2014 Formula 1 season - overview, review & your thoughts

[Phil]

Well, the 2014 season has ended, so I thought it would be appropriate to make a thread with a simple poll on how everyone felt about it. This topic is not as much about going into detail if the right person has won it, but more about how the season has progressed overal and what we think about the changes that were introduced.

2014 marked a year with many changes, both on the technological front, but also the with some intriguing battles between team-mates.

Lets sum them up a bit:

new V6 engines, fuel-flow limit, more emphasis on kinetic recovery, 8 speed gearbox
The new engine formula that was introduced this season has brought many new variables to the game. At the beginning of the year, one of the big criticism has been that these new engines are too quiet and lack the noise the old V8s used to produce. At the same time, the fuel-flow limit voiced some concerns over that this new Formula might result in too much economical driving with the focus being on fuel saving rather than driving at the limit. The question is; now that this season is over, how do you feel about the new formula, how about the criticism? Has the new Formula, in particular the noise grown on you? Have the other changes produced overal better racing?


Mercedes dominance, the fight for the WDC title
As many had suspected, Mercedes did turn out to be the car with the most dominant package. Despite this dominance, we have seen a world championship fought out right to the very last race with both Rosberg and Hamilton driving at their best level. In the end, Hamilton might have secured the WDC with 11 wins to Rosbergs 5, but the year has been marked with many close battles. After the Mercedes duo, we've seen Ricciardo emerge as a 3 times GP winner and beating Vettel whose year has been a series of ups and downs, with both technical issues as the car let him down on numerous occasions and him struggling with the new characteristics of the car. We've also seen a very strong Williams who have been right behind Mercedes in more than a few races, only at times let down by tyre wear and strategies that haven't quite worked out. Still, they end the year a successful 3rd, behind Mercedes and RedBull. The focus of this year might be with the dominance of Mercedes, but there have been some close battles behind them throughout the year.


Struggling midfield teams / financial crisis and the dropouts of Marussia and Caterham
The new engine Formula not only introduced high costs for many of the customer teams, they have also led to a rather big advantage and disadvantage for many teams. While some teams have benefited directly by being Mercedes powered, some of the Renault and Ferrari engined teams have struggled even more. This, together with the growing financial problems for some of the teams has led to a lot of speculation over the future of the sport, the possible introduction of 3 cars per team for next year and the lifting of the engine freeze.


2014 in numbers & stats
(hope the graphs are all accurate; if any errors made it in, please let me know and I'll correct them - thanks)

2014 races


2014 world-drivers-championship


2014 world-constructors-championship


2014 intra team battle



Some links & references to relevant topics
- 2014 in graphs
- 2014 F1 Season picture appreciation thread
- 2014 pace vs. 2004 pace, where, how are they better?
- The new V6 Turbo engine sounds


The poll
I created the poll to get a picture of how people were happy with the 2014 season as a whole. I seperated the options for those that were for either Mercedes drivers from those that were not. This should give a feel of how interesting the season was for also those whose driver and team was not in contention for the WDC (or how much of a difference in perception this has resulted in). The poll isn't about if you are happy about who won it, but more if the change of regulations, the new engine Formula and the resulted difference in racing has left an overal positive or negative impression on you. I didn't include a neutral option to force people to decide either positive or negative. Despite simply voting, it would be appreciated to hear your feedback on what you thought of the 2014 season!

[JimClarkFan]

I have lost quite a bit of interest in F1 though I still try to catch as many races as I can.

There were a couple of good things about the season (we have went over the bad enough), my favourite new thing is the cars. I think the engines, the energy recovery, the sounds they makes are great. I have loved the cars this year although it is a shame that there is such a gap in performance between teams.

Second think I liked is that there was genuine competition between Hamilton and Rosberg.

[notsofast]

This year, it feels like the sentiments of the fans of the non-winners are drowning out the sentiments of the fans of the winner. Perhaps that's because we have such a large number of non-winners who would have been considered a "worthy" WDC if they had been in a better car. We had five former WDCs, one almost WDC, and then there was Ricciardo for example. I don't mean to belittle the achievements of F1 drivers in general, but I'm having a hard time remembering seasons when there were so many drivers who I thought would make a "worthy" WDC (whatever that might mean in my own subjective opinion). In years past, it seems to me that there were typically maybe three drivers at the start of a season who I would consider possible contenders, not yet knowing the capabilities of that season's cars.

[Phil]

I have to say, what tempted me to make this topic, is that my initial criticism of the engine sounds may have been changed a bit; It was yesterday when watching the Abu Dhabi GP that I somehow became aware that the new science-fiction-esque sound of the V6 turbos has perhaps grown on me. I still prefer the V8 though, but I am beginning to think that I can appreciate that the new engine sounds have their charme as well.

Maybe some of it has to do with the fact that the TV broadcast has become better at capturing what little sounds the new engines make - and that attending one of these races would yield a different opinion. I guess I'll see, as I am planning to visit a race next year. For reference; I have been to two F1 races in the past (Australia and Spa), both during the V8 era, so I guess the final verdict is still out on how the V6s sound at the track.

Overal, my impression has been fairly good about the 2014 season. Perhaps I am slightly biased because Hamilton won it (and was contending for the championship from the beginning), but trying to be objective, I feel that the racing itself has been rather good and it's been a joy to watch drivers battle these cars at the limit, with slight oversteer moments etc. 2010 and 2012 were both very close seasons too - although admittedly, what made 2012 close in my book was the artificial influence of the Pirelli tyres that produced a winning lottery. IMO, the excitment that resulted from that is not good overal. I definately prefered the 2010 season where 4 teams ended up being quite close without the artificial trickery. In that sense, I also much enjoyed the 2014 because apart from the double point madness, the whole season was overal quite consistent. The 2014 IMO could only have been better if perhaps Mercedes hadn't been as dominant with more battles for the lead from some other teams too.

My hopes are high for 2015 that the gap to Mercedes might come down a litte, producing more close fights, not only between team-mates, but for the lead or among teams as well.

[adrianjordan]

Loved the whole season. Biased as well because I'm a Hamilton fan, but very impressed by Rosberg as well (on the whole).

As for the new engine formula, I think it's great for F1. The whole debate about the sound could easily be solved if FOM would sort out their trackside cameras...

[rayden]

Second think I liked is that there was genuine competition between Hamilton and Rosberg.

Only because the merc was so far ahead imo.

If it was a wee bit closer to the pack it would have been another Vettel/Webber situation.

[Kingshark]

This season was quite reminiscent to 2000.

Yes, I know that Michael and Mika were not teammates, but the McLaren MP4/15 and Ferrari F-2000 were very evenly matched cars, so the situation is comparable.

In 2000, Schumacher won 9 races to Hakkinen's 4 (2.25 times as many wins). In 2014, Hamilton won 11 races to Rosberg's 5 (2.20 times as many wins). Very similar ratios.

In 2000, it was Schumacher who initially got the better start to the season, then Hakkinen struck back in the late-spring to summer, before Schumacher went on a winning streak in the fall.

In 2014, Hamilton got to a better start (winning 4 out of 5 races), then Rosberg was on a roll late-spring to mid-summer, before Lewis went on a winning streak in the fall.

After both Belgium 2000 and Belgium 2014, Hakkinen and Rosberg looked like they were the odds-on favorite to win the WDC. They had 1 less win than Schumacher/Hamilton respectively (4 vs 5) but both had a healthy points lead.

Monza-onward, both Schumacher in 2000 and Hamilton in 2014 struck back to their rival, and began a winning streak.

Hakkinen scored 82.4% of Schumacher's points tally in 2000. Rosberg scored 82.5% of Hamilton's points tally in 2014.

Conclusion: Rosberg is as good relative to Hamilton as Hakkinen was relative to Schumacher.

[MOWOG]

Formula One has gone from a main event to a sideshow. When the majority of the news about the sport involves bickering among the teams and between the teams and Bernie, when most of the relevant action takes place in boardrooms rather than the pits, when the sport is in turmoil and chaos most of the time, when the latest headlines are about everything but racing, then the sport has lost its way and is in a death spiral.

There may be time yet for it pull itself out of its tailspin, but the chances are becoming desperately thin.

[Kiril Varbanov]

The season is bi-polar.

- Many negative stuff have happened: fights, accusations, sheer domination, stupid rule changes, TV ratings down. Jules Bianchi. Small teams destined to extinction.

+ New technology, less aerodynamics, some sort of attempt to manage costs, trials at using social media to promote the sport, drivers and personnel movements. Honda will be back. Pirelli has got the tires right.

[Webber2011]

I voted positive.

I've enjoyed the season for a few reasons, some of which I honestly didn't think I would.

I'm not as technically minded as most of you guys, so I've spent a fair bit of time here on the forum just soaking up some of of your knowledge without commenting much.
Learning about how these new beast work has been really interesting tbh, so yeah, that's a positive.
One thing in particular is the different designs.
I.e. the Renault v the Merc, and why that makes such a difference.

The whole "sound" debate had me on the back foot from the get go.
I have attended the Aus GP 2005, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, but couldn't be there this year due to work commitments.
The group I go with had absolutely nothing good to say about the new sound, and I guess that made me dislike what I was hearing in the telecasts.
So I'm yet to hear one of these cars live and in the flesh, but what I'm hearing has grown on me over the season.
I quite like the turbo "whistle" now.
I'll be in Melbourne next march, so I'll definitely have a truer opinion then.

I've also enjoyed the battle for reliability.
We haven't seen that for quite a few years, and for me, it adds a little excitement knowing getting to the end isn't guaranteed.

The battle between team mates at RBR has been a bit of an eye opener.
Daniel has pretty much trounced Sebastian, which not many expected.
I was thinking along the lines of Dan being pretty close in quali, but generally being beaten in the races would be a good result.
How wrong I was !
As to how much this was affected by the new cars or not is difficult to tell.
Obviously Seb's nowhere near as comfortable without the EBD, but as a 4 time WDC I expected him to adapt reasonably quickly.

The negatives for me on the technical side have been things like fuel limitations and penalties for engine components.
That's not the F1 I want to see, and tbh 99% of the people who follow F1 had a real struggle understanding who had used what components, for how long, if they had been used again, if they even could be used again etc etc.
So that was quite hard to follow.

In general I've enjoyed it though.

[Juzh]

The only positive thing this year were impressive top speeds at some circuits.

[Alain Frost]

For me 2014 was a season were reputations were made, enhanced and lost.

Omitting the obvious dominance of both championships by Mercedes there was a whole lot else being established.

1) I will start with Ferrari.

What a mess they became this season. First they got rid of Massa and employed Kimi (to put pressure on Alonso, apparently). Poor Kimi was destroyed by Alonso. Whereas the two years before Kimi's name was sometimes mentioned in the same breath as Alonso, Vettel and Hamilton by the commentators, he was now looked upon as a driver not fit to wash Alonso's car. He found it tough to adapt to the new cars whereas most other drivers got on with what they are paid to do, drive a car as fast as possible regardless of it's construction or limitations.

Kimi and Ferrari scored low points by my reckoning this season.

2) Seb Vettel

To be so overpowered by a less experienced, new boy in the team, has got to be hard to swallow. Whatever he goes on to achieve and add to his already numerous accomplishments, this year will always crop up like a sore thumb. It could simply be all down to him having a bad year but it is now written down forever in the history books he was thrashed by DR.

3) Williams

So good to see them back in the top three but disappointed they didn't win any races. I had a bet with a colleague that they would win at least two races this season. I have already paid him his double tenner.

4) Nico Rosberg

To out qualify Hamilton is no small feat. Credit him for that. Ultimately 5 wins is not a good return from all those poles. Winning only two more races than Daniel Ricciardo in a vastly superior car will not not look when just the figures are looked at.

5) Daniel Ricciardo

My man of the season, even above Hamilton. What a season. Three wins against the infamous Vettel's zero, totally outpointed and out qualified his "superior" team mate. Awesome.

6) FIA

Needs to grow up. Stupid double points and teams suffering financially because they (FIA) fail to deliver on the promise to keep costs within the boundaries laid out.

Overall a good season. The first race was rather an anti-climax as I bought into the notion that "there is a chance no cars will complete the race".

The new hybrid engines are a step in the right direction IMO. The fact that they started out about four or five seconds off the pace of last years cars in the first race in Australia then slowly caught up during the season is testament to the technology.

I wish there were more engines available than just the three of Ferrari, Renault and Mercedes but with Honda in 2015 (I had hoped that Haas would have gone Cosworth in 2016) that's one more into the fray.

As for the noise - all a bit of nothing to me as I didn't attend any races for the last few years - I couldn't care less.

BTW: Forza Jules

[emaren]

Like many, there were good things and bad things....

Good
- We had a lot of very, very close racing this year. Sure the Mercedes disappeared into the distance virtually every race, but the racing behind them was at times edge-of-the-seat stuff.
- We got to see several 'drive through the field' events. These are always fascinating to me and it shows just how skilled the drivers are.
- Mercedes did not actually win every race.
- Massa in the Williams was a joy to watch, Massa outside of the Williams with his family was heartwarming
- Bottas - holy smokes, Bottas was awesome.
- Ricciardo was worth the price of admission.
- The pit-lane cameras on Lauda and Wolf gave us some quality TV.
- The cars sound great.

Bad
- Jules
- The loss of Marrusia and possibly Caterham too
- Mercedes nearly won every race
- Double Points.
- The sound on the TV is incredibly bad
- I had to pay £7 to watch the race on TV several times this year (Sky have exclusive on some races)

[zeph]

I thought it was an entertaining season! I didn't mind Mercedes' domination, because ROS and HAM proved to be closely matched (although I still suspect there was an effort from the F1 organization and Merc team to stop Hamilton from bagging the title by Hungary). I felt Rosberg would have been a worthy champ, but 11 victories vs. 5 needs no explanation; Hamilton won fair and square.

The silly season was also quite entertaining. Thank you, Ferrari. You were invisible on the track, but your off-track antics absolutely made up for that! I am glad Alonso is leaving that nuthouse. I believe his seven years of bad luck have now been duly served and hope he will have a competitive car next year.

I also enjoyed seeing Vettel paired with a competitive team mate in a car without EBD, his supporters seem a lot less vocal these days. My dislike for the RBR team has not waned, but I am certainly impressed with Ricciardo.

I have never been a fan of Williams, but I loved to see the team's resurgence, with a beautiful car, and two top drivers. I couldn't be happier for Massa, whom I always considered underrated and under-appreciated. Here is hoping they can mount a stronger challenge next year.

Bring on 2015!

[chenpei24730]

The only thing for me is that , 2014 season tells me how normal as a driver Vettel is, and what an excellent job Newey did in the past four years.