Round 1 - Australia 2014: Race

Internet, 

Many, many hours ago - there was a race, a race that the whole world had been waiting for during those long cold and quiet months over the winter. It race which was shrouded in mystery, intrigue and anticipation, and one that certainly delivered. Even after the flag dropped over half a day ago now the result has been taken apart and reconfigured - one of the consequences of the strange new world we now live in. All of the retirements today have been traced back to technical difficulties, even the ones that resulted in shattered carbon fibre down in turn one. In contrast to the fears over huge rates of attrition, today's race only saw a few more casualties than a conventional trip to Albert Park - although I get the feeling that Mr Horner intends to add to the retirement list when he visits the appeal panel later on. 

At the completion of the first weekend of the season I can safely say that the worries about the sound the tiny little engines are unfounded - F1 is just is good as it was in the previous era if not better. Yes the cars are much quieter, but the engine note is far less whiney and piercing and you can hear so much more - brake lock-ups are audible and team radio is far clearer. Sacrificing a bit of volume for this clarity and a deeper growling sound was definitely worth it - and I suspect that the Renault engines in the Red Bull team may sound even more different once Horner has finished kicking it around the garage. A kicking that the entire Lotus team might well join in on after their disappointing afternoon. Overall there are some quite unhappy faces up and down the pit-lane... and some of those happened to be in the garage of the pre-season favourites. No-one is safe from little technical gremlins.

The Race

After the highly changeable conditions of qualifying, Sunday morning provided an air of stability leaving any unpredictability in the hands of the drivers and the fragile machinery they were sitting in. Grosjean opted to start in the pit lane, all by himself - it appeared his grumbling to the Lotus team might have influenced the decision to kick him out of the garage a little too early. However Max Chilton noticed that Romain was alone in the pit lane and wouldn't leave the grid on the formation lap, and thus was pushed into the queue behind the Lotus. This left Bianchi on the grid without a team-mate, so the actual start was aborted while his Marussia was also pushed into the pit-lane - but Jules' car was more broken than Max's was and wouldn't leave the pits until 7 laps into the race. 

So one additional formation lap later, we had a proper start - all but one of Hamilton's six cylinders roared into action and were swiftly passed by both Rosberg and Ricciardo. Magnussen in 4th executed a powerslide in the middle of the straight which the Dane miraculously kept out of the wall, and out of Fernando Alonso's Ferrari. Down at turn one Kamui was having less of a near miss and more of an accident - a post race investigation showed that the Caterham encountered brake failure... which is considerably less than ideal. As a result he ploughed into the rear corner of Raikkonen's Ferrari (which somehow remained undamaged) and then creamed straight into the back of Massa's Williams wiping both cars out of the race. If that wasn't enough, down at turn three Esteban Gutierrez had more issues slowing down and span himself round after bouncing off the side of Perez's Force India. For now this brought an end to the melee... without needing to involve the safety car... for now...

It would be a bit silly if, in this very early stage if some championship contenders were to encounter some race ending technical difficulties - well the first to complain was a certain German Bloke pointing out that all of his electric boost had failed. Leaving the car powerless to out-pace even the slowest cars and therefore had to retire. Then there was Hamilton, in the supposed fastest and most reliable car on the grid - that final cylinder never recovered and he lost positions rapidly - this lead to a series of discussions with the team all of which were completely indecisive, but retirement was inevitable for the pole-sitter. With four cars down inside the first five laps, the projected attrition would see the entire field missing by lap 22. Fortunately there were some good news stories coming through the field.

Both our remaining champions starting outside the top ten had sneaked into the points by staying on the road and not getting involved in the early action - but the Williams that didn't have shards of Caterham sticking out of it was motoring forwards. Bottas had to start 15th due to a technical penalty, and now was duelling with the two Toro Rosso's. First he made a clean pass on Kyvat down the inside of turn 13 and followed that up with an even more impressive overtake round the outside of Vergne in turn three. His next target was Raikkonen's Ferrari with the invincible rear suspension - also the only man on grid who I suspect is immune to the Kvyat death stare. The Russian's face always seems angry - and I thought driving a fast car in the points would be a good thing, but what do I know, perhaps he is allergic to a certain Austrian energy drink. Anyway it is worth noting that both of the Lotus cars were still running, even if they were miles off the pace and away from the points. Even more impressive is that neither Maldonado or Grosjean had hit anyone or put it in the wall after the car looked impossible to control safely on Saturday.

Life was far more serene at the front - Rosberg became the leading Mercedes representative ahead of Ricciardo as their world champion team-mates watched on from the pitwall. Magnussen sat in a comfortable 3rd place and Hulkenberg was in a considerably less comfortable 4th place. Nico had collected a train of cars lead by Alonso - who undoubtedly was having flashbacks to Korea last year, and also contained Bottas, Kimi, Button and the Toro Rosso's. It was turning into an interesting battle, wouldn't it be shame if something was to freeze the race to cancel out this turbulent group of cars. Cue Bottas pushing a little too hard in trying to pass Fernando, and with a little wheelspin just drifted into the wall on the exit of turn 10 - cracking the rear wheel. This left Valtteri's tyre and half a rear wheel lying in the track bringing out the safety car. 

This automatically instigated the first round of stops, which was timed brilliantly for Jenson who was able to jump both Kvyat and Vergne, while Kimi went the other way in order to keep the pits clear for Alonso - the joys of being a number two driver at Ferrari. Although it turned out that both Ferraris had electrical problems and were down on power anyway. This safety car also allowed Bottas, with a new rear wheel to join the queue in 15th and last (even though Bianchi was still running 8 laps down now and was technically last). But within two laps the Finn was back up to 11th - which highlighted the massive gulf of pace between Sauber and Lotus, and the rest of the field as they were so easily picked off by the Williams before the DRS had been re-activated. Both Grosjean and Maldonado were around five seconds per lap slower than Rosberg vanishing away out front.

As the field has started to thin out and spread out, the race dramatically calmed down, only Bottas was making waves, passing cars that he'd had to pass before he was caught out by those dangerously camouflaged green concrete walls. This time round the passes were a lot easier, other drivers seemed to jump out of the way - Raikkonen out-braked himself into turn 9, potentially a reflection of the electrical issues affecting the KERS brake recovery function. Daniil Kyvat held his ground - probably using the power of his steely glare alone - but Bottas used the DRS down the main straight to take the place. 

At half distance, reliability started to look rather good - only three car failures taking four cars out of the race, none of which affected the least prepared team... until now. Maldonado's Lotus had given up, another ERS problem bringing the car to a halt on the inside of turn 12, safely out of the way. This was followed shortly by the retirement of Marcus Ericsson, pulling off before turn four - not surprisingly all but one of the mechanical dramas had taken place on Renault powered cars. Only Kvyat's car would be safe, it would be too scared to brake down - for fear of receiving the angry death stare. I think it is time for some new tyres - which for once no-one has actually complained about, though I reckon once the cars start functioning, the teams will need something else to shout about. Once more it was Jenson who gained the most from the second round of stops - jumping ahead of Alonso and Hulkenberg into 4th place. Not a bad day for McLaren considering how 2013 went.

Out at the front of the field, Rosberg was having a very easy time of it, over 20 seconds clear of Ricciardo - demonstrating that if the car is running, it runs fast - unstoppably fast, it is a little ominous. Fortunately we were distracted from thoughts of another season dominated by a German, a battle was brewing for second place as Magnussen had gained significantly on Ricciardo. Furthermore Button was easing closer to the pair of them as the laps started to run down. A little further back Bottas was still insisting on making progress racing up to the back Vergne's Toro Rosso. Vergne almost put the car in the wall getting out of the way in the final corner, being caught out by the sudden torque curve of these new engines. The same issue that nearly planted Magnussen in the wall at the very beginning (when we eventually got started). Valtteri has his sights firmly set on Hulkenberg as his next victim.

Despite Ricciardo and Magnussen trading lap times and getting rather close to each other, the likelihood of a pass seemed small - Red Bull reassured Daniel that he had plenty of fuel to push on which Kevin had to keep switching fuel modes. As a result the top five had settled into a consistent and stable position, only Hulkenberg and Vergne were under pressure by Bottas and Kimi respectively. In both cases it was the Finn that took the spoils - Bottas opened the DRS and passed the Hulk on the pit straight, while Vergne collected another bucket of oversteer in turn 9 handing Raikkonen the position. In other news we saw Romain Grosjean pulling the only remaining Lotus off the road with another electrical problem Meaning that 60% of the Renault powered cars had failed in some way or another (make that 80% but we'll get to that one later). In the final ten laps or so the remaining battles had cooled down and all the remaining cars made it home intact (Bianchi did finish but at 8 laps down didn't complete enough laps to be classified as a finisher).

Rosberg claimed what turned out to be an easy victory for Mercedes, and Ricciardo crossed the line in second place (but was disqualified a few hours later while I was watching the Lego movie - which is brilliant by the way). Magnssen equalled Hamilton's best finish for a rookie in his first race, and might be promoted to second if the Red Bull appeal fails. Jenson recovered from a poor qualifying to finish 4th (or 3rd depending), while Alonso weathered electrical dramas to finish 5th on the road ahead of Bottas on his second drive through the field. Hulkenberg had his team-mate considerably beaten to score points in 7th ahead of Raikkonen who also had electrical issues in the car. Toro Rosso rounded off the points as the only Renault team to be unscathed by technical issues with Vergne being stared across the line by Kyvat scoring points on his debut. And if Ricciardo is not reinstated the final point is passed onto Perez who survived an opening lap collision with Gutierrez on the opening lap.

Now, the business with Ricciardo after technical scrutineering post race it turned out that his Red Bull - at several stages during the race - had been consuming fuel too fast. As per the regulations the fastest rate at which the engine can consume fuel is 100kg per hour, which is obviously too fast to complete the race on the 100kg maximum. But it the injection rate can be turned up or down at any point i.e. on the McLaren G1-G10 steering wheel dial. It appears Ricciardo's was up too high at times and therefore had been booted out of the result. 

The Bonus Points Championship

Well, that wasn't bad for a season opener, and was miles better than anything we had to put up with in the latter half of the previous season. Even though in the end of it all we still had Chilton at the very back of the classified finishers and there was a German standing on the top step of the podium - so within the most drastic technical rule modifications, some things never change. We even had a Red Bull on the podium - even if that result has since been removed. 

• 25pts - Valtteri Bottas: Driving from 15th up into the points on two occasions, executing many brilliant passes along the way despite putting the thing in the wall early on.
• 18pts - Kevin Magnussen: For keeping it out of the wall after a mega slide at the start, and then for scoring a net second place finish on his début - one better than Hamilton, Mr Dennis does know how to pick them...
• 15pts - Daniel Ricciardo: Despite the disqualification the Australian had an amazing weekend, scoring a moral podium position. Can't compare the performance to Vettel as the German hasn't had a functioning car when it mattered
• 12pts - Jenson Button: From going out in Q2 to making it onto the podium through a very close pit entry at during the safety car and strong strategy work
• 10pts - Nico Hulkenberg - Missed out on the job at Lotus and still manages to put the car up the front end of the pack, if it wasn't for a strategy call he'd have fended off Alonso once more.
• 8pts - Nico Rosberg - A dominant win in a car that looked impervious to any challenge - so not too many points, but a win is a win nonetheless.
• 6pts - Daniil Kvyat - The Russian Rookie picks up a couple of points on his début, through the power of raw speed and a scarily aggressive facial expression.
• 4pts - Ferrari - For developing indestructible rear suspension, how that car still had all four wheels after Kobayashi's out of control Caterham crashed into it
• 2pts - Kamui Kobayashi - Gets two points for his car bowling escapades in turn one striking Kimi and Felipe after the brakes gave up.
• 1pt - Max Chilton - Scores a point for being the leading car of the bottom two teams, and for actually finishing the race keeping the streak alive... even if it was as the last classified finisher

The Penalty Points Championship

This season there will be no penalties series, because in reality that is just a matter of record - and can be found anywhere on the internet and therefore adds no value to this corner of cyberspace. So we move onto the penalty points series, a concept that the FIA has decided to borrow this year, without any hint of credit. Anyway I have decided to be lenient in this opening race - I could have handed out a point to Massa for calling for Kamui to be banned for a race. But on the information he had, there was some logic in his reasoning, even if it did border on the excessive, referencing what Grosjean did in the 2012 Belgian GP. I could have penalised Grosjean, Vettel or Maldonado for having a go at their teams because all three of them have had terrible weekends and can justifiably vent their frustrations. Although we haven't head the same amount of complaints from Hamilton when he retired... but he knows that when his car does work it is very fast.

More Mercedes Domination in Malaysia?

Just because we've completed the first race... well some people have... it doesn't mean we are over the reliability hump - the two week interval is not enough time to correct everything that has gone wrong for several teams this far. Besides the conditions in Sepang are completely different from Melbourne - the climate is tropical, very hot and very humid, which may cause problems for those cars which are marginal on cooling. Yes that means you Red Bull, it is going to be a lot harder for you to get to the end of that race. On pace it definitely seems that anyone with a Mercedes engine could have a really good weekend, Hulkenberg proved that Force India are further forward than the Bahrain tests indicated and everyone from McLaren down to Toro Rosso are quite close. The problem is that all of them have some work to catch Mercedes.

Lotus, Sauber and the bottom two teams are blatantly struggling and have less pace than they wanted. Will a more aerodynamically dependant circuit change this balance, who knows - it is far too early to tell. We shall have to wait until the final lap next time out to gain another tiny piece of the puzzle that is F1 2014.  

Round 1: Australia 2014 - Qualifying

Greetings Internet,

That was well worth waiting for, the first competitive session of 2014 has been brilliant, the first time we got to see the relative competitive strengths of the teams in a session which defines the grid for tomorrow morning. But a lot of the things we learned from pre-season testing have been completely discarded - who on earth came up with the idea that the Red Bulls would miles off the pace and that Mercedes would be completely immune to reliability problems. Because none of those developments seemed to materialise - Hamilton broke down on the firs lap of FP1 and both Red Bulls have been were inside the top 10 throughout practice. The only team that is really suffering at the moment is Lotus, who are a long way behind the development race on day one - both Maldonado and Grosjean have been more sideways than anything else (even though that does look cool) Romain even found the wall in FP2 as the car continues to misbehave.

So how does F1 2014 live up to the hype of challenging cars and a completely revised soundtrack - I know some people are against it (mostly the engine note) but on the events of a simple qualifying session it is a brilliant step forward. Watching cars powerslide on the exit of almost every corner and getting well out of shape in corners that used to be non-events is magnificent. The huge torque of the turbo engines really kicks the rear of the car out at every potential opportunity, it is truly a spectacular sight fuelled by the knowledge of how difficult it is making the cars to drive. It does make me wonder if corners like Eau Rouge, Blanchimont and 130R will suddenly become the challenge they once were when we make it that far. So with the challenge being as difficult as it is wouldn't it be a shame if Qualifying was held on a very slippery circuit - with some rain perhaps....

Q1

Due to some rule tweaks in the timing, Q1 is now two minutes shorter to allow Q3 to be two minutes longer, for the sake of two minutes I don't see why this phase had to be trimmed but the FIA are full of mad rules at the moment. The track was completely dty, but there was a threat of rain on the horizon - well slightly closer than the horizon but you get the point. Everyone queued to get out before that rain arrived, a queue lead by Mercedes parking two wide in the pit-lane (interestingly drivers have been given penalties for that in the past... but not today). Grosjean executed the first pass of the session round the outside of Rosberg in turn three - before running off the track a lap later... In fact Romain spent the majority of the session driving through the gravel and trying to stay out of the wall. Leaving that job to Vettel who gentley slapped the wall with the rear of the Red Bull on the exit of the back chicane - no damage done however.

Mercedes had enough of an advantage that they didn't bother using the softer compound tyres at all in Q1, and set the initial pace. However they were usurped by those using the faster option, Williams demonstrated that pre-season pace was definitely not a fluke and exchanged the lead position. Looking elsewhere in the field and a wild car appeared in the gravel - no prizes for guessing it was a Lotus, both of them were rooted to the back of the pack with Marissia, Gutierrez and Marcus Ericsson... Kamui however was inside the cut-off for Q2

Daniel Ricciardo put the Red Bull out front - (so much for being well off the pace) - as the rain started to fall effectively freezing the timesheets. All the rain did was give the Lotus team more reasons to run off the circuit - Maldonado saw how much fun Grosjean was having and came out just to join in. This is a parkland circuit after all and it is built for exploring - in the end Pastor failed to complete a single lap due to the multiple excursions but will be allowed to start tomorrow... Right now either Lotus is an uncontrollable unguided missile - the opening lap will be very interesting.

Q2

It was officially wet now - well intermediate level of dampness - with a prospect of the track drying out as the session went on. If the cars were sliding about in the dry, they were on the very edge of control in the wet. Bottas was several shades of sideways in the final corner, even showing signs of wheelspin down the main straight. The Williams driver eventually looped the car round in turn one after taking too much curb on entry, but was able to spin it round and keep going, only take the fasted time away from Massa. The damp conditions made the Mercedes' seem more vulnerable and unable to pull away from the field - Hamilton was only able to find 0.007s over Ricciardo in the Red Bull. However while the Australian was unleashing an immense performance the German Bloke was conspicuous by his absence down in 12th place, alongside Raikkonen's Ferrari in the relegation zone.

As track conditions slowly improved it was time for some new tyres, and because the track was damp the idea of carrying the tyres from Q2 into the race was rendered completely null and void - I guess we get to argue about that in Malaysia. In this final phase Bottas re-took the lead in the Williams but more impressive was the Russian rookie Daniil Kvyat putting the Toro Rosso into 3rd place... for now. Rosberg, Ricciardo and Alonso quickly reconfigured the top three places in their favour.

Towards the end of the session the rain started to comeback, forcing Perez into an Lotus-esque voyage into the gravel, at the same time Raikkonen in the Ferrari chose to exit the track in the opposite direction - unfortunately for Kimi there is a concrete wall which rearranged the nose of his car. While the yellows were out few drivers improved - the most impressive being Magnussen making it into Q3 with Kvyat making it a good day for the rookies. Vettel however was compromised by the yellows and got very sideways trying to make the time back - but the German bloke went out in Q2 for the first time since 2012...

Q3

During the the gap between the sessions the rain intensified - not quite to the same degree as it had last year - but it as right on the borderline between using wet and intermediate tyres, a brilliant recipe for more powerslides. As the cars danced over the painted lines there were some very close calls, Massa in particular came close to severely mashing the Williams against the wall before turning into the fast chicane making a spectacular save in the process. Hulkenberg also got very sideways when trying to put the power down in the final sector. Everyone took to the track on the wet tyre, with the exception of Fernando Alonso - but it was the Mercedes team once more who claimed an early 1-2 stalked once more by Ricciardo in that Red Bull. Alonso on the intermediates could only manage 9th place in his Ferrari only beating Massa's Williams (this time without the 'Fernando is faster than you' comment from the Ferrari team) .

Time for round two, a change of tyres later and the battle resumed for pole - because Mercedes were not quite having it having it all their own way en-route to an anticipated white-wash of the front row. Rosberg ran wide on his preparatory out-lap - losing two seconds which would later prove to be vital. But out of nowhere Magnussen went third fastest, we all thought that dumping Perez was a little mad but this Kevin chap seems rather good, almost mimicking what Hamilton achieved on his début. Speaking of Lewis - his provisional pole was beaten by Rosberg and then by Ricciardo - at which point the audience erupted (far more niceties than they showed Vettel when he departed in Q2). But having not lost those two seconds that Nico did, Lewis was able to complete another lap, a lap he used to great effect to retake pole position for the first race of the season.

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

After all the rambling on, the most important part of the whole day is the bonus points championship - as the challenge begins to topple Romain Grosjean's championship reign, and at the moment the Lotus team are making the championship defence really difficult.

• 10pts - Daniel Ricciardo: That was marvellous, dominating the quadruple drivers champion in the other car - even if Sebastian did have technical difficulties.
• 8pts - Kevin Magnussen: 4th place on his first qualifying session while Button didn't make the top ten equalling the best starting position for a rookie in his first race
• 6pts - Daniil Kvyat: Toro Rosso seemed doomed in pre-season testing but another young rookie performing very well 
• 5pts - Kamui Kobayashi: The only car from the two new teams to benefit from Lotus misfortunes and place get the car into Q2, and was able to defeat Perez once he got there
• 4pts - Felipe Massa: A brilliant save to keep the Williams out of the wall
• 3pts - Max Chilton: Supposedly the slowest driver on the grid, and in challenging conditions the Brit came close to leaving Q3 beating Bianchi in the process
• 2pts - Lewis Hamilton: Have couple of points for taking pole position in this new era
• 1pt - Williams: Williams deserve a point for their immense recovery, going from being just in front of Caterham to challenging for the poles and potentially victories in races to come

What will the race bring

Anyone's guess frankly, we have a very interesting grid with three world champions sitting outside the top ten which makes the prospect for tomorrow's race very enticing. With these cars out of position it means we have some rookies towards the sharp end of the grid with Magnussen in 4th and Kvyat in 8th with the rapid Williams behind them all. 

Even with Red Bull contributing to the front of the grid it would be difficult to look beyond Mercedes for the victory but the completely unknown factor of reliability will likely play a major part in defining the outcome of this event. On top of that there is the issue of fuel consumption, who will be the most efficient and who will have to compromise their race performance just to get over line. The feeling in the air is that the Ferrari powered teams will have the biggest fight on their hands in that respect but all these estimates and guesses mean nothing at this point. We'll only know where everyone stands at the end of lap 58 tomorrow, if there any cars left at that point. Wouldn't it be a shame if there was a concern over high winds and rain as well - this is going to be a brilliant introduction to 2014. Bring it on

Round 1: Australia 2014 - Preview

Greetings Internet,

We waited, and then we waited - and some of the world waited some more - but that wait has finally come to an end - almost. This is where we find out precisely how much insanity is going to be caused by the new regulations. Will the ERS be significant enough to render DRS obsolete and how many cars will actually complete the Australian GP. As noted in an earlier post, people have been combing the regulations to see what would happen if everyone breaks down - but I seriously doubt things will get that bad. Albert Park is an unique event, and has and will continue to throw up some mad races with high attrition, before and after large regulation changes and someone has always finished in the most chaotic of events. With money taking over so much of the sport at the moment with pay drivers and tracks built for the corporate guests rather than the racing, it nice to see that Australia still hosts the first race. Abu-Dhabi has bought itself the finale slot with the farcical double points rule (there will be no double bonus points) but Bahrain has been kept off the top spot after the complete mess it was in 2010 with the alternate layout. There is a spectacular atmosphere about the race being in Melbourne - even if I am thousands of miles away in Blog HQ - and it encapsulates the anticipation and excitement beautifully.

As well as the somewhat mutated cars we have now - which I am getting more and more used to there are some sporting regulations that have been slipped in under the radar in the past couple of days with reference to qualifying. It appears that the powers that be have taken a leaf out of Bernie's rulebook - where if you've done something silly, do or say something even sillier to distract people from the first infraction. So the initial problem was that drivers had to start the race on the tyres they set the fastest lap with in the final part of qualifying. The whole world agrees that this rule backfired as it meant it was advantageous not to take part in Q3 at times - so instead of abolishing the rule, the idea now is that the top 10 start the race on the same set of tyres they used in Q2... Sometimes I wonder if the monkey at the controls of the rule making committee has got more than a few screws loose. Still it is not as mental as the double points fiasco...

Albert Park

Albert Park 2014

Nestled in central Melbourne the venue for our opening race is picturesque, accessible and bounded by an armada of camouflaged walls - because if they weren't painted green less people would crash into them. Judging by how Australian motorsport has played out thus far during the V8 Supercar event at Adelaide, crashing is definitely on the agenda. Despite being a temporary track situated on the public roads encircling a boating lake the layout is wider than some permanent circuits and just as fast, because it doesn't rely on conventional road map topologies.  But just outside the painted lines denoting the track limits (...yes here we go again) are those concrete barriers - the only run-off being at the braking areas of the most substantial braking zones and on the outside of the fast chicane.

It has been the scene of many opening round demoltion derbies, in 2001 and 2002 we had cars sailing through the air, the latter causing the significant pile-up pictured below. Then again in 2008 more turn one accidents with Fisichella almost being upended, in a race which featured four safety cars and a rather airborne Toyota containing Timo Glock. So if apply the potential for carnage with a grid of cars which threaten to break down and disintegrate at any time we are in for a lot of fun. Something you wouldn't get if this was all shipped out to Bahrain instead (even if Bahrain 2013 was brilliant), the track may not be a picture of complexity and over-engineering like many of the newer venues but it does a wonderful job, far better than the likes of Shanghai or especially Abu-Dhabi. Long live the Australian GP opening at Albert Park (although I would accept a return to Adelaide - because the destruction would be ramped up there).


The Form Guide

Retirements Left, Right and Centre?

The feeling around the paddock and the internet is that this race is Mercedes' to lose, the testing pace and reliability have been better than anyone else and if it holds up they should be on for a Brawn GP-esque victory. The people at Red Bull have laughably suggested that Mercedes could win the race with a two lap margin of victory... which is rather excessive and almost grumpy from the team that have lost the most ground. Yet Mercedes themselves have not said that this is a done deal - because testing and racing conditions are completely different things, the car might be fragile in wheel-to-wheel combat. Lewis has already had one wing failure so the win is still up for grabs.

Realistically however, you'd have to think the win will be handed to a Mercedes powered car given their apparent advantage - most favourably Williams and then McLaren could be the alternate victors to the factory team. Force India are also running the Mercedes engine but don't seem to have the same advantage as the others languishing behind McLaren as the last of the Mercedes runners. Ferrari could well be in the mix, just a comfortable distance away from the front, even the power of Raikkonen and Alonso can't overcome the deficit it seems the team have in relation to the main Mercedes runners. They could have a go at McLaren and should finish ahead of Force India - provided they finish of course.

The Renault powered teams are in for a very difficult weekend, Red Bull and Lotus have had particularly limited running with Toro Rosso not doing too much better. That leaves Caterham as the team looking most likely to get two cars across the line - albeit a long time after anyone else remaining has finished which could net them their first points ever. In a way the same goes for Marussia in the other backmarking team, but their reliability record is a long way short of what Caterham have achieved without having any more pace to fall back on. It is races like this that the bottom teams look forward to - the likes of Minardi have scored many a point in Melbourne at the hands of Webber for example in 2002 recording a 5th place. That was only two points back then so there is plenty to aim for this time around.

I feel this is going to be a race of attrition - not as extreme as some fear - as it is the first time the new ERS boost system is applied in racing conditions alongside DRS and whatever other gimmick sneaks onto the playing field in the forthcoming hours.

The time is almost upon us...

Greetings Internet,

It has been a long time since the Brazilian GP on the other side of the winter break, and here many weeks and hundreds of miles of testing (or less if you're in possession of a Renault power unit) later it is only a matter of days before the first race of 2014. At the time the new regulations were announced at the back end of last season it was anticipated that Melbourne might see a new competitive order - those who adapted best stealing Red Bull's thunder. Back then no-one knew how true that statement was, testing would be the first indication of the significance of what is about to unfold next weekend. In acceptance of the challenge that is upon the metaphorical table there were certain parts of the internet that spent some time going through the regulations to find out what happens if no-one actually finishes the race, such has been the state of reliability over the winter. Reliability has struck the Renault powered cars the hardest Lotus didn't even turn up in Jerez and Red Bull need not have bothered given the lack of running they did - less than half race distance in four days track time. In Bahrain things improved, but Lotus, Red Bull and Toro Rosso still struggled to keep the car running long enough to work on their lap times and overall pace.

In another indication that the engine manufacturers are having a very dominant influence on performance is that Ferrari engined cars (barring Hamilton's wing failure) have been the only cars that have been involved in accidents in testing. In Jerez it was Sutil in the Sauber who delivered some damage to the nosecone of his car and then in Bahrain is Raikkonen who did a lot more damage to his Ferrari. Potentially this shows that the torque curve on those power units are more difficult to manage than the other approaches - and Marussia have had a very difficult testing period with reliability and speed. Out of it all it is looking really rosy for anyone who managed to secure a Mercedes engine, the factory team and Williams coming out on top thus far... but it is very early days yet. So the blog examines each team and their road to the start of the first race.

Marussia

Starting at the perceived back of the grid, things are not showing any signs of improving, a series of technical dramas and a chronic lack of pace are not a brace of positive signs for the team. Having not changed their driver paring from 2013 there is an element of consistency within the garage and Bianchi remains highly rated and poised to push the squad further up the grid. But the thing is that the team don't have enough money to claw back enough grid positions on core speed, typified by the presence of a certain Max Chilton propping up the balance sheets and the back of the grid. However all is not lost for Marussia, this season is going to be blighted by unpredictable unreliability and potentially a little bit of mayhem. Just the right circumstances for an under-funded tail end team to profit from the misfortunes of others, and hilariously this plays directly into the hands of captain moneybags Chilton. Max did display an uncanny ability to finish races despite casing a few accidents along the way - including the infamous fort building exercise in Monaco - in uncertain times that is how a small team can steal a point or two in the early rounds.

Caterham

Sitting in a similarly slow and unwieldy boat at the bottom of the grid is Caterham, and you'd think being saddled with the short lived Renault engine package things would seem rather hopeless - no speed and longevity? But for some reason the little green cars have achieved some of the best reliability records of the entire grid during pre-season testing, part of that might be the excessively conservative cooling package wrapped in the biggest sidepods on the grid. On that basis we might find ourselves in a world where only Caterham and Max Chilton cross the line in Australia. Like Marussia, their immediate competition they've gone for a mixed driver partnership, pairing rookie Marcus Eriksson with international favourite Kamui Kobayashi. A signing which has automatically gained the team 10 bonus points before the opening race has started - if Bernie is allowed to roll out an insane scoring system, things will need to be stepped up here to have the edge in the madness stakes. Caterham thus far have been woefully slow, the point where Kamui pointed out that the car was setting slower times than GP2 cars in Bahrain. Some work to do there.

Williams

After testing someone needs to go round the garage and dish out some high fives, because the winter period has been very promising. Being this far down the list summarises how poor the 2013 season was for the team - supposed team leader at the time, Maldonado managed to score a single point and even that was a result of a mechanical failure for Rosberg in Hungary. Bottas on the other hand managed some points on pace in the latter races - but the step they have made in testing is miraculous - people are talking about wins and podiums in the plural sense rather than which race will they sneak into the top ten. A part of this change could be the transition from Renault to Mercedes power and some significant personnel changes behind the scenes. Combined with a new title sponsor in lieu of the PDVSA money from Venezuela and arguably the best livery on the grid things look very promising. Williams have passed the burden of Maldonado onto Lotus and aqcuired the talents of the 2012 bonus points champion - Felipe Massa. Seems like a good deal to me. Felipe has also brought his best buddy Rob Smedley along too and topped the time sheets in the final test - 2014 is a big season for Williams and the world is now expecting big things.

Toro Rosso

When Williams have benefited greatly from an engine manufacturer change, Toro Rosso have encountered the exact opposite. In 2013 the team were Ferrari powered and had some of the highest top speeds at the low downforce tracks of Monza and Spa, but now they are beset with Renault power. Perhaps this is to build some form of commonality with the main team Red Bull, and the more cynical amongst you will suggest that Red Bull are merely using Toro Rosso as an experiment for the new regulations... But the way testing has gone would disprove that as both teams have been struggling. However all these discussions about performance have detracted comments away from Toro Rosso's nose - which is the most likely protuberance to be censored for airing on daytime television. From the running thus far it would appear that Toro Rosso have lost a lot of ground to their mid-field rivals especially Williams and may come under threat from the two slower teams at the back of the grid. But when Renault sort out what is going on with the power units then things might improve, this means that Toro Rosso will find the early races difficult and may not finish most of them, waiting for the latter races to make up the difference.

Sauber 

After a strong end to 2013 it seems that Sauber too are on the back foot and it seems that financial difficulties are at the head of that particular dilemma. There were many talks with investors at the end of the season - promoting rumours of Sergey Sirotkin being promoted into a race seat having done no real test mileage. In the end Sauber had settled for what seems like the most uninspired driver pairing of Sutil and Gutierrez. Which in reality might not be a bad idea, Sutil is dependable (as long as he stays out of Chinese bars) and Gutierrez demonstrated some flashes of brilliance (along with some of sheer stupidity) and in these uncertain times stability could be a valuable commodity. The car itself also seems mediocre, with all the attention on the top runners the world seems to have ignored those in the middle - except more dedicated corners of the internet. Sauber haven't been spared the reliability issues that others have suffered, losing over a day of testing at one point - but it has been able to complete race distances without breaking down so could be on for some points, just not inside the top five I'd guess.

Force India

Just by happening to have Mercedes engines Force India are in with a strong shout of consistent points while the others try and play catch up. This is boosted by the strongest driver pairing of the mid-field teams - liberating Hulkenberg from a struggling Sauber and adopting Perez who was booted out of McLaren because they liked Kevin more. There was a lot of online commotion when Nico didn't get a drive at Lotus, but oh how the tables have turned over the winter, Force India look like a much safer bet than the strange concoction that the Endstone team have created. In Jerez the team looked quite strong, but of course times at that stage don't mean a whole lot and picking a running order from that is lunacy - but in Bahrain the consistency continued. On base speed I don't quite think the car is fast enough to challenge for outright victories of podiums on a regular basis, but could easily put themselves in the position to capitalise when others retire. Force India are points contenders ahead of Sauber and Toro Rosso but potentially behind Williams - yet I reckon several big teams might find themselves further back.

Lotus

Well, it hasn't really gone to plan for Lotus - after being unable to compete in the first test in Spain, the team arrived in Bahrain and were plagued with technical problems. I severely doubt we have seen the actual speed of this interesting design so far, having to dial the power down just to get the car running for any period of time. Reigning bonus points champion Grosjean is in for a struggle to be the first driver to retain the generally ignored title. To make matters worse there had been an exodus of personnel from Endstone over the winter including some very important team members - Eric Boullier now belongs to McLaren and designer Pat Symmonds is now a Ferrari employee. On the whole things do not seem promising, but to counter balance that they do have an innovative car design which may pay dividends in the end and two fast - if not erratic - drivers. So when all the technical dramas are put right, and if the cars can reach the end of a race with all four wheels attached points can be scored - but it is going to be an uphill struggle to make it that far in 2014.


McLaren

Like Lotus McLaren have gone through some significant personnel changes in the run up to this season, the most notable being that Ron Dennis is back - the McLaren overlord has deposed Martin Whitmarsh and no-one quite knows where Martin is going next. Suspicions are that he was replaced because McLaren were playing too nice and needed to be more aggressive in their approach to team management. Other conspiracy theories claim that this is some big power-play to entice Lewis back into the team - but in reality Hamilton has no real reason to return given how well things are at Mercedes. Armed with the ever inaugural bonus points champion Jenson Button and this new chap Kevin Magnussen, McLaren seem to have a strong driver line-up. Kevin was able to top the time sheets in the final testing day in Jerez suggesting that the car is also a lot better than it was this time last season. But as you all know those times don't mean too much - it wasn't that long ago that Sauber lit up the pre-season tests but I don't recall them dominating the championship. So there is a cautious optimism at McLaren, like there is at Williams which makes for some interesting competition at the weekend.

Ferrari

Expectations could hardly be higher for Ferrari right now - with two highly rated world champions in the driving seats and some restructuring behind the scenes including looting Lotus' employment list. Maranello expects nothing less than victories and more titles to come from this season - and on the evidence thus far that goal seems fractionally out of reach. Like the others, Ferrari have had their own share of the reliability difficulties - and Raikkonen put the car in the wall in the first Bahrain test. But on top of that it has surfaced that the Ferrari engine is not the most fuel efficient motor on the grid - which in a season which aims to reward efficiency and fuel conservation is a bad sign. Reports are that both the factory team and Sauber have needed to fuel save in order to complete race distances on the single tank of fuel permitted. As Melbourne has a relatively high fuel consumption rate - the opening round is going to be more of a challenge than they hoped for. To add insult to injury the baseline speed of the car is vulnerable to several Mercedes powered teams - McLaren, Williams and the factory Mercedes team all appear to have moments of greater performance as well as better reliability and fuel numbers. Ferrari will always be competitive but taking the title might be a little optimistic at this stage.


Mercedes

Are we looking at the inception of a team capable of taking over the championship from Red Bull, well many people would think so - even without the assistance of Ross Brawn at the helm Mercedes are making significant strides towards the title. Retaining the same pair of drivers that brought the team's most successful season since their return as a factory outfit there a lot of positives coming out of Brakley at the moment. Only Williams have been able to keep up on raw pace with McLaren and Ferrari just out of range a little further down. On top of that - barring a significant front wing failure on the first day in Jerez - reliability has also been rather good. Does this mean we should all rush out and place bets on a Mercedes driver claiming the title - well maybe if you're into that sort of thing - but remember these are very early days in a controlled testing environment. Trundling around Bahrain, working an individual program is nothing like a highly charged qualifying session and even less like the stresses of putting a car through a full race weekend. Weaknesses that were not visible in tesitng could flare up - this championship is certainly not done and dusted before we begin, it would be silly to think otherwise. Even though the team does have a pedigree of dominating testing and then wiping the floor with the competition when it was in the Brawn GP guise...

Red Bull

Oh how the mighty have fallen... or have they. We all know testing has not gone well for Red Bull only doing 21 more laps than Lotus in Jerez who didn't even turn up was a diabolical start to the season. Leaving the team with a lot of ground to catch up in Bahrain, and even there they were more than comfortably behind the top running teams on pace. It is an odd turn of events when Caterham are now the most productive Renault engined team on reliability if not pace. While Toro Rosso set the fastest lap time for a Renault powered car, so Red Bull can't really be considered to be on top of anything at this point in time - their times place them in the mid-field just ahead of Sauber. Vettel himself has suggested that it will take a race of attrition for Red Bull to score points in Australia. So where does this place Daniel Ricciardo then, intially happy to move to big team only to find Vergne in the old car setting a stronger pace on a similar level of poor reliability. Oh dear oh dear. But - this is Red Bull with huge resources and expertise on tap to make up the difference, it wouldn't surprise me if by the end of the season if Vettel is running away to victories over half a second away from the field. I think in a parallel situation in Australia Jamie Whincup for Red Bull Racing Australia (who are almost equally as dominant usually) summed up the problem well when he pointed out that in his category each title defence year is harder than the last... and this one is the hardest ever. Maybe if the German bloke has to fight wheel-to-wheel in the mid-pack people won't be quite so tempted to boo his efforts behind the wheel.


Overall, looking at how testing has gone it would appear that you need a Mercedes engine to be successful, at least until the others catch up. The Ferrari power unit seems almost comparable on pace but the fuel consumption problem will compromise their overall race time as they are forced to conserve fuel towards the final laps of a race. As for Renault, they have the most work to do, under pressure from Christian Horner and the Red Bull team to do that work as quickly as possible. But if it is just Renault's fault, why are Caterham completing as many laps as they are on a consistent basis - is the slow pace of the Caterham team a reflection of the performance hit you need to take just to keep the Renault power plant alive for any reasonable amount of time. Normally testing provides a few answers as to what to expect - roughly - when the cars touch down in Melbourne, this season is very different. We have no idea what is going to happen, Marussia look like they could steal points if reliability is as poor as it is feared and the Australian GP turns into a Michael Bay movie with over the top mayhem. Either way 2014 threatens to be infinitely more exciting than 2013 (especially post tyre change) and makes the anticipation for the first session at the end of the week even more powerful. Bring it on.

The Rest of the Grid and Jerez Testing

Greetings Internet,

Well I suppose this all means that the 2014 season is underway... sort of as we have now seen the first official test of the year completed with mixed results over in Spain. It was the first time we got to see the cars outside the image manipulated world of photoshop and into the brutal light of day - and with that several cars looked very different than their pre-test release photos. Toro Rosso for example released a couple of cleverly angled images of their car, concealing what they've done with the nose making it look like one of the better designs. But... in the real world their nose section definitely falls into the category of things which are reserved for late night television - so much so it was featured in a tweet by Ann Summers... Thanks to Lotus for spotting that one as it one part of the internet even I dare not tread. And remember that highly filtered shot of the side of the Force India - well the reality is nowhere near as fancy, the new aggressive paint scheme just looks like someone has forgotten to finish colouring it in. As for their nose - they've gone for a longer, more erect black appendage... F1 is definitely not child friendly any more. As of the last post several teams hadn't released their challenger - probably because it wasn't after the watershed hour at the time but now all 10 of the cars that attended the test (with Lotus MIA) have unveiled their designs to the world... with more interesting results.

Mercedes

After seeing some very odd interpretations of the regulations thus far and the resulting observations that the world has made - observations that found their way onto Top Gear last night - the Mercedes seemed miraculous. It looks considerably better than anything else we've seen, going for the same flat nose as the Ferrari but doing it right. When something like this was possible it makes you wonder why no-one else had opted for it, instead of going for the very phallic growth (and whatever Lotus finally come up with). But despite the sleeker more natural design, Hamilton still managed to crash the thing into a wall on the first day of testing making him one of only two drivers to hit anything across the four days. Yet the questions were raised against both Ferrari and Mercedes for their nose design on grounds of safety... thought that was the whole point of the regulations... but that debate will go on for a while I imagine. Can't we just congratulate the team for making a car in the current set of rules that looks nice...

Red Bull

Given the reputation that Adrian Newey has for designing cars to sit just inside the regulations with the narrowest of margins it was always going to be interesting to see what his 2014 car would look like. The results were not disappointing, even through Red Bull haven't gone the same way as Ferrari and Mercedes (and no-one has gone where Lotus have gone) they've made the protruded nose look acceptable. It files down to a very narrow and purposeful point at the end of the nose and the decrease in cross-sectional area is far more progressive than many others. Nothing unduly sticks out where it shouldn't and looks very tightly packaged. But testing has been difficult for Red Bull - it seems Newey may have pushed things a little close once more and the back of the car is wrapped up so tightly there are cooling issues and a series of mechanical failures. Yet somehow I can foresee the multiple-champions arriving in Melbourne after the Bahrain test with a very strong car.

Caterham 

Just when we thought we'd seen it all, Caterham came out with this... and it is very different and has created a myriad of different polarising reactions across the internet. It looks like the sort of thing you'd build when you've run out the type of lego bricks you needed to finish off and had to compromise with what was in the bottom of the box. Also the sidepods look very big and bulky, perhaps this has something to do with the cooling problem Renault are having with the power units making it one of the least cohesive designs on the grid. But Caterham have done something different with the nose - apart from the way it looks - they've attached the front wing to the underside of the... appendage. As a result it gives the prong a purpose so it isn't just waggling... exposed at the front. It is a novel design, whether it is a fast one remains to be seen because after all they'll probably still only be fighting Marussia for last place. However Caterham had an ace up their sleeve for 2014 - bringing fan favourite Kamui Kobayshi back to the sport to partner a rookie and GP2 graduate Marcus Eriksson in a refreshing line up. Although I probably would have kept Van Der Garde.

Marussia 

The final contenders rolled their car out later than the others and didn't take part in the first day of testing in Jerez, and seeing what Caterham - their immediate contender - had done there was some anticipation about the final car to be revealed. Even through Marussia have stepped away from their completely CFD designed car they entered in 2010, the team have always managed to engineer very elegant cars even if they are anchored at the back (retaining Chilton isn't going to help that and racing against Kamui). The 2014 car is no different - and even without sponsors the livery doesn't look dull or empty unlike Williams or Sauber thus far. Like Force India they've gone for a less subtle appendage on the front but painted it black to make it less visible - but the car is has much smoother lines than the Caterham and despite turning up late, still did more laps than Red Bull managed....

Can we learn anything from initial testing

This early phase of testing was all about making sure that the cars worked, rather than seeing what their ultimate pace was, therefore we can't say who has the fastest car - or we'd be claiming Williams have made an almighty recovery to be title contenders. While might be possible, we haven't seen anywhere near the full force of the cars, teams running turned down engines to max out the mileage and to see what falls off. For Mercedes it was a front wing that fell off and planted Hamilton in the wall for the second consecutive winter test. McLaren had a poor first day with mechanical issues but once it was fixed the car did seem to be an improvement on last years, as much as we can tell. Such is the nature of F1, as soon as they seem to be doing well the other teams start questioning the legality of their car - regarding a section of bodywork covering the central rear exhaust. Aside from the front wing failure and McLaren's issues, Mercedes powered cars seemed to be the most reliable and completed much more laps than the other engine manufacturers.

Ferrari looked competitive too, with Alonso one of the few drivers to be pushing enough to get the car a little sideways on occasion. Teams with customer power units from Ferrari - Sauber and Marussia were also have a sufficiently reliable time, although Sutil did manage to knock the nose of his Sauber making it look much nicer for it. I think only Alonso was forced to stop out on track due as a result of the car breaking down of the Ferrari powered drivers.

But then we come to Renault who had a diabolical time in Jerez, Red Bull completed 21 laps over all four days most of which ended in Horner and Newey going home early to think about what they haven't done. Considering that Mercedes completed 309 laps it really didn't go well, Toro Rosso having switched to Renault power themselves only managed 46 laps. Of all the Renault powered teams Caterham did the most running mostly with Kobayashi at the wheel. Right now Red Bull are not happy with Renault and have announced to the world that the French manufacturer 'will have things sorted out before the Bahrain test' and that Caterham only managed to do so much running because their engines were turned down...

Whatever the actual form is - Magnussen and Massa set the top two testing times - one thing is for sure Australia is going to be a feast of unpredictability and unreliability with cars which are reportedly more 'interesting' to drive. The difficulties for Renault might mean that Lotus haven't lost out quite so much by not visiting the first test... possibly being all to aware of the issues Renault were facing and were doing their own work at home. 2014 should be a season with more competition and a closer field with Williams and McLaren getting closer. Bring it on.0

The 2014 cars look a little odd

Greetings Internet,

Here we are on the eve of the first test of the season, well at least it was when this document was started - actual release may vary. In the run up to this important milestone on the path towards Australia in March a few teams have released their new designs for 2014, and from those releases everything looks a little odd... It was to be expected that the re-profiled nose sections would dominate the shape of the grid but it has lead to some very interesting remarks across the internet. However one of the most promising things about this significant redesign is that it forces those designers and engineers to come up with new solutions and new interpretations. This means that there is going to be a lot of variation on the grid this year, especially given what we've seen so far - which is always a good thing, back in 2008 if the cars had no livery it would be very difficult to tell which one belonged to which team. Now this problem has been resolved - replaced by another one... the cars look weird... Two seasons ago we had the onset of the stepped nose, some teams were more subtle with it than others, Sauber and Ferrari had a very angular step, Force India and Mercedes had a platypus nose while McLaren had neither. All those designs seemed odd at first, but we got used to them over time, and some like the Lotus interpretation started to look alright. However I sense that the same process of acceptance regarding the newest nose designs is going to be a lot longer...

So here are the car release pictures so far... from those teams who have decided to unveil their designs before the first test begins tomorrow... ish.

Force India

Force India were the first team to unveil a picture of their car, and looking at the sole image which had clearly been photoshopped to within an inch of its life, things looked good. The most striking difference is that they had refreshed their livery after it had remained static for so long, paired with one of the strongest driver pairings on the grid and definitely in the mid-field seemed promising. What the team had done was to take their image directly from the side which meant their interpretation of the nose-cone design remained hidden. It can be seen from the profile of the nose that there is something going on there, but the angle of the shot and the after-effects put on the car make it difficult to discern what. On the surface it looks a lot more aggressive, but so did last years Sauber when those first images came out and the actual car didn't quite have the same amount of presence. So we shall have to wait and see if Force India follows that pattern when the trackside photos come out of Jerez.

Williams

After Force India released a photoshop special, Williams went one betted and released a sponsor free CGI rendering of their car. This time Williams decided to show their new nose design... and it was at this point in time that the internet erupted. Because it looks mismatched, an anomalous protrusion from the front of the car which looks out of place, the sort of thing you'd go to the doctor about and ask for a biopsy. But this is what the technical regulations promoted - a low narrow nose attached to a wider and higher section of the chassis responsible for housing the suspension. However this image may work in the opposite manner to the Force India release, because the actual car with sponsors if Williams still have any and a complete livery might highlight contours that the rendering doesn't show. Therefore the - protrusion - may blend in to the rest of the body better and look more purposeful when it is on track.

McLaren

McLaren were the first team to do a proper reveal, complete with drivers and without too much image manipulation. Before we get to the shape of the nose which again is another interpretation, the other talking point is the lack of any distinct livery, since Vodafone and McLaren parted ways over the winter the team don't have a title sponsor - or any sponsors on the car. This suggests that despite signing up drivers before the end of the 2013 season, there are still many business deals to be done. As a result the livery is rather plain - and just uses several shades of grey, making it similar in many respects to the factory Mercedes team cars. But as this may well just be a work in progress design, what they show up in Australia with may differ significantly. Onto the nose then, and this nodule seems a lot more purposeful than the Williams version, and the wing supports are quite nice - even if they look a little like nostrils from the front. But there is the problem that the end of the nose doesn't quite seem to match with the lines of the main chassis, and the edges don't line up. It is a minor detail but an ever so slightly irritating one - but as some third-party designs online demonstrate - a clever livery can sculpt the nose to look much sharper and blend in with the rest of the car.

Lotus

More CGI again, and in the alternative world of Lotus' twitter use - they twitter-bombed McLaren (if that is indeed such a term). Because as McLaren were doing a big online video reveal - Lotus posted their rendering on twitter... very sneaky. The world then stared at this image for quite a while, questioning whether Lotus were having another laugh, or whether the rendering was pushed through to spoil McLaren's parade leaving some of the details a little rough. But when further images were released it became clear that Lotus were serious and had gone in a very different direction with the design. The car has two noses... one of which is longer than the other - which is going to irritate me and anyone with an OCD complex all season long. This has been done because you can only have one designated nose, and any other chassis bodywork must be at least 500mm back from this point. Therefore one prong is the nose, and the other has to be 500mm shorted - it's a very clever interpretation of the rules, one which may force a re-write for 2015 so the innovation should be applauded. And if those noses were allowed to be equal it would be the best looking design so far.

Ferrari

With arguably the most powerful driver pairing and a huge amount of resources, big things were expected from Ferrari - they have something to prove in 2014, that they can really challenge for the big prize at the end. So when this design filtered through the media we were all very surprised with what was in front of us all - like the Lotus it took some time to sink in because it is quite different. In some respects the sloped nose without the strange protrusion is a much smoother design but the slope angle seems very disjointed from the rest of the car. Almost as if it has melted or someone really fat fell on the wax wind-tunnel model before it was scanned into the computer - but the design is quite deliberate, and I can see this being one of those that we get used to faster than the others... Even if it looks strange to us all now. Because a static car can look different to one travelling at speed even if they are intrinsically the same thing, so I shall withhold all criticism until the images from Jerez come through.

Sauber

Sauber only released their design yesterday, and is the most recent of the car releases immediately before the start of testing tomorrow when the rest of the field will be unveiled. Like Force India some clever photography and image filters make the car look more aggressive than it really is, while concealing the complete nose profile which has been a sticking point among fans. From the angle available the nose does look to be one of the better interpretations of the rule - aesthetically speaking - performance is another matter. As with the majority of the other designs thus far, the rest of the car remains largely unchanged with the exception of the airbox shapes above the driver. Sauber have come into some criticism for their driver choices by the folk of the internet mainly because Gutierrez can be erratic at times and Sutil has become boring in recent seasons - but their least inspired decision so far is the livery. All the others so far have at least made some updates and improvements to the design but Sauber haven't - barring sponsors it is borderline identical to the 2013 car. There is a sense that the mid-field balance of power might have been passed back to Force India... or maybe even Williams.

Torro Rosso

This release literally occurred minutes ago and unlike some of the other designs, toro-rosso have gone with a much sharper shape to the main chassis leading up to the nosecone which descends smoother than the likes of Ferrari or Williams. It does seem to bear a much greater resemblance to the Sauber design where the overhanging sections of the nose at the sides form the supporting struts for the front wing. Which makes the whole thing look tidier than the front of the Williams without the flaring nostril look of the McLaren. It seems that of those running the single pointed nose Toro Rosso and Sauber have come up with the prettier solutions - even if their liveries remain largely unchanged by it all. Of course we don't really know what Force India have done or the others that are yet to unveil what they have done, but those fears of 2014 cars being hideous has been dispelled in several cases. The jury is still out on others...


Overall the new cars are very different, and the picture will be a lot clearer over the coming days when testing gets underway in Spain. Of course between initial release and the start of the season in Melbourne it is entirely possible the there will be some significant changes to the shape, style and overall approach to the front nose design. Teams will learn from each other in Jerez, they will learn from the telemetry data and relative pace whether their design is any good. Naturally that relative pace doesn't mean too much at this stage, but it helps teams shape and reshape the cars to extract more downforce and tyre life from the cars. It is a very important test, which may cause problems who like me, are not heading off to Spain because it is well out of both out budgets.

2014 - A Step Into the Unknown

Greetings Internet,

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

Every now and again the aerodynamic design limits get modified slightly, generally around the front of the car - after 2008 these limits were modified with a machete - but this latest set is a lot more subtle. Since that monumental reconfiguration in 2009, the height of the nose-cone has been under constant scrutiny - and in 2012 we ended up with some strange stepped nose designs. In 2014 the maximum height of the nose is being lowered, primarily for safety, because a low nose has a smaller chance of riding over a wheel and ending on top of the car in front. A primary example was the 2011 Abu-Dhabi GP when Liuzzi parked his Force India on top of Schumacher's Mercedes, and a similar incident occurred in this year's GP2 race. Naturally this causes the problem of risking a driver taking a car to the head - which is not ideal. Initial concept drawings of what this would look like looked ... different, shall we say - but other artisitic impressions make the nose sections look more like those we saw on the 2009 Brawn GP car.

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.