2014 Formula 1 Season thread

I agree that the race was as a whole, rather boring. That having been said, there were a few good scraps through the field. Pirelli had to make a judgement call regarding which compounds to bring and erred on the side of caution. I would guess that the tire selection next year will be the softer compounds.

Good drive from Lewis. Great come back from Nico. A very good race by Mr. Bottas.

The circuit was very interesting and fast. I look forward to next year to see how the teams approach this race.

Seeing Bernie palling around with Putin the whole time sure left a bad taste in my mouth.

Is it common to let dignitaries into the cooldown room with the podium winners? This is the first time I remember seeing it, but I'm pretty new to F1.

TheDeadlyBulb said:

Is it common to let dignitaries into the cooldown room with the podium winners? This is the first time I remember seeing it, but I'm pretty new to F1.

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No, it is unusual but it was not quite a dignitary. Bernie loves a bit of controversy more than most.

Well I don't see problem in that. If I was a president I still would love to meet F1 drivers and see their cars. Besides, it's not like he took prizes and ran...

himmelstrider said:

Well I don't see problem in that. If I was a president I still would love to meet F1 drivers and see their cars. Besides, it's not like he took prizes and ran...

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+1

Given that the Russian GP was new on the calendar and a new venue, I thought it was very good PR to see Putin go in and shake the hands of the podium winners.

I'm thinking mainly from the drivers' point of view. They're supposed to get a chance to cool off, catch their breath, and get caught up on the rest of the race. In their place I wouldn't appreciate VIPs hanging around expecting conversation. They're probably not even thrilled that the cameras are in there.

I think there are plenty of other places for VIPs to satisfy their curiosity/ photo op needs.

Well I respect drivers and their job, but few minutes shouldn't really hurt them...

himmelstrider said:

Well I don't see problem in that. If I was a president I still would love to meet F1 drivers and see their cars. Besides, it's not like he took prizes and ran...

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Yeah. It's not like it's a world series ring.

I read an article that said Jules earpiece g sensor registered 92 g's, when he impacted the crane.

Which means he escaped death by roughly 8 g. As far as I remember 50-60 g means really serious injuries

It was way more exciting to see who would get 7, 8, and 9 at Austin than 1, 2, and 3...what a donnybrook! And driver's points for Pastor lol!

I do not understand how race track marshaling can be so spread out or inattentive, especially what has happened in the past few weeks. Alonzo's Ferrari loses an engine and catches fire (out of the exhaust). He stops the car, gets out, goes and gets a fire extinguisher and addresses the problem before any marshal is on the scene. I know these are big tracks, but it seems to me there is some way to have faster response. I admit have had a long running rub with track marshals from an event at a carting race, a young racer was severely hurt, which could have been prevented had the worker for that turn, with flag in hand, had been paying attention. OK I fell better now, thanks.

I am more pissed about the double points farce than ever.

I just realised that even though Lewis has 24 points more than Nico, he can win this one with Nico not finishing and if the fortunes are reversed in the next race, Nico would be champ.

We are robbed of having the thrill of championship being decided in the penultimate race! Tomorrows race would be more exiting if the last race was not overweight. Somehow, the outcome of this race feels as insignificant. Of course mathematically not true but for some reason tomorrows race does not feel like it actually counts...

JDTTO said:

I am more pissed about the double points farce than ever.

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It is absolutely pointless.


No pun intended...

JDTTO said:

I am more pissed about the double points farce than ever.

I just realised that even though Lewis has 24 points more than Nico, he can win this one with Nico not finishing and if the fortunes are reversed in the next race, Nico would be champ.

We are robbed of having the thrill of championship being decided in the penultimate race! Tomorrows race would be more exiting if the last race was not overweight. Somehow, the outcome of this race feels as insignificant. Of course mathematically not true but for some reason tomorrows race does not feel like it actually counts...

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If the opposite were to happen tomorrow, and Lewis DNFs, and Nico wins, Nico would have a 1 point lead heading into Abu Dhabi, and whoever finishes ahead would win. while I don't want to see either driver DNF in either race, that would make the finale REALLY interesting.

Here's how my quick-off-the-top-of-my-head calculations add up for the final race-

What Hamilton has to do to win the title based on Nico's result:

Nico....... Lewis
..1.............2
..2.............5
..3............ 6
..4............ 8
..5............ 9
<5....... automatic

I find it highly unlikely that Lewis will finish lower than 5th, so Nico is going to need some help, probably in the form of Williams. If no one can stuff a car between the two of them, it looks as if the title goes to Hamilton.

Final weekend ready to kick off.

For the first time in forever I'm really blasé about this round. I'll probably still watch it, but nothing about it excites me.

Maybe if it was a title decider on a decent track. Or if Abu Dhabi had some barriers or gravel traps. Someone said it right when they said (paraphrasing) there is a problem when the most exciting thing about the track is the pit exit.

On a more positive note my prediction is the 2 mercs will tangle, double points won't make a difference and Bottas will take his 1st win.

Well, that didn't quite play out to be the battle on track we all hoped for, but even if Nico hadn't had the ERS issues, it likely wouldn't have made much of a difference in the outcome.

Yeah, tough break for Nico. But he really lost the championship over the last third of the season. The win in Brazil was too little, too late.
Hamilton's not my favorite driver, but he earned the championship.

I just hope next year we see some competitive cars out there to give Mercedes a run for their money. The excitement was almost never at the front of the race, all season long. Still, this was my first season as an F1 fan, and I had a great time!