Highlights of the 2014 F1 Season

[stripedcat]

What are the highlights of the 2014 F1 season? Here's my choices in the categories :-

Team of the season :

Bit of a no-brainer - Mercedes. They had the all round best package. I don't think there is any more to say on that subject. They let their guys fight it out as well - they managed to keep it pretty civil.

Honourable mentions to :-

Williams for having a pretty decent package with that Mercedes engine.

Red Bull - Perhaps not a great engine, but has strong aero. Danny won 3 times for them.


Car of the season :

Mercedes F1 W05 Hybrid - sort of no contest. A pretty dominant machine.


Driver of the season :

Hmmmm, this is a tricky one. The obvious choice is Lewis - after all he claimed the WDC. There's no doubt he had the car to do it in, and has put in some superb performances(Bahrain, Suzuka, Austin, etc.). He was outqualified by his teammate - and Nico has been able to keep the pressure on him for most of the season.

Nico has been a worthy competitor to Lewis. He outqualified him. After, Lewis' 4 in a row wins at the start of the season, he managed to claw it back. He seems to be able to soak up the pressure. He pulled off a superb drive in Canada in a stricken car. I don't think that he can be too disappointed. He managed to run with Lewis for about the first three quarters of the season - only the last quarter did Lewis have the upper hand.

Riccardio - Who would have thought that this guy would beat his more experienced 4 times WDC teammate? He's a pretty good overtaker as well. His ones at Monza and Hungary were superb! He's also the only non Mercedes driver to win this year - and on 3 occasions.

I know it might seem an odd choice, but I am going to give it to Riccardio for the above reasons.

Race of the season :

Ahhhh, no contest on this one - Bahrain! Two drivers on the front row, in the same spec car and going wheel-to-wheel for most of the race! An inter-teammate battle for the lead just takes a race to another level! I think I didn't rate it high enough - I should have given it a 9 or 10. Ironically, I only saw the highlights - but even then you could tell that it was an amazing race.

I'll give an honourable mention to Suzuka. Classic track and a wet weather race. Plus, there was a superb battle for the lead with the Mercedes drivers again. A shame that the Bianchi incident overshadowed it. My thoughts are still with him. Get well soon Jules.

Silverstone had its moments as well.


Overtake of the season :


Probably Riccardio's one on Lewis at Hungary in turn 2. A tricky place to overtake at the best of times - and not the normal place to do it. His had quite a few others(turn 4 at Hungary and his moves at Monza).

Runner-up - Lewis' ballsy move around the outside of Nico in the wet at Suzuka.



Worst car of the year :


Maybe the Ferrari. They seem to have all the right ingredients for success, two former WDC drivers, engine built in-house, good design and production facilities and good team members.


Worst driver of the year :


Hmmmm, there's two choices here : Vettel or Kimi. Kimi has been disappointing at Ferrari. I am going to sort of give him the benefit of the doubt - as it is a team move.

As for Vettel - well, he has been beaten by a younger less experienced teammate. Where are his 4 WDCs now? He's leaving a Newey team for Ferrari. Is that a wise move - well, time will tell. He did seem to have trouble getting to grips with this year's car.

I'm going to have give it to Vettel. Looks like his reputation has taken a big whack.

[Teretonga]

Team of the season:
No question. Mercedes have accomplished a great year, winning 16 of the nineteen races with all those 1-2 finishes.
However $ for $ it would have to be Force India.

In a sport where money talks so much anyone who accomplishes what Force India have operating on less than a third of what Red Bull Racing spend has be using their money more wisely and more effectively, so Mallya's team gets my vote.

Car of the season :

Mercedes F1 W05 Hybrid - Agreed. The best car by a mile.

Driver of the season:

Hamilton and Rosberg were great but the car was the most dominant factor. Their battle was one that got our attention but overshadowed others performances.
I had always rated Bottas so wasn't surprised to see him spar with Massa, but never expected him to outscore Massa by so much. But Daniel Ricciardo?

Many felt Vergne would be more deserving of the drive before the season started. Webber had said on his retirement that Daniel would be fine, but no one expected him to so comprehensively outdrive the world champion.

If anyone was the 'find of the season' it was Ricciardo.

Race of the season?
Yes. Bahrain. No question about that. A classic.

Overtake of the season:

Ricciardo on Hamilton at Hungary was great, although for me, Hamilton on Vergne at the same event was my personal favourite.

Worst car of the year:
On results, the Caterham.
Previous efforts were more competitive but maybe the cost of the technology and the complexity finally took it's toll on the smaller teams. it was just a bridge too far.

And not just for Caterham. My most disappointing car was the Sauber, who have always managed to engineer something beyond their small team status but this year just didn't manage it at all. Ferrari have often had mid field cars from time to time so this wasn't a great year but Alonso kept them in or close to a top five position.

But Sauber, by far my biggest disappointment.

Lotus, after two promising years, produced a dog of a car, but it did score a few points, although I expected a much better vehicle from them.

Worst driver of the season:

Maldonado. His attack on the Sauber at Bahrain had to be the most inept piece of driving I witnessed all year. Others had seasons that disappointed me, especiallt Kimi, but no one displayed another more inept piece of driving than Pastor, after he had left the pits at Bahrain.

[Razor]

Team of the season :

Williams. A decent package made the car one of the "best of the rest" in terms of the cars from this season. Drivers were a surprise this season too.


Car of the season :

Williams FW 36 - Even though it had a penis/nose/finger/Xenomorph attachment on the nose cone, it was a big surprise this season. The Mercedes PU106A Hybrid was a big help.

Honourable mention to the Mercedes F1 W05 Hybrid


Driver of the season :

Daniel Riccardio - Only non Mercedes driver to win (3 times over) and to beat fingerman.

Race of the season : Bahrain! Looked stunning under lights. Brilliant race all round with drama-a-plenty.


Overtake of the season :

Possibly any move in Bahrain.


Worst car of the year :

Lotus E22. Usually the team can make a decent rig but this year they lost their mojo. Coupled with the fact that their two drivers treat F1 like Mario Kart, the financial problems that plagued the team in the recent past and using the quite frankly pathetic Renault engine equates to a hopeless car. (which was summed up at the Abu Dhabi race when it burst into flames with the driver just simply walking away, rather pleased that the heap of junk was burning away)


Worst driver of the year :

Vettel. Even though the Renault engine was not up to par with the Merc power units, the 4 times WDC struggled alongside Riccardo in a Newey penned car. Kimi gets the runner up gong.

[steve_r]

Team of the season:
Mercedes of course.
They let their drivers race each other. Predictably things did go wrong, but overall I think the team handled it well

Mention: Williams. I'm loving them being at the front again. Long may it continue.

Car of the season : Mercedes

Driver of the season:

Hamilton & Ricciardo.
Halilton for winning the WDC, and Ricciardo for comprehensively out pacing and outracing his 4 time WDC teammate, in a team setup around him.

Worst car of the year:
Sauber. Such a surprise that they did not get any points.

Runner up: Lotus. Often the only team to challenge RBR last season. Now cannot get out of Q1.

Worst driver of the season:
Let's face it - they are all awesome drivers. Vettel and Raikonnen were the biggest dissapointments for me. Neither got to grips with the new era of cars. Both annhialated by their teammates. Where are they both driving next year again?

[Greem]

My highlight of the season is a purely personal one: being allocated as FIA Lights 1 at Silverstone. A more exciting place to stand during an F1 race you'd be hard pushed to find; on the wall under the Abbey grandstand where the old track used to turn to head off down to Bridge, about 5m from the cars. Trust me when I say that close up, they are *plenty* loud enough!

I had an absolute belter of a weekend with a great group of people, and got to quietly wander up & down the F1 grid twice (the second time after Kimi bit the barrier on the Wellington Straight). I didn't stop grinning for almost a week

[TheNo1F1Fan]

Team of the season:
Simple thing - Mercedes. 706 points in the Constructors' Championship. If there was no double points in the final race they would get 681 points.
Runner-up: Red Bull because of Ricciardo.
Third: Williams for finishing on the podium.

Car of the season:
Mercedes F1 W05 Hybrid. Without the horrible nose, the car just looks like a dustbuster. No questions about that.
Runner-up: Ferrari F14 T, they didn't have the horrible nose at all but the nose looks like a dustbuster...
Third: Caterham CT05, they made a better nose at the Belgian Grand Prix.

Driver of the season:
Daniel Ricciardo. I was satisfied at his first podium at his home race but when he got disqualified, I was unsatisfied with him. After winning in Canada I picked him as my favourite driver of the 2014 season. In my opinion, he really deserved the Top 3 in the Drivers' Championship.
Runner-up: Kevin Magnussen, deserving a podium finish at Australia.
Third: Lewis Hamilton. He really deserved the 2014 title at all.

Race of the Season:
Australian Grand Prix. Kevin Magnussen, one of my favourite drivers of the season, finished 3rd on the podium. After Ricciardo's disqualification he was promoted to 2nd and Jenson Button promoted to 3rd.
Runner-up: Bahrain Grand Prix. The Hamilton-Rosberg battle in there will never be the same.
Third: Hungarian Grand Prix. Ricciardo did an awesome overtake at Hamilton on Turn 4.

Overtake of the Season:
The Vettel-Alonso one at Silverstone despite being angry at eachother.
Runner-up: Rosberg as Arnoux and Hamilton as Villeneuve in Bahrain, reminding me of the French GP 35 years ago.
Third: Ricciardo-Hamilton at Hungary.

Worst car of the year:
Sauber. Can't score any points ever on 19 GPs.
Runner-up: Lotus for the ugly nose.
Third: The rest of the cars with ugly noses.

Worst driver of the year:
Cannot choose one.

[chillibowl]

Team of the season :

Merc followed by Williams, followed by Force India.

Merc engines dominated

Car of the season :

same answer as above.

Driver of the season :

Ham for the comeback to victory. Nico provided us a with great title challenge, Ric and Bottas are the young guns, Alonso as always, and JB with a classy swan song (hope its not his last though) but my runner up is Massa.

Race of the season :

Bahrain is probably the only one i will go out of my to watch again but there were several races i ranked highly.

im guessing our tenths voting also has Bahrain with the highest average score as well?

Overtake of the season :

too many to choose from. great overtakes plus lots of great wheel to wheel battles extending through several corners.

in past years one or two always stood out from the small handful we had but thats just not the case any more. too hard for me to pick just one.

Worst car/team of the year :

in terms of money spent its Ferrari for me as well.

Lotus and Sauber really looked unmotivated and underfunded all year which was a shame.

Worst driver of the year:

dont like this one. could easily pick one of the drivers from the bottom end of the grid but always hard to separate lack of performance of the car and lack of motivation from the driver.

Kimi mainly because he acts like he just doesnt car about what happens. i still dont think F1 is something you can do if you dont take your training and preparation seriously but Kimi's desire to act like he just rolled out of bed before every session is becoming a tired old routine for me.

[m355y]

team of the season

Mercedes but I was tempted to give it to Red Bull as well because they won three races despite having the Renault engine. I sort of feel like the Red Bull might have been as good as the Mercedes if it had a Merc engine on the back. But you have give it to Mercedes, they kicked arse all year and handled the rivalry between their two drivers pretty well.

car of the season

Again, gotta give it to Mercedes but that Red Bull was a hell of a good car after all the pre-season panic.

driver of the season

1. Hamilton, 11 wins, clawed back a points defecit a few times, pretty much dominated Rosberg in the races despite surprisingly being outqualified.

2. Ricciardo, never had any idea he was as good as that. Won three, absolutely destroyed Vettel and even though he ran the Mercedes close on pace only very rarely, he always seemed to be there to mop up the pieces when they hit bother.

3. Rosberg, very surprised that he outqualified Lewis and thought he did well to stay in the championship for as long as he did. Can't put him higher because I thought Lewis was very convincingly the quicker over a race distance and think that remains a bit of a weakness in Nico's game.

4. Bottas, on balance probably ran the Mercedes drivers closer on pace than anyone, reliably racked up podiums, some he didn't win one. Very remeniscent of Hakkinen in his early years, speed is there in a big way.

5. Alonso, delivered result after result in a car that was truly rubbish. Compare that to the last season he had a crap car, 2009, and you can see what a complete driver he is these days, would be a shame if he didn't start winning again soon. Bonus points for destroying Raikkonen so convincingly.

6. Massa
7. Button
8. Magnusson
9. Vettel
10. Hulkenberg

race of the season

Bahrain was brilliant. A proper, pure head to head between the two best drivers of the season, wheel to wheel every lap pretty much and with everything at stake - loved it. Australia, Hungary and Japan (before Bianchi's crash) were great too.

overtaking move of the season

The Hamilton-Rosberg duel at Bahrain, or several from Ricciardo. There was loads this season, it's hard to single anything out, maybe Ricciardo's move for the lead in Hungary.

worst car of the year

Jointly "awarded" to the Sauber and Lotus cars, which were both pathetic. Like properly pathetic, we're used to seeing McLaren surprising us with a dog of a car once in a while but I had those two down as fairly reliable before this year. The Sauber was just brick slow, heavy and incapable of getting anywhere near the pace anywhere. The Lotus showed the odd flash of decent speed but was unreliable, fragile and incapable of turning any of its flashes into decent results. Seeing Grosjean down the back was sad. I don't think he did a great deal wrong, but that E22 was dreadful.

worst driver of the season

Not Vettel. His rep took a hit, his four titles have lost some of their sheen, he looked pretty ordinary and just wasn't as fast as Ricciardo all season. It wasn't very good, but he still put in a reasonable, unspectacular campaign. Nah, you'd look at Raikkonen (sadly) who was limp all season, Maldonado who quite often was a write-off from start to finish of a race weekend and didn't really look bothered, or Gutierrez, who has never really looked like an F1 driver in two years and still gets caught up in way too many tangles.

[S griffin]

Team of the season:
Williams for showing they are still a team to be reckoned with and for Claire showing how good a team boss she is. Bit of mismanagement in Mercedes over the two drivers let them down

Car of the season:
Mercedes. Enough said

Driver of the season:
Daniel Ricciardo. Only non-Mercedes driver to win and put a four times champ to shame. Hamilton is a deserving champion, Rosberg is a gracious runner up, Alonso still gives 100% and Bottas was the find of the year

Race of the year:
Hungary: Rain, Lewis at the back, lots of overtaking and an inspired drive by Ricciardo

Pass of the year:
Ricciardo at Hungary. Certainly the pass master of the year, see also Austria and Italy. Lewis at Japan also deserves a mention

Worst car of the year:
Would say Caterham, but the way they came back from the dead to race in Abu Dhabi, given their financial state, shows what they were up against. Sauber, because they were nowhere apart from Sutil in USA.

Worst driver of the year:
Guitierrez. Was hardly ever noticed all year and never did anything.

and finally villian of the year:
Bernie. Worst rule change in double points, wouldn't help small teams, close bond with Putin and the bribiery charge shows it's time for him to GO.

[Casper]

BE telling us how only 70 year olds can afford Rolexes

[JacobP]

I would have enjoyed reading a highlights article that reviews the season race by race. IMO, the race by race rivalry of Hamilton and Rosberg is what made this season interesting.

[Beryl]

Team of the season:
I'll give it to Red Bull. Didn't have the best car, but hiring Ricciardo, good strategy calls (Hungary especially), solid pit stops and a lack of turmoil in the team meant that they could get a clear 2nd in the WCC without having the clear 2nd best car.
Car of the season :
Mercedes W05 Hybrid. Not really much to say.
Driver of the season:
1. Ricciardo
2. Alonso
3. Hamilton
4. Button
Race of the season:
Bahrain. Hungary was second best. Honourable mention to Canada for that thrilling final third; Germany, Italy and Monaco were very good also.
Overtake of the season:
Ricciardo on Vettel at Monza was as good as it gets.
Worst car of the year:
Caterham in absolute terms, but I'll give it to Lotus. Car was slow, unreliable, and looked unstable in the early going. And it never got that much better.
Worst driver of the season:
Ericsson. Terrible gaff in Monaco Q1 and well off the pace of Kobayashi all year.

[wnut]

Biggest revelation of the season

Rosberg finishing 2nd in the Canadian GP after his KERS and ERS systems failed before half distance.

So much for how economic and powerful the hybrid cars are!


Biggest disappointment - SEB!


Love to hear Uncle Helmut's (Marko) opinions on Seb's efforts!