Hey fellow forummers,how are you all?Hopefully just like me you are having restless nights just thinking of Australia this Sunday.
So I got an opportunity to write up a piece on a local daily about the new F1 season and I would like some feedback from proper race fans on the article.Have I explained things well enough?Anything to add?Anything to remove?Anything I have gotten wrong technically?
Just a few things to remember,I am writing to a readership that is not very familiar to F1 and motor sport so I may have 'dumbed down' some of my explanation (eg the ERS system and the approximation of the horsepower produced.)
Anyway without further ado here is my first rough draft.Ignore any grammer mistakes my English is a bit rubbish as it is my second language and anyway,the editors will sort it out!Thanks guy in advance.
Formula one 2014-A new dawn.
The lights go out this Sunday in Melbourne, Australia signaling the start of the highly anticipated 2014 formula one season. After the dreary 2013 season in which Sebastian Vettel and Redbull Racing comprehensively battered the field with their mighty RB10,F1 needed to push the reset the button so as to rejuvenate the fans dwindling interest of the sport .The new regulations take effect this season and with it is a completely new format of grand prix racing which promises to be produce a very interesting spectacle.
So what is new?
The Engines
This is the biggest change for 2014.The formula one engines will not be called engines any longer but power units. This is because the 2.4L V8 producing 750 horse power that has been in use from the 2006 season is now being replaced with a smaller 1.6L V6 turbo that produces 600 horsepower. In addition to the engine, there is a device called the ERS (Energy Recovery System) that harnesses the energy dissapitated from the brakes and exhaust system of the car, converts the energy into electricity and feeds this power to the drive shaft hence producing a further 150 horsepower that the driver can use for up to 33 seconds a lap. In total then, the power unit will be producing approximately 750 horse power.
The sound
With a change of power from the naturally aspirated V8 to the V6 turbo, there is also a difference in the sound the cars produce as compared to last year. They are not as loud, but they still sound very powerful. I personally never really liked the V8 sound, it was just a long, soulless drone that didn’t inspire much, but the V6 turbo has a lot of more grunt, more mechanical sounds and the turbo whistle when they drive by is the stuff petrol heads dream of. Granted, nothing will ever come close to the screaming V10s of the late 90s and early 00’s, but they are definitely not as bad as some experts were making it out to be.
The aerodynamics
The 2014 cars look quite different to their 2013 counterparts. Gone are the stepped noses of last year.Now the nose is very low and the front wing narrower. This change was mainly effected to enhance driver safety. Grand prix cars tended to launch into the air during a head-on crash as a result of the high noses of last year. Interestingly though, Adrian Newey,Chief Technical Officer of Red bull Racing, argued that the low noses would now cause the cars to submarine under the object they are hitting and therefore endangering the drivers even more. It will be something to look at closely when the season begins proper.
In addition to the low noses, the Exhaust Blown Diffuser (EBD) technology, which Sebastian Vettel used to devastating effect last season, is now extinct. The EBD technology was very clever; the engineers designed the exhaust gases to blow over a surface in the rear of the car called a diffuser which would help create more down force at the back of the car. Redbull excelled at this and coupled with Vettel’s unique driving technique, created an unbeatable car. This season the regulations state that the exhaust pipe should not blow over any surface and exit at the rear of the car centrally thus eliminating any extra downforce created at the rear of the car.
The drivers
The driver market was very active in the winter with several drivers moving around. The biggest casualty was Mexican driver Sergio Perez who lost his McLaren drive after just one season. I don’t think he was too bad but just being `not bad’ isn’t enough when you drive for McLaren. This coupled with high profile incidents in the Monaco and Bahrain races meant that he was replaced with a young and upcoming star from the McLaren young driver program ,Kevin Magnussen. Luckily, Perez is backed by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim and therefore he now has a drive for 2014 with Force India.
Mark Webber retired last season from Formula one after a long 14 years in the sport .Old age,F1 politics and an proper beating from his team mate last season ultimately led to his decision to retire. He is replaced with another Aussie, Daniel Ricciardo who is definitely fast but his race craft is not top notch but he is young and it will be interesting to see how he does against a four time world champion.
The most exciting transfer though was of everyone’s favorite Finn Kimi Raikonnen moving from Lotus to Ferrari. Raikonnen will join Fernando Alonso at the Marranelo based team and what will be interesting will be how Stefano Domencalli, team principal of Ferrari, handles this two, full blooded, out and out racers. Fernando Alonso, a sublime talent of a driver, has a major flaw in which he doesn’t handle competitive team mates very well-Just ask Lewis Hamilton!Their partnership at McLaren in 2007 led to one of the most explosive team mate partnerships ever seen, rivaling even the Prost-Senna relationship of the 90s.The world’s media will keep an eye on that Ferrari garage for any hint of trouble between the two former world champions.
The racing
For 2014, the drivers will only be allowed to carry a maximum of 100kg of fuel on race day, down from the 150 kg they were allowed last year. This will lead to drivers having to conserve fuel so as to see the chequered flag. May experts are predicting that intelligent drivers are ones who will have an upper hand as opposed to the fast but reckless ones who may run out of fuel with half the grand prix to go! Race management will be very crucial for the teams in 2014.
The tyres
Last season tyre talk dominated race weekends. The FIA had asked the tyre supplier, Pirelli, to manufacture tyres that degraded fast therefore leading to more pitstops. This was done to add excitement to the races. In 2011 and 2012,Pirelli just about got it right, but in 2013 they went very aggressive in their design and this led to them supplying a tyre that wasn’t safe for racing .The crisis hit boiling point in the British grand prix where there were dramatic tyre failures and for the first time in a long time in Formula one, driver safety was not assured. Race director Charlie Whiting even said he was close to stopping the race because he feared for the drivers lives.
In 2014,Pirelli have produces a more durable tyre that will be able to handle the torque demands of the new power units. This is a welcome relief to racing fans who got sick of race engineers last year constantly telling their drivers to look after their tyres.
So who is going to win the 2014 Formula one title? The smart money is on Mercedes. In winter testing, they had the most mileage on the car and during race simulations and low fuel qualifying runs, they posted some very competitive times. Out of the three engine manufactures the Mercedes looks to be the most reliable and the engineers seem to have understood the limits of the power unit .
On the other hand , Renault look to be in sixes and sevens with the direction of the design of the power unit. The most affected team is the reigning world champions, Redbull .They have designed a car that is so tightly packaged that it doesn’t meet the cooling requirements of the Renault power unit. A word of caution though, they are the best funded team and have limitless resources ,once they get on top of their issues they will most likely be competitive once again.
All this changes means that we are set for an absolute cracker of a season full of thrills ,drama and unending excitement for the next 9 months that will cover 4 continents(sadly not ours!) and 19 cities across the world. The five red lights go out down under at 9 a.m sharp so don’t forget to set your alarm. Let’s go racing!
