F1 - Season 2014 *Spoilers*

[AleksiNir]

Most of the noses look really atrocious, but I think the Ferrari one is great... and curvy Mercedes is pretty cool too.

[Buka]

EDIT: here comes new Caterham at least quite original

It reminds of this one:

[DuklaLiberec]

But the award for best shape of the year has to go to Mercedes. No male/female genitalia, no ducks. Just a smooth nose. Next someone should just teach them to paint a car, as the current one with some random splashes of black and cyan is about as horrible as it can get.

In terms of the bodywork, I feel certain we all are of the same opinion, yet I see it differently than 1nsane and Dan as far as the livery is concerned. It turned out to be nothing unusual imo, as Mercedes is once again reusing the same colours.

Red Bull has surprisingly conservative and traditional look to their car. Once again the dong is painted black. But looking at it, it seems to be the most efficiently shaped one as the tip is as narrow as possible.

I might have been biased by its conservative design, but the RB10 is arguably the most elegant-looking vehicle with the new "genitalia" revealed thus far.

[1nsane]

The Caterham nose ended up being just as extreme as was predicted. Now it's so different that I actually like it. The only problem is that they've kinda done one thing wrong way. Now they have the smooth part on the top and the bulky part on the bottom. So instead of pushing the car down, that's propably creating some lift. And I also wonder how

And today Hamilton did this:

It was caused by front wing failure.
*American news channel voice* Are the new safety rules... Unsafe?

I might have been biased by its conservative design, but the RB10 is arguably the most elegant-looking vehicle with the new "genitalia" revealed thus far.

Yup, valid stuff in your post.

It's the best looking one of these "third leg demons", mostly since it looks mechanical and like they've actually thought how it works aerodynamically and combined it so it's part of the car. I guess my biggest problem with the conservativeness is that it's Newey who is designing the car. In 2012 when we had the drop noses, Red Bull put an extra gap in there to control the air. And with that the drop wasn't that bad anymore. So now it just feels like Newey isn't maximising the potential, the Newey way.

[puttz]

Mercedes looks very good with this shape . Though I agree that their livery is quite lame and boring...I only like the red numbers they use for their drivers .

EDIT: here comes new Caterham at least quite original

Um, what? That has got to be one of the weirdest looking race cars this side of the Delta Wing

[GeneSuomi]

I don't like those noses at all. When I look at those cars I don't see a great evolution of racing cars. I just see loopholes to round all those rules

[1nsane]

Marussia also found it's way to the track.

Overall look is, like with other mid-tier cars, more like a continuation to last year's car with just the mandatory extender added to the front. The interesting part about this car is the size of the hole on the roll hoop. It also seems like they split that air into three parts. At the same time they have managed to squeeze the sidepod holes pretty small. With some interesting features in the rear wing area and under the front suspension, this car just might have a chance to get closer to the opposition. Well, the car driven by Bianchi...

Also, the reliability of Renault power units seems to be pretty awful currently. Especially Red Bull has been in trouble with it constantly. With a quick calculation they haven't completed even 50 laps yet in 3 days. Other top teams have had their share of problems too. This season should be pretty exciting if the teams keep on struggling with the reliability through the whole year.

Edit: Heh, and the Toro Rosso sure sounds healthy:

[Trigger Happy]

Most of the noses look really atrocious, but I think the Ferrari one is great... and curvy Mercedes is pretty cool too.

I was waiting for real pics of cars on track and in my opinion McL, Williams and RB are looking really good (car shape-wise, regardless liveries). The Ferrari, yeah, right, a curvy one, unfortunately I prefer curvy for rear parts, front rather in smooth and gentle lines , so Ferrari and Mercedes are merely 'OK' IMHO. And small + to FI and Marussia for good masking by livery.

[RobertRacer]

Today was the 1st test-day that was in Bahrain. Results are:

• 1st. Hülkenberg (Force India/Mercedes) 1:36,880 78 Laps
  2nd Alonso (Ferrari) 1:37.879 +0,999s 64 Laps
  3rd Hamilton (Mercedes) 1:37.908 +1.028s 74 Laps
  4th Magnussen (McLaren/Mercedes) 1:38.295 +1.415s 81 Laps
  5th Vettel (Red Bull/Renault) 1:40.224 +3.344s 14 Laps
  6th Sutil (Sauber/Ferrari) 1:40.443 +3.563s 82 Laps
  7th Frijns (Caterham/Renault) 1:42.534 +5.654s 68 Laps
  8th Kwjat (Toro Rosso/Renault) 1:44.346 +7.466s 5 Laps
  9th Grosjean (Lotus/Renault) 1:44.832 +7.952s 8 Laps

Without a Time are Massa(Williams/Mercedes/5 Laps) and Bianchi (Marussia/Ferrari/3 Laps)

Tomorrow, Friday and Saturday and next week from Wednesday to Saturday will be test-days too, before the first race in Austrailia will start.

I think, the Renault-teams have a problem.

[1nsane]

So now that the Olympics are nearing the end and I've watched hundreds of hours of live and recorded material from the event for free (well, paid from taxes), it's a great time to once again rant about how rediculous the subscription costs are for F1.

Let's first travel two years back. At that time BBC and Sky did their split deal, so I didn't want to leech from UK anymore as it would be a guess on which stream would work when. So MTV3 had the F1 pack for Finland, which cost about 40€. That's a good price, about 2€ a race. Nice. So I was happy to get that one. That season Kimi came back and Kovalainen had a seat, but neither were the sort of sure bets to succeed. So, Kimi does deliver. And MTV3 brings the price up for 2013. 60-70€ for 19 races. It's getting pretty pricey... But they started streaming the GP2 and GP3 races too, so it was a pretty ok deal. But the season was dreadful, so looking back I should have just skipped it.

And so comes this year. Kimi goes to Ferrari, cars get a total overhaul, so the season should be exciting both in general and in Finnish sense. And up goes the price. Now they're asking 90€ for the season. 90€ for 19GP season, after the snorefest we had? Wow, just wow. That's about 4,75€ a race. So since I've been "such a good customer" the last years, they decided to give a SUPER SPECIAL MEGA DEAL. For just 99,90€ I'd get to see F1 AND football, tennis and whatever else they have on their "sport package". Ultimately stuff that no one really cares about in Finland. No WRC because why would anyone watch that online. But they still own the rights for it... Now, this would be an okay deal if it continued with this price forever for us F1 viewers. But nope, normally the cost for 10 monts of this sport package is 199,90€. And you can be sure that if got the 99,90 deal now, you wouldn't get it for next year. So now if too many of the old viewers choose this garbage bag over just the F1 pack, the guys at MTV3 will think "Oh well, seems like people don't want this F1 pack anymore. But hey, they surely like that Sport pack!" So the F1 deal will be gone completely. And weeehay, 199,90€ for 2015 F1 season! Now isn't that a good frickin' deal!

Sorry UK, I'll start leeching from you again.

[1nsane]

So in this era of monstrous graphics as liveries, Williams managed to come up with an elegant and simple design.

Take a look how the other sponsors didn't want their logos to be in just their color. So no silly red backgrounds or yellow text anywhere.

[Hermes]

So in this era of monstrous graphics as liveries, Williams managed to come up with an elegant and simple design.

I totally agree 1nsane...the car is beautiful and with the results of the preseason appears to be fast too. GO Williams!!!

[Mad Dan]

Even though I was always fan of Ferrari I really want Williams to be the top team again . I miss those times I watched F1 when I was younger and Williams used to be fast . I think we all are super bored with Red Bull now so we need something different . And Felipe Massa certainly deserves big chance to prove he was world champion material...or at least he had enough speed to win races (his last win was stolen in 2010 in Germany in bitter occasion ).

[1nsane]

Some pretty cool stuff from Mercedes: http://www.mercedesamgf1.com/en/car/f1-w05-360-video/
A 360 video of Rosberg driving the new F1 around Silverstone. It might require a hefty machine to run, at least the pointer makes it a bit clunky. But propably the most important part is to hear what the machines actually sound like.

[bduddy]

Seems like Red Bull may not be as bad off as everyone thought! Lotus and Caterham, though...

[1nsane]

Looks like the cars really are a handful this year. In Melbourne the cars have been losing control in places where it doesn't normally happen. The cars are also more often going sideways and seem to be generally more twitchy. Like in Q1 when Vettel kissed the wall, in replay you could see how the car just didn't want to stay straight under acceleration.
That's also an interesting starting grid with a handful of champions starting from 10+ places while the rookies are in the top 10s. Should be an interesting race tomorrow.

Edit: Hmm, so Mercedes once again designed a car that will eat tyres? "-- They also agree that tomorrow will see a continuation of the cooler temperatures which arrived in time for qualifying. This will be a relief to some teams, particularly Mercedes, who were punishing their tyres during the hotter conditions in the second and third practice sessions."
If this is true, the season might be an even bigger gamble, although the tyres shouldn't become the focus of racing this year.

(Full link to the article where this was mentioned here)

[cocney]

I must say that I am disappointed with the sound. Old V8 engines had a nice, beautiful, specific, unique sound which disappeared with new engines. One of the reasons why I became F1 fan was that sound that is gone. Hopefully, I'm not the only one that complains.

[YoNnie]

I must say that I am disappointed with the sound. Old V8 engines had a nice, beautiful, specific, unique sound which disappeared with new engines. One of the reasons why I became F1 fan was that sound that is gone. Hopefully, I'm not the only one that complains.

You have absolutely right - this sounds are.. bad. Simply bad. I could turn on blender or sth and I will have better sound
But last race was one of the best I've seen.. I've ever seen! Not only there wasn't Vettel domination, this race was really intereting. I'm happy that Rosberg won GP - he always was in the shadow of famous drivers. I know that after first race everything is still possible, but he may be "black horse" of the 2014 F1 season.

What annoyed me? Technologies. It was clear, F1 was in earlier years full of fantastic techniques, and it still be that. But I'm afraid in future driver will be only for pressing buttons... Maybe he won't be necessary?
Maldonado ended the race, because of technology which used the power from the fumes. Strange? Yep. Without this he maybe would end race.. Pressure of technology was good visible on Raikkonen. He is one of the oldest (!) drivers in F1 now. He's very good, and if you'll give him average car, he'll squeeze everything from it. But it was look like he was pressing by ERS'es and other stuff. It is sad that now it's not important are you very very good driver or only good. Now count how good car you have and how much money and sponsors you have..

And small note about cars, mainly their failure and engines: F1 always was one step before everyone with brand new technologies and other things, and one step after other with failure. Last years it was more aligned, this year will be year of trails new things. But thus races will be more interesting . But who won? Renault engines are failure, Ferrari cars are average (but engines are not bad), Mercedes engines and team Mercedes may have monopoly for win. But it's F1, and it's only one race left, anything can happen... Hope my english is enough well to understand

[Crowella]

When people talk about technology and F1, you only have to look back to something like the early 90's (Williams era) or the early 2000's (Ferrari) to see just how much difference there was between cars and how over the top technology was really separating the cars.

I admit I actually enjoyed the last race. I'm a little upset that Ricciardo was disqualified for an even more obscure rule that went under the radar when everyone was talking about the tech changes this year. I think it may be a few races yet before a team catches up with the Mercedes. I'll expect it to be the Williams first.

Bottas and Magnussen both had an incredible drive too.

[1nsane]

Hmm, I guess I have to go a bit against the flow and say that I actually liked the sound of these cars. That darker growl with high pitch whizz of the turbo is a cool sound. For the last few years the V8s were so neutered anyway that their sound was just flat flat flat all the time. Sure, those 21k rpm beasts were cool. But I also like that the current engines are a bit more quiet so we can hear the tyres in action and the crowd reaction. That said, I would also be underwhelmed by the sounds if I was watching the race live. That's when the sound has to be so loud it makes your eyes water.

As for the racing part, can't say much because Melbourne is Melbourne. The racing turned to a sit and wait game after the initial laps, but maybe this will change on a more typical race track. Malaysia should be fun for the reliability.

[FRUKIScze]

WHAT A RACE! A lot of battles and action. last 10 laps sprint race, due to safety car (GG Maldonado, we didn't expect, that you could do anything like this )But i still miss the old WRUUM!. Now it's just like eyoom, you know what I'm saying

[1nsane]

Yeah, we have to thank Maldonado for this race. Without that safety car this race would have been as dreary in the end as Malaysia and Australia. Although at the same time what on earth was Maldonado thinking there. It's going to be interesting to see how FIA reacts to this, since the drivers get points in their lisence for just impeding others during qualifying. Could even be an instant one race ban on this scale.
Also, once again the marshals were so slow. After a major roll there should be someone checking up on the driver pretty much instantly. Now we had the time to see the replays twice, and Gutierrez had time to walk away from the scene before any of the marshals were even getting out from their leisure areas.

It's great to see that for once both of the drivers on the top team are competitive. At least we won't get the same kind of "one guy leads by half a lap" situations that often. Instead we get cool but clean battles for the lead.

And it's refreshing to see a ZOMG FLIPPZORZ since 2010.

[RobertRacer]

We all know Maldonado's (in)famous crashes . Lotus is a crash team, with Maldonado and Grosjean......

[Mad Dan]

Just making fun of new sound . Here is video comparing GP2 and F1 sound at the same place, it looks/sounds like F1 is not the queen of motorsport .

[1nsane]

Were those tears that got in Hamilton's eyes during the race? And Maldonado didn't do the one job he was supposed to do in this race. [/trollmode]

Finally a properly interesting race after some dreadful rounds. I think we saw more passes here than in Barcelona. And most of those were some cool passes too. Too bad for the Finns, as it could have been a good weekend for Räikkönen at least. But it seems that he is involved in an accident every time here...

Great job, Bianchi and Marussia! And... Chilton apparently finished too!