1 Ring when we get there...). All of this has meant that the system needed to be renamed, several highly techincal boffins went into a room for many, many hours (some may not have made it out) and in the end KERs has been changed to ERS... genius. I wonder how long that meeting went on for.
Tyres
Ah yes, the source of so much controversy in 2013, the tyres are also up for renewal in 2014 which is another influence of the redevelopment of engine regulations. Any of the incarnations of tyre that were dished out in the previous year are apparently going to disintegrate under the higher torque loads delivered by the turbo-charged power units (although they did that before anyway). Therefore Pirelli - probably sick of being complained at - have made the compounds more durable to compensate, so tyre conservation should be less of a problem and by more down to chassis design and driver style to limit wheelspin in preserving the rubber. The actual tyre rules seem not to have changed from last season to this one, where two compounds will be brought to each race and in the dry both must be used on a Sunday afternoon, and the top 10 start on the set they set their fastest Q3 time on.
Aerodynamic Changes
The front and rear wing dimensions are also up for modification, which is about time really - the amount of endplates causing punctures has been to high, and the slightest of contact can destroy a race. A recent example being Hamilton squeezing between two cars at the Japanses GP off the line, and brushing Vettel's front wing - ultimately leading to him retiring the car. A similar thing happened to Vettel in Malaysia with Karthekeyan's HRT resulting in the German calling the Indian a cucumber... so in essence narrower front wings should prevent salad vegetables from encroaching on the sport. But the idea is once more to remove downforce, by narrowing the front wing and taking out a beam from a shallower rear wing the cars should be harder to drive. Additionally it theoretically helps to minimised the aero wake problem prevent cars following closely without destroying their tyres in the process.
A Double Points Finale
There are times when you wonder what on earth the people in the FIA have been smoking... this is certainly one of them - Martin Brundle summed up the reaction to this most unusual ruling perfectly saying that it fixes a problem which doesn't exist. It is such a stupid idea - effectively devaluing every other race of the season saying it isn't as important as the final round... which conveniently has been passed back to the very rich venue of Abu Dhabi (obviously a coincidence). Drivers don't like the idea, the internet was all but ready to start burning effigies at the idea, because it is nonsensical. Then race promoters started pitching in, and rightly so, because the FIA is effectively placing their race at a lower significance... yet as of this point in time the decision has not been reversed. If the rule was in place for all of the previous championship seasons it was calculated that very little would have changed... Vettel would still be infuriatingly dominant, as would have Schumacher. The only recent championship that would have been affected is 2008, where Massa would be champion instead of Hamilton (at which point the BBC would start throwing bricks through Bernie's windows due to their Lewis worship at the time). So that begs the question, why? It wouldn't change anything in a season where one driver is dominant, which is one of the things people don't like at the moment, and it would distort a close, competitive year. It fails on all counts.
But... varied points do exist in other championships, categories like the WEC and V8 Supercars (at least it used to) have certain races where a larger number of points are on offer. This is because these races are longer and have special significance, like the Le Mans 24hrs or the Bathurst 1000 - and therefore are a greater challenge to win or at least finish. So if F1 want's to justify the ludicrous points change then the format of the final race needs to be changed to make it worth those extra points. One slightly mental idea (may as well since the FIA have already lost the plot on this one) is that this double score event should be twice as long - up to 4hrs (or 8 with red flags) - with a driver change to place test drivers in the car for at least 40 minutes. Yes there are logistical problems with that - i.e. how many points do test drivers score and does that affect championship places, and fuel and tyre resources would need to be extended but those are only minor problems. However the Indy 500 can last around 4hrs (with a lot of safety cars and only four corners per lap...) so one driver might be able to manage.... just.
Individual Driver Numbers
Unlike the frankly stupid double points rule - this seems like a much better idea, it's something that exists in NASCAR and some types of bike racing (whatever that is) where a driver picks a number and effectively owns it for his or her F1 career. It should make drivers more identifiable (if unique helmets weren't enough) especially when those stewards message banners come up: "car 12 under investigation for something" because we'd all know which driver took number 12. There is some opposition to this on the internet, citing the fact that those of us who've seen every race since some arbitrary time in history know who is who already - even if Vettel tries to conceal his identity with a different hat every other day - so why bother. Well the thing is why not, I like the idea it almost injects some personality into a very anaesthetised sport where press conferences are scripted by PR agents and drivers and burned at the stake for having an opinion (although Di Resta and Maldonado were well out of line on more than one occasion in their interviews and thus deserved criticism). Besides there is an automatic bonus point waiting for any driver who turns up in Melbourne with the number 42 emblazoned on their car.
The process of assigning these numbers works in the following manner, each driver picks three numbers in order of preference from 2-99 (#1 is reserved for the champion if he wants it) i.e. Bottas has already lay claim to 77 with 17 or 11 as backups. Numbers are then assigned based on championship position and preference, so if someone further up the table also wanted #77 then Bottas would have to settle for his second or third options. The allocations thus far can be found Here (still no #42 yet - A Kobayashi return with #42 would result in so many points).
Limited Fuel
We're back on the strange ideas list with this one, the intentions behind it are very valid and reasonable but I think the actual consequences of it might be less than ideal. Like so many of the other adjustments it is a legacy of the engine regulations, in an attempt to make the new generation of engines more efficient and less thirsty. Each car will only be permitted to carry a certain amount of fuel - an amount that may not be sufficient to complete the race completely flat out... and this is where the problem comes in. If a car can't finish the race then it will be forced into a fuel conservation mode, so instead of saving tyres throughout the race it will be fuel instead.
But is 2014 still worth waiting for...
Well it better be, if at the end of the first race we are all throwing various objects at the television in frustration then the plans would have all failed. But in the intervening period it is worth looking forward two because anything can happen, there is always the chance that someone could do a 'Brawn GP' and come up with the ultimate solution to the regulations and dominate the series. It that happens to be a lesser team from the mid-field there development pace could make the second half of the year very interesting as everyone else catches up. If it is Red Bull who draw the trump card then we will see nothing of them all season long such are the resources they have to continually gain pace. Several drivers have been pointing out the potential for reduced reliability, due to the lack of testing on the new engines, Sutil in particular has said it would 'damage' sport. However I think it adds even more unpredictability to the series, having a week long lead doesn't automatically mean a win and huge haul of points 50 laps later. More accidents, retirements and huge plumes of smoke from detonated engines sounds beautiful. After the final part of 2013 we need some action and dynamism in the sport where strategy isn't decided three weeks earlier in a dark computer room. Constantly changing on track events force reactions and creativity on the pit wall, not to mention how the drivers will cope. Naturally I shall keep my expectations high for this season, and hope not to see them dashed once more. Even if they are the BTCC and V8 Supercars look mightily brilliant in their pre-season updates, so there will be brilliant racing somewhere.
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