F1 2014

[T]

Who do you Fancy to win this years F1

[T]

I HOPE Red bull don't win again but i can't see anyone else apart from them to be fair.... i see McLaren are set to replace Martin Whitmarsh for Lotus guy Eric Boullier which is a good thing as McLaren have been struggling these past few years i hope they come good again soon

I see they've revealed its car for 2014

[Sunshine Recorder]

I wouldn't be too surprised if Vettel wins every race of the season.

[mossieman]

Well all the new reg changes could mix things up again like they did last time in 2009 giving us the surprise of Jenson Button and the Brawn F1 Team. But i have to be honest and say that is just wishful thinking and i think it will be dominated by Vettel and Red Bul again, great driver, great team principal & great car designer = drivers & constructors champions.

p.s. That might be a good thing with how UGLY the cars are looking this season. At least then when 1 team is so dominant that it becomes a bore i will not mind so much when i switch off and don't have to look at them anymore

[Ben1981]

I wouldn't be surprised if Vettel wins again. Though hopefully hell be made to work for his title unlike last season. I have a feeling Ferrari may edge the constructors though with Raikkonen on board and Ricciardos inexperience at the front could be a chink in Red Bulls armour. Im going to stick to my plan of not bothering with the first handful of races and if Vettels dominating Ill not bother with the season at all. If we get the sort of start like in 2012 however Ill return for the summer races.

[Duke of Prunes]

Better not be another Vettel walkover. Also, we haven't seen the ‘real’ new cars yet. The PR photos of new cars are usually just a bunch of old parts stuck on to a new chassis. Chances are the real cars will be even uglier!

[TheEmperor]

Hope Kimi does it but it'll probably be Vettel... again.

[Alf in Pog Form]

It should be interesting. To begin with at least.

The regulations are very different now. Not just the car shapes, but the whole energy recovery system type thing. You can use 10 times more now than you could with the old kers system, but a car can only 'harvest' half of that amount on each lap. So it can't be used every lap to it's full, and so it'll hopefully make it more interesting lap to lap.

The gear ratios are now having to be set once at the start of the season, and that'll be that for the whole year. Most cars will probably go for similar setups, but possibly some will go for better setups for slower/faster tracks, meaning they're be very good on some tracks and a sitting turd on others.

The reliability is widely expected to be appalling to begin with too. F1 needs a bit more of a lottery factor, because it's always the same cars winning all the damn time. And finally, a lot of what made the Red Bulls super fast recently has been outlawed. That whole rear exhaust diffuser stuff which gave them a huge advantage before has been given the banhammer.

All in all, I'm optimistic it'll be better than last season.

[mossieman]

I to expected all the changes to mix things up this year i even said so on my 2013 f1 post (when i also said vettel would walk it that year) but i've just started to get that gut feeling that red bull will do the best job with all the changes, hope i'm wrong tho!

[Duke of Prunes]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/112566

LOL Red Bull failing again! Only 14 laps for Vettel. The Renault engine may be an overheating piece of crap, but even Caterham have managed to get some reliability out of it (albeit with a slower car that has a ****ton more cooling, but at least they would be able to finish a race with it).

[Progress]

^

Go Ferrari!

[Mr. Nobody]

as far as I know,. Hamilton and Rosberg are doing well in pre-season testing,.
and Alonso too is looking promising,..

all - in -all,. I'd really like to see Hamilton doing well this season,
and to be honest, I really think he might actually do really well for a change, as will Button

I think Jenson is in with a really good shout too,. which would be great to see for so many reasons..

I think it'll be a close fight though, and if Ferrari do well I think Alonso has the beating of Hamilton and Button in a straight race,

I think these initial problems with Red Bull could be ominous,. and I think it does spell danger,.
I think they've crammed too much into their new slimmer chassis rear end,. and apparently this is perhaps causing issues for them

the new cars sound very different from days of old,. and I hear they're a good few seconds off the pace of previous years,.but hopefully the racing will be as good as ever.

looking forward to it.

[T]

What do you all think of the new cars i know tis still abit early to see....See Lewis is on pole for tomorrows Grand Prix

[T]

Three on the run for Lewis Hamilton, i guess Mercedes has the car for this year sad to see McLaren still struggling and abit of sour grapes that Vettal didn't move over for Ricciardo and held him up for abit if that was other other way round well...

[Amplexor]

I haven't the foggiest so I chose Alonso because I recognise his name

[Duke of Prunes]

There's something very satisfying about seeing Ricciardo destroy Vettel.

[Mr. Nobody]

I was very pleasantly surprised to see Hamilton and Rosberg going head-to-head and indulging in such close, hard-fought racing in the last-but-one race,.

thank God it's not going to be too boring this year,.
can't really recall the last time I saw Vettel and Webber fighting so cleanly and so intensely..

I hope Red Bull make some more improvements and hope Ferrari improve too,.
would be good to see more teams fighting for this championship.

[Ben1981]

Seriously Hamilton. People would like you a lot better if you didn't keep whining on the radio every time things don't go your way. These things happen sometimes. Deal with it.
Typically just as I write Monaco off as the most boring race on the calendar we get an action packed one like this come around. Nice to see one of the Marussias get into the points as well for a change plus Vettel being dumped out early. Hopefully more of the same to come next time round.

[Craig.]

From what I saw of the highlights, Monaco was brilliant! I actually went there a couple of years ago, quite cool seeing the start line and the hairpin bend & casino etc, I remember seeing tire marks on the road. Really cool. Lewis Hamilton is such a grumpy old cow, he got second place and he had a face like a slapped arse. I'm really not a fan of him, Daniel Ricciardo sounds like a fun guy.

[Progress]

^ ^^ Yeah, you could see Hamilton struggle to bite his tongue in the interview afterwards (BBC). Struggling to mature but not quite there.

[Duke of Prunes]

Monaco is just dire with current F1 cars really. It's exciting to watch the drivers dodging the barriers, and I'm sure the atmosphere is great, but the racing is almost non-existent. The statistics say it all: one non-pole win and even a couple of formation finishes in the top 3/4 from lights to flag in the last decade. It's much better with older cars though (the historic racing there is always better than the F1).

Also, grumpy or not, Hamilton is much less of a prick than Rosberg IMO. Hamilton does get very grumpy when has been screwed over (and let's be honest, he was screwed over this weekend in that someone did something, albeit most likely by accident, that ruined what could have been pole, and this being Monaco, the race win as well) or when he has made a mistake, but at least he isn't afraid to show it.

Rosberg on the other hand just seems slimy – even though he rarely whines in public (except for the occasional outburst on the radio when he actually gets close enough to Hamilton to attempt a pass and then fails miserably, and then the usual ‘I STRONGLY DISLIKE COMING SECOND TO LEWIS’ crybaby stuff), it's obvious that he's a brat behind the scenes. The worst thing for me is that as soon as he realises he's on camera, he immediately swaps his usual grumpy face for what has to be one of the fakest smiles in F1, and then starts spouting PR bullshit about team harmony. I find that absolutely unbearable.

[T]

Originally Posted by Deliverance?

Seriously Hamilton. People would like you a lot better if you didn't keep whining on the radio every time things don't go your way. These things happen sometimes. Deal with it.
Typically just as I write Monaco off as the most boring race on the calendar we get an action packed one like this come around. Nice to see one of the Marussias get into the points as well for a change plus Vettel being dumped out early. Hopefully more of the same to come next time round.

This

[Progress]

Pull yourself together Hamilton

[Duke of Prunes]

Aaaaaand the championship is back on

Winning from someone's DNF can't be very satisfying, but a win is a win, and Lewis really needed that one, especially after yesterday.

[Craig.]

What a race! That crash looked dodgy af, Really glad Chilton is okay though! Not a fan of Hamilton at all, Chilton is the one.

[far]

Not too long ago, a crash like that would have meant broken bones - I'm thinking Panis' crash in Canada in 1997. Kimi was really lucky.

[Mr. Nobody]

if the only time Hamilton can win is when he's in the best car, and when his team-mate drops out of the race, it dosen't really bode well for the rest of his season,.

I'm getting a bit fed up of the overtly pro-Hamilton commentating on BBC,. as if he's the only driver on the track anyone's interested in or rates,.

I'm amazed that Raikonnen nade such a mistake on the first lap of the race,.
I was really hoping he'd be brilliant this year in the Ferrari, but he seems to have just gone completely off the boil,.

Alonso and Bottas were by far the most outstanding racers at Silverstone yestersday,.
was enjoyable watching Alonso kick so many asses,.
for Bottas to have come from 14th to 2nd. is just bloody amazing,.
hats off to him and to Williams,. great to see them doing well again,
Bottas''s first lap was amazing, he was just firing thorugh the field,.
-- an enjoyable race for a change --

[mossieman]

It should now be a good battle between the mercedes boys though hamiton has had the upper hand on rosberg in all the other formula's that they have raced in together.
3 wins now for rosberg 5 for hamilton but only 1 DNF for rosberg and 2 for hamilton so on a whole he is still looking like the better driver just so long as he has no more DNF's this season.
Great to see Williams back at the front really hope they can pinch second in the constructor's championship

[Mr. Nobody]

good to see F1 this year going to the wire to decide the driver's champion, albeit only between 2 drivers,.

Hamilton's looking good for the title, but you never know what's around the corner,.(possibly another corner?)

can't believe Ferrari are letting Alonso go, and keeping Raikonnen, who has been unbeleivably poor this year,.(as has my spelling)

Vettel seems to have been completely outclassed by Ricciardo at almost every race, ~ seems the haters were right all along?

anyway,. it's been a bit boring but I'll no doubt be tuning in for some of the action this weekend to see some of the ensuing drama.

[Craig.]

Pretty good season despite the mostly predictable podiums, been a bit of a shame with Bianchi's crash and Caterham and Marussia having problems, Will be interesting to see how the grid lines up next year. There's been talk of 3 car teams but I doubt/hope that wont happen.

I really hope Button manages to stay at Mclaren and isn't pushed out by Fernando, Button has proved this year multiple times that he's still capable of being in the running for podiums, it would be a shame to see him retire now.

Originally Posted by runaway

can't believe Ferrari are letting Alonso go, and keeping Raikonnen, who has been unbeleivably poor this year,

Alonso wanted to go, He's been considering it since last season, and seeing as there was no improvement this year he's leaving (still has two years on his Ferrari contract though.)

As for Raikkonen, I think he's only been poor because of the car setup (there's rumours that the cars were tailored more for Alonso than Raikkonen) I think next year we'll see a better Ferrari car and thus, Raikkonen & Vettel will both be much more competitive with Ferrari. But hey I'm a massive Kimi fan so maybe I'm a bit biased!