2014 heralds a brave new world for Formula 1 with it’s new 1.6L V6 Turbo with two forms of Energy Recovery System to boost the total power to 760BHP; also new 100KG total fuel usage and 100KG/H fuel flow limitation which confuses me somewhat as I will explain later in this write-up.
In qualifying, Lewis Hamilton claimed pole position ahead of home favourite Daniel Ricciardo and team mate Nico Rosberg with McLaren new boy Kevin Magnussen starting alongside Rosberg on the second row. Fernando Alonso, Jean Eric Vergne, Nico Hulkenberg, Daniil Kvyat, Felipe Massa and Valteri Bottas claimed positions fifth through 10th respectively. Jenson Button qualified 11th after slowing too much for yellow flags after Kimi Raikkonen put his Ferrari in the wall, the Finn qualified 12th behind the Briton but ahead of Sebastian Vettel who had major car issues during Q2. All three drivers later got bumped up a place after Bottas took a five place grid drop for changing a gearbox.
Moving onto the race itself; after two formation laps because both Marussia’s on separate ‘attempted’ starts had engine shutdown issues, Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg had a stunning start leapfrogging both Ricciardo and team mate Hamilton to steal the lead and that’s where he stayed in a very Vettel/Red Bull like fashion. I’m hoping we don’t see another season of single team/driver dominance; but I’m willing to bet that if Hamilton is the one dominating, there’s wont be too many complaints, me personally, I’d rather see three or four teams fighting it out for the spoils.
Anyway, I digress, back to the start, Kamui Kobayashi got a miraculous start in the Caterham but that soon ended after he rear ended the Williams of Massa taking both drivers out of the race. The Japanese apologized to his team and Massa; but the Brazilian furiously demanded that Kobayashi be banned from the next race. It turns out that there was some sort of technical failure with the Japanese’s brakes so it wasn’t Kobayashi’s fault after-all. Despite it not being his fault, total respect to the guy for accepting the blame instead of blaming his equipment like most other drivers.
Current world champion, Sebastian Vettel and one of the favourites for this season Lewis Hamilton were both out of the race with engine related issues, both cars well down on power and falling backwards fast. Valteri Bottas was scything his way through the field, overtaking Kvyat and Raikkonen before banging his right rear wheel against the wall, dropping him back to 16th place after a stop for a new wheel. Despite this setback, the Finn never gave up fighting his way back upto sixth place before being promoted to fifth place five hours after the conclusion of the race.
Now we move onto the home favourite; Ricciardo who maintained his excellent second place from start to finish on debut for Red Bull, but was later disqualified from the race for exceeding the maximum fuel flow rate, apparently Red Bull elected to ignore the FIA reading on fuel flow and went with their own calculations despite the FIA stewards warning Red Bull that they were over the fuel flow rate during the race. I think that the fuel flow rate regulation is stupid; just give the team 100KG of fuel and let them use it as they see fit; having only 100KG of fuel is tough enough!
I really don’t understand the flow rate calculations; if they are allowed a maximum flow rate of 100KG/H and Ricciardo only had 100KG of fuel; if he used 100KG+ of fuel in an hour; then surely he should have stopped out on track; even if like I’ve heard suggested, the car is fueled with 105KG to account for out and in laps plus fuel sample; he still would have run out of fuel. I just can’t get my head around the logic of the fuel flow regulations, is fuel flow different from capacity?
Jenson Button who started from tenth ended up finishing the race in fourth place after an inspired pit stop strategy; immediately pulling into the pits when the safety car came out for Bottas’ tyre debris. The Briton made up a total of five places to end up right behind his young team mate Magnussen. Both Lotus’ ended up at the side of the road with ERS falures, I bet that Maldonado is kicking himself right now for burning his bridges with the super fast Williams team.
The Ferrari’s of Alonso and Raikkonen eventually finished in fifth and eighth places respectively, Nico Hulkenberg put in another strong showing to finish seventh while the Toro Rosso’s of Vergne amd Kvyat claimed ninth and tenth respectively. But because of the exclusion of Ricciardo; everyone from third down got promoted one spot giving Force India and Sergio Perez a bonus point.
I’m not so keen on the sound of the new V6T with ERS; I think my V6 roadcar sounds more angry and aggressive; but the new regulations have made racing interesting again; it’s great to see the drivers having to earn their paychecks fighting the car to keep all four wheels on the track. Also seeing engine failures is nice, the bulletproof reliability of the past 10 years has made things boring and predictable. So I like the new F1 overall, it’s more like the racing of old with less reliance on aero performance; the only thing I would change is; abandon the 100KG/H fuel flow regulation.
2014 Australian Grand Prix Results
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1. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) 1:32:58.710 2. Kevin Magnussen (McLaren) +26.777 3. Jenson Button (McLaren) +30.027 4. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) +35.284 5. Valteri Bottas (Williams) +47.639 |
6. Nico Hulkenberg (Force India) +47.639 7. Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) +57.675 8. Jean Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso) +60.441 9. Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso) +63.585 10. Sergio Perez (Force India) +85.916 |
