The half way point of F1 2014

The four week summer break is in full swing as the factories shut down and all team personnel supposedly get a decent holiday. Don’t worry though, there’s less than three weeks left until racing returns, so let’s have a very original half term report for the season so far, even though we’re actually nearly 58% through the season now, so a sort of half term report. Here we’ll pick some of the most impressive drivers, teams and results of the season so far. Of course with the highs come the lows, so we’ll wipe the feel good factor off with some of those too.

But let's start off with the racing, that has been a particular high this year. No one could tell how these new regulations were going to go but the battles throughout the field have been brilliant. Yes, I'd like the cars to make just a little more noise, but no one cares about that so much anymore. I'd also like the cars to be a bit faster, but they will be a lot quicker by next year I'd think.

So the counter point to this is the people in the highest echelons of Formula 1 slating the sport saying it's not good enough. The product is fine, but it seems those running the sport aren't sure how to sell it anymore, surely it's simple? Great racing powered by ever advancing technology that'll make your own cars better. That's the jist of it at least, it's a shame that while they ignore social media as a means of promotion they'll introduce video game gimmicks like double points or potentially standing restarts when no one was complaining about this in the first place.

Anyway let's go in no particular order with something impressive. Actually someone impressive, and I don’t think you have a better candidate than Daniel Ricciardo who has come to the top table of Formula 1 and astounded everyone, even the team who picked him. He adjusted to the new era of Formula 1 brilliantly, has consistently beat his quadruple world champion team mate Sebastian Vettel, won two races, and raced hard, consistently and without fear. All with a beaming smile, the class act of 2014 so far.

We’ve kicked off with an impressive driver, so we’ll follow that up with a disappointment. I don’t think you can get more disappointing than the performance of Kimi Raikkonen so far this year. Not so much the way he’s driven, which to be fair he’s barely had a clean weekend all year with a variety of mechanical dramas and incidents. But the much anticipated rivalry of Kimi vs Fernando Alonso has been entirely irrelevant, Alonso, the master that he is has adapted to the new regulations well and can drag any car to positions it shouldn’t be whereas Kimi has singularly failed to master this new Formula 1, although there are signs it’s beginning to come to him.

Alonso though has once again been brilliant, after a slightly subdued 2013 this year has shown him on great form in a car which if anything is the worst he’s been provided with by Ferrari since he joined them. He so very nearly grabbed a victory in Hungary and it would have been richly deserved.

A rivalry which has most certainly not let us down is the one between our championship contenders Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes. The Silver Arrow squad had been preparing for this season probably before anyone else, their power unit is by far and away the best and their chassis a fine match. They’ve been the dominant team, so it’s to their great credit that they’ve given their drivers free reign to race how they want, mostly.

Hamilton and Rosberg have grabbed their opportunity well. Rosberg particularly has impressed with his attitude and his speed compared to Hamilton. Pretty much anything that has come his way he has taken advantage of which you need to do in order to build a championship. He’s not just leading because Lewis had problems, he’s still had to deliver when it’s mattered. Six pole positions to Lewis’ four is probably the most impressive statistic.

Hamilton of course was always going to impress this year. In a car that finally matches his talent once again he has demonstrated his ample speed in a variety of ways. He’s had dominant wins, defensive victories, charges to the podium. Whatever it is, he can do it. It’s a shame he’s had a number of reliability problems which have meant his qualifying has been affected, although he made several mistakes too. That he’s come back from that and lies only 11 points behind Rosberg shows how well he’s done and how much stronger his head is these days, although sometimes you still sense a bit of fragility. It’s time for the damage limitation races to stop though and get back to winning ways because the most impressive thing about Rosberg is his consistency which doesn’t look like dropping any time soon, this is a fight to the end.

Williams have also impressed this year. At the beginning of the year it looked like they were wasting their obviously good pace, but as things have gone on and particularly it seems since Rob Smedley came over from Ferrari to take up the position of Head of Vehicle Performance they have been making the most of their potential. Three podiums and one pole position, the only team to have beaten the Mercedes to the top slot on the grid, show they are heading in the right direction.

They seem most at home on the quick tracks as a result of their Mercedes Power Unit and slippery aerodynamics so maybe look out for a surprise result at Spa or Monza, the next two races on the schedule. Valtteri Bottas has been particularly notable this season, scoring all three of the teams podiums and being the most consistent of the two drivers. Felipe Massa seems refreshed after his time at Ferrari but has got involved in too many accidents, whether they be his fault or not. Bottas looks to be the go to driver of the team and he’s certainly taking the title of the grid’s top flying Finn.

By contrast Lotus have been a huge disappointment so far this season and it doesn’t look like it’s going to get any better for them this year. Everyone knew this former world champion team from Enstone were in huge financial trouble last year, there was much said about drivers and staff not getting paid on time or at all.

Well that was supposedly sorted out but it didn’t stop a number of high profile figures from leaving including designer James Allison, Eric Boullier and Kimi Raikkonen. It obviously affected how they approached this year too, they missed the first test and their power unit and car still don’t seem to work in harmony all that well resulting in a number of retirements particularly for Pastor Maldonado who has had a wretched year.

There might be more of a sense of optimism if they’d shown a hint of consistently decent pace but it’s not forthcoming. I feel particularly sorry for Romain Grosjean who looked like he was coming of age last year and certainly a potential race winner if not more. He’ll have to put those plans on hold for now and I hope the frustration won’t result in his driving taking a dive.

Of course a lot of their trouble comes from the Renault power plant who have been a massive let down this year to their teams and to the championship. They were months behind schedule during winter testing but although they've made progress it's not enough although thats mostly to do with the engine freeze until the season finishes. 

While we’re talking of disappointments I’m not sure you can go far without talking about three major ones; Sebastian Vettel, McLaren and Ferrari. Well I’ve talked a great deal about Vettel here, so read up, but in brief he’s just not got how to drive these cars and he’s being beaten by a newcomer to the team comprehensively. However, there are signs things are getting better.

There aren’t too many optimistic signs for McLaren or Ferrari this year. How can these two legends of the sport once again fail to come up with the goods. Ferrari have slipped further back, although Alonso did bring them a sniff of victory in Hungary, but other than that it’s once again been his genius that’s elevated them far above where they should be.

McLaren continue to struggle. It started so well with a double podium, Kevin Magnussen looked awesome, Jenson Button looked strong. Button still does look impressive, he has more than double the points of Magnussen so is leading the way in that respect, although at other times he has looked lost as has the team. Even when an opportunity presents itself such as in Hungary they cast it aside and say it doesn’t fit their logic. Their logic is unfortunately skewed  at the moment, but with Honda coming on board a fresh start is on the horizon. Unfortunately for them it’s not much to do with their power unit and more to do with their chassis as to where the problem lies…

Let’s end this bit with some good cheer, Magnussen has been a good rookie for McLaren and was expected to be the best new comer to the grid, but Daniil Kvyat has been by far the most impressive arrival to the 2014 grid. A Red Bull young driver, he’s come into the Toro Rosso team and immediately been on it. He was GP3 champion last year, scoring points on his debut in Australia when just 19 years old. He’s qualified in the top 10 a number of times, only reliability holding him back in the races. He’s got a strong future in front of him.

And finally let’s sign off with some great results to reminisce about from the first half. Marussia’s ninth place in Monaco was remarkable and unexpected, but just brilliant. Felipe Massa’s pole position for Williams in Austria broke Mercedes hold on the Saturday top spot, it was great to see such a beautiful livery lead the grid round at the start.

The Mercedes 1-2 in Bahrain after such an epic wheel to wheel fight gave the world a huge thrill and a giant sigh of relief when it was truly realised Mercedes would let the championship contenders race to the flag. A number of Alonso’s drives have been superb, the battle between him and Vettel at Silverstone was superb. But in terms of bravado Ricciardo summed his season up when he took on two world champions in Hungary and beat them. Admittedly on fresher tyres but he still had to make the moves.

I’m sure there’s many obvious ones I’ve missed but I’m equally sure there’s a lot more to come and what better place to kick off the sort of second half of the year than at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium. The most impressive of tracks, the most mixed up weather and the perfect place to let battle recommence. 

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Sebastian Vettel fighting back

“When he [Vettel] will have a car like the others, if he wins, he will have a great recognition and be one of the legends in F1… When one day he has a car like the others and he is fourth, fifth, seventh, these four titles will be bad news for him because people will take these four titles in a worse manner than they are doing now.”

There’s a German leading the championship in the best car in 2014. It’s not Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull though. However, the Red Bull team have mostly been the second best out there and have taken two victories so far this year, but neither was scored by their four time champion. Two facts which make the above quote from Fernando Alonso at the tail end of last year stand out just a little bit more.

At the time of Vettel’s victorious years many in the F1 world wondered whether it was just the car catapulting him to win after win. Could it be that he was merely a good driver piloting an exceptional car? I wondered during winter testing when it became apparent that Red Bull would be facing an uphill battle if Vettel would struggle when confronted with a car which wasn’t an immediate front runner.

In brief I speculated that with the banning of blown diffusers, something Vettel had exceptional technique with and a major advantage of the Red Bull if he’d full back in the pack. Further to that the conservatism with which Pirelli approached this season because of the huge torque coming from the new for 2014 hybrid turbo power units, and the fact that I think they were fed up with their tyres being blamed for everything took another advantage of Vettel’s away. He was brilliant at getting the best out of those more brittle tyres, better than anyone else.

Two major elements had been taken away along with a whole chunk of downforce and one major addition of a power unit where the throttle pedal is extremely sensitive, unlike in the blown diffuser era where you practically stepped on it and let the aero sort you out, it would stick in the corner, now it won’t. It doesn't help that his Renault power unit is the worst in the field as much as 90bhp down on th Mercedes.

I thought back in February that if Vettel were to struggle it would be an ideal opportunity for his new team mate Daniel Ricciardo, promoted from Toro Rosso, to take advantage. But Vettel is a four time world champion, so I dismissed this as a possibility but highly unlikely. As has become quite clear during this season, never dismiss Ricciardo for the young Australian is a brilliant talent.

He leads Vettel in qualifying by 6-5 which should actually be 7-4 as Ricciardo suffered a 10 place grid penalty in Bahrain which put him behind his team mate. In the races he is even further ahead. When both cars have finished Ricciardo has beaten Vettel 6-1.

Ricciardo has scored five podiums of which two were wins and this is not including the second place he was disqualified from in his home race. Vettel has managed to get on the podium just twice this year and each time it was the bottom step. For all the world to see these statistics provide a compelling case, when he’s finished it’s been mostly fourths and fifths, kind of what Alonso said might be the case if Vettel were to sit in a car which wasn’t the best, you know that’s what the Spaniard was implying.

First of all that shouldn’t take anything away from Vettel’s achievements of the previous four years, it was a different era of Formula 1, one in which he exploited the potential of the machinery available to him to the full. In that era, with that technology he was unsurpassed. This is a very different Formula 1, one in which he hasn’t yet got used to. 

Alonso is a brilliant driver, probably the best all-rounder in the business, he can adapt to anything that comes his way, to me that makes a great driver. His current team mate Kimi Raikkonen was meant to challenge him but Alonso has wiped the floor with him, I don’t think that means Kimi is suddenly a bad driver. He has been brilliant these past few years, but something about this new era doesn’t sit well with him a bit like Vettel.

Vettel is sensitive to change, he needs a car where the back end will stick, something that the cars are not capable of doing to the extent they have been in the recent past. Vettel has not been able to change his style and feel comfortable in the car whereas Ricciardo has jumped in straight from Toro Rosso which didn’t have as advanced blown diffuser technology and straight away adapted to this new Formula. He is a team mate who is eager for success, something Vettel has not had to put up with for a while as probably since 2011 Mark Webber was demotivated a lot of the time after losing his one shot at the title.

This doesn’t mean he won’t learn how to deal with these cars or that success has somehow dulled his driving when he’s got to fight harder for it. If anything his frustrated radio messages this year show just how much more he wants, just how annoyed he is at being beaten. This car and this team mate is the toughest time he's ever had in Formula 1, even though he denies this. Ricciardo has been constantly shading him in qualifying. Just when you think Vettel might have the beating of the Aussie, Ricciardo pulls a lap out of the bag. In the races Ricciardo is feisty, attacking, amazingly consistent, including the Mercedes drivers, he has probably been the most impressive driver of the season so far.

Vettel is up against a star of the future, just like Alonso was when Lewis Hamilton got his chance at McLaren when the Spaniard was beaten. This is plainly not some journeyman driver who has turned up at Red Bull, he’s been through the same young driver program Vettel himself went through, there is little doubt that Vettel is up against a future world champion.

Having said that, there are signs that Vettel is turning a corner, especially since FRIC suspension was banned, he looked strong in Germany and out-qualified Ricciardo in Hungary. But even before then, he hasn’t been quite as trounced by Ricciardo as it might seem; it could be argued that both Ricciardo’s wins could have been Vettel’s. Delays in traffic meant he exited behind Ricciardo after pit stops in Canada when he was running in front for most of the race. It could well have been him who took advantage of the struggling Mercedes.

In Hungary he was in third when the safety car came out as he was passing the pit lane, just behind Ricciardo was one of the first into the pits which put him into the lead at the restart. Circumstance has not gone his way nor has reliability, it’s like they’ve given him Webber’s car.

So yes, Vettel has been out performed this year, he hasn’t made the best of the equipment at his disposal, so he’s certainly not out-performing the car like a great can. However, he has out-performed the car in previous years (Red Bull never had an advantage like Mercedes have this year), he is improving in this era and he is beginning to match an exceptional young driver.

Might you have expected more from a four time champion? Yes, quite probably, but this car doesn’t suit him, but it’s coming to him and I will not be surprised to see him match and beat Ricciardo more often after the summer break. He won’t dominate him like Webber, he may not even beat him overall this year, but he’ll match him. He is a very intelligent driver, very mechanical minded and he won’t leave a piece of telemetry unturned until he’s worked out how to succeed once again.

It’s not all lost for Vettel, he’s only just turned 27, he is still learning himself and sometimes it does you good to experience losing. But he won’t want it to last for long. He has achieved great success, but is he a great yet? Greatness is too often bandied around, greatness is earned, it’s about how you achieve success, how you exploit it when the opportunity arises and how you get it back when times are tough. Vettel is going through those hard times, but as the season continues and turns into 2015 I won’t be surprised to see him standing atop the podium once again. He’s turning a corner, adjusting, and it may take until next year, but it’s coming to him, and he’ll make sure it does.

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Ricciardo wins Hungarian thriller

It was down to just three for the win. Fernando Alonso could see his chance, just a few laps left to take the unlikeliest of victories in possibly the worst Ferrari they have provided for him in his Scuderia tenure. He was aiming to make his soft tyres last for 32 laps, longer than anyone else, he could do it if he was careful with the rubber; he’d take his first win since the Spanish Grand Prix. He cut over the chicane, no he must have thought, the tyres he’d so carefully nurtured were giving up on him, he could see his efforts coming to nothing.

From the pit lane to victory, it was there for the taking. Chasing the unlikely leader Alonso, Lewis Hamilton on slightly fresher and more durable medium compound rubber was in the mirrors of the scarlet car and searching for a way through. He knew his team mate and championship rival was closing fast, he had to make a move for victory to close the points gap down to the maximum he could today, he just needed to get away from the even fresher rubber of Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull, who he’d hope could fend off Rosberg closing at three seconds per lap.

For Ricciardo it was game on. He’d spent a long time in the lead during this race, he and the team had managed to solve a power unit problem as he told the media by getting ‘a bit crazy on the switches’. But it was early on in the damp as they toured round behind the first safety car he’d got on the radio and said they could win this. He knew it could come to him, he just had to keep it all together and push. Trying to get to the end on old tyres he knew they wouldn't make it so called it early to pit and give up the lead to go on the offensive. With just a few laps left, he was behind just two cars and probably with a determined smile behind the crash helmet, he went on the attack.

It could have been any of them, it could even have been the chasing Rosberg who suffered most from the first safety car period, losing a ten second lead and passing the pit entry just as the safety car came out and tumbling into the pack when he did pit. But after making his final stop with just 14 laps left he had the tyre advantage, the car advantage and the instruction to go all out for qualifying laps. He delivered exactly that. It was up to the front three to sort it out before he caught them, Ricciardo was the one who had the advantage and he took it.

Lap 67 the Australian made his move, he’d tried before but this time he made it work against Lewis Hamilton. He came out of turn 1 close behind the Mercedes and dived to the outside of turn 2, holding it alongside to claim the inside to turn 3. Lewis had nothing to respond with, he’d been finding it tough to even get a sniff at passing the fast degrading tyres of Alonso. Immediately the Red Bull latched onto the back of the Ferrari and wasted no time with making the move the very next lap. On to the start finish straight, DRS wide open he dived down the inside into turn 1 and was away. Five seconds to the good by the end of the race just a few laps later, he was elated, possibly more so at having to fight his way to the front.

The race started on a damp track, rejoice, our first wet race for a long long time. Everyone set off into the unknown of the spray but it was drying pretty quickly, still there were some hairy moments for all. Marcus Ericsson careered into the barriers to bring out the first safety car on lap 9, Romain Grosjean spinning off too during the down time. Sergio Perez, who’d taken a hit from his Force India team mate Nico Hulkenberg which led to the German’s first retirement of the year spun out of control and into the concrete of the pit wall to bring out the second safety car on lap 23.

On a three stop strategy, Ricciardo took advantage of both safety cars to come into the pits and take the lead as the front four missed out. Everyone changed to slicks of varying compounds during the first time except the McLaren’s who gambled on it raining again. Ricciardo quickly despatched Jenson Button who’d overtook at the restart but as the track dried McLaren quickly realised their strategy was the only wrong one in the field.

Ricciardo held the lead fairly comfortably before the second safety car then latched on to the leading group before retaking the lead as others pitted. His third stop came on lap 54, giving up a 10 second advantage, but then the fight for victory began.

Alonso managed to hold off Lewis to finish in a great second place, but once again he dragged a result from the car that it didn’t deserve. To come so close to victory when this machine hasn’t looked capable all season was a fantastic achievement. To lose out in the end is no shame; he was fighting with one hand behind his back; it was a fantastic drive. Like Rosberg he missed out on pitting when the first safety car came out along with Valtteri Bottas and Sebastian Vettel.

Unlike Rosberg, he got back into the fight a lot quicker and to end up ahead of the fastest car on the track is testament to how astonishing Alonso is. As with Hamilton, he made a two stop strategy work for him and led for some considerable time until Ricciardo came through. He was so close to holding out for what would have been a great win, but second place is no mean result either.

Mercedes infighting to begin again?

You knew Hamilton was on a significant charge when in a blink of an eye he went from 13^th to 9^th in just a few corners. It was another fantastic charge from the back after a fuel leak ruined another qualifying leaving his car ablaze and the prospect of starting from the pit lane. To say he was unhappy would be an understatement.

Despite a spin on the first lap he made pass after pass, including an epic round the outside move on Jean-Eric Vergne at the fast turn 4 soon brought him to the head of the field. His final stop on lap 39 meant he relinquished the lead, but due to safety cars he was ahead of Rosberg. The team asked him to move aside so Rosberg’s strategy could play out which meant he had to stop one more time. Hamilton politely refused and to be fair why should he? Rosberg barely got to within a second of him, so why should he give up time. If Lewis had let him through when he was asked to it’s likely Rosberg would have finished ahead.

The team want the best overall result, but to ask Lewis to move aside when it might’ve affected the title chase was a silly call from the team. They’ve got the championship sewn up, and yes they might want to win as many races as they can but they are head and shoulders above the rest and to avoid looking biased in the eyes of the drivers I think it’s better for them to just let it play out from now on. They might site that it’s a team sport but you know Rosberg and Hamilton couldn’t care less about that now, they’re out for themselves so if one of them is behind on a quicker strategy, then it’s up to that driver to get ahead, no time for the team game from now.

What the team might like to do is sort out the reliability problems that are increasingly creeping in. Even today there seemed to be a brief brake problem affecting Rosberg. Anyway, as it was Rosberg didn’t get by and despite charging up after his final stop to latch on to the back of Lewis, #44 Mercedes firmly shut the door on any moves. It was Mercedes’ worst combined result of the year, but 3^rd and 4^th isn’t too bad to go home with.

Williams lose out on strategy

Felipe Massa was towards the front for a long time but Williams in my opinion went the wrong on strategy by fitting the slower medium compound tyres to both Massa and Bottas’ car. Massa held off Kimi Raikkonen in the closing stages to take 5^th, while Bottas ran second early on after starting third at a track many thought wouldn’t suit Williams. The first safety car scuppered any better result as he was one of the front 4 who missed pitting when it initially came out so fell down the pack and could only recover to 8^th.

Raikkonen and Vettel enjoy FRICless future as Vergne shines?

Raikkonen ran as high as third and eventually finished 6^th with Sebastian Vettel 7^th to split the Williams cars. Kimi looked stronger this weekend and if hadn’t been for a terrible call by Ferrari in qualifying to leave him in the pits he’d have started higher than 16^th. In general he looked like he had more speed, many suggesting this was because of the lack of the FRIC suspension.

Vettel is another who is believed to have benefitted from the lack of FRIC. He certainly seemed stronger in qualifying as he outpaced Ricciardo to start on the front row. He was running third when the safety car came round so was one of those who failed to pit which left him behind his team mate. He spun on the start finish straight when he caught a bit of damp astro-turf at the side of the track but avoided the wall. If the safety car had worked differently he probably would have been the lead Red Bull but once again it’s Ricciardo who is making the most of his opportunities while Vettel mostly seems to not get any. Anyway, both Kimi and Vettel seem to have taken positive steps even if the results haven't yet proved that.

Ninth was Jean-Eric Vergne who rose to second at one point and impressed by holding off Rosberg for a number of laps while his Toro Rosso team mate Daniil Kvyat was strangely quiet for most of the race. Button recovered to tenth after the poor pit calls by McLaren. Behind the points scorers Sauber looked a bit more competitive, while both Caterham’s retired, both Marussia’s finished at the back and Maldonado in the Lotus hit someone but finished 13^th.

So once again it was a weekend of action packed racing and thrilling competition all the way down the grid. Why Formula 1’s bosses seem to think there are such problems with the product I don’t know. It occurs to me it’s much more to do with how it’s promoted than anything else, but that’s another story.

We enter the summer break with the championship brilliantly poised and tremendous supporting battles from Williams, Red Bull and Ferrari. Hamilton clawed a few points back on Rosberg to be just 11 behind, but will be wondering about the team instruction and how much more his weekends will be tainted by reliability problems.

Rosberg will be happy to be leading the championship but probably annoyed that the team seem to have let Hamilton ignore an order despite repeated calls to let him through. I think they'll be a lot of meetings after this race at the Mercedes factory. It’ll be interesting to see who comes back the stronger in four weeks-time in Belgium. One thing is for sure, this championship is going down to the wire.

all photo's taken from autosport.com