Formula 1 discussion

It's funny how the season ended with Rosberg having mechanical issues (when it really mattered too), in contrast to the season starting with Hamilton having mechanical issues. I think this was a well deserved WDC for Hamilton. It seemed like he was on the back foot all year, but he hung in there and did what needed to be done when it mattered most. He has really matured as a driver.

It will be interesting to see what happens next year. Hopefully the other engine suppliers can sort out their engines and get them closer to Mercedes. If that happens it could be a good fight between Red Bull and Merc next year.
 
As a Brit, chuffed to see Hamilton win his 2nd championship.

I'd really like to see Williams improve even more and challenge properly for the championship again. Good showing from them this year and Bottas and Massa both drove well.

McLaren are playing silly buggers, it is an open secret that Alonso is hired, they should stop messing about and put their cards on the table about whether they are keeping Magnussen (as I suspect they will) or Button. I feel sorry for Button as I think he had another World Championship in him if he'd ever got the car he needed which McLaren never delivered. Unless Honda turn up next year with a power unit that blows the Mercedes away, they are going to be a midfield team at best though, so I suspect Alonso will find he's moved from one midfield team to another.
 
Didn't see the race but felt Hamilton was the better of the 2 most of the time (maybe all the time). Mercedes was clearly the better car all around and I hope there are improvements from RB, Williams, McLaren and Ferrari to make a really competitive year.

Now the silly season goes full bore
 
Great ending to the season. Light years better than the past few, which were well decided already long before the final race.

Nico Rosberg had a great year and showed real class and grit yesterday.

Felipe Massa has been "my guy" for many years, and I have always had a soft spot for Williams. Seeing him take the fight to Hamilton in the closing laps and securing 2nd in the race nearly made me weep. He is such a great guy, and has suffered through some remarkably awful luck with dignity.

I hope Williams can improve on this season next year.

I may finally be jumping off the Scuderia band wagon. That team is just a mess, and not at all representative of their history. Shameful really. With Alonso out, and that smug prick Vettel in, I can't see myself rooting for them, especially since it appears that Kimi can no longer compete. Bummer.

I may very well be fully onboard the Williams train next year.
 
I'm glad the double pt thing didn't come into play either. I'm not sure about that. I guess it's about trying to avoid the chance that someone has locked up the championship before the last race to keep it interesting but I don't think that's the way to do it. The changes they made this year really helped the racing but they need to do something about the way it seems over the last 5+ years that it is always just one team that tends to dominate and really no one else has a chance. It really would be nice if there was more of a chance for better drivers on lesser teams to have a chance to win.
 
I'm glad the double pt thing didn't come into play either. I'm not sure about that. I guess it's about trying to avoid the chance that someone has locked up the championship before the last race to keep it interesting but I don't think that's the way to do it. The changes they made this year really helped the racing but they need to do something about the way it seems over the last 5+ years that it is always just one team that tends to dominate and really no one else has a chance. It really would be nice if there was more of a chance for better drivers on lesser teams to have a chance to win.

The problem is that they are trying so hard to regulate the cost of the sport (albeit unsuccessfully) through regulations, and as a result the teams do not have much freedom to develop the cars. This year was especially evident because of the engine freeze leaving Mercedes with a tremendous advantage that none of the non-Mercedes powered teams could hope to overcome. You can bet if Red Bull had an engine that was as powerful as Mercedes the WCC and WDC would have been much closer this year. They should get rid of the testing ban, as all this rule does is divert what they would have spent testing the cars into more CFD modeling and wind tunnel testing. The teams that have the money are always going to find a way to spend it.
 
I think the sport is still stuck in the cost savings mode to help the smaller teams, which hasn't really worked, and the desire for an all out technology race. I think the correct path forward is limited regulations on car design changes, free testing, no freezes on engine mods, and so on. Developments that make the cars faster (blown diffusers, coanda exhaust, f ducts, flexible aero bits) should be fair game. The FIA regulates too much and their ever changing rule book hurts the sport. If your engineers were smart enough to come up with a blown double diffuser within the rule book, and no one else was smart enough to do so, you should win some races while other people play catch up. Banning innovation in the middle of the season seems silly. I realize an open development type of F1 will kill some smaller teams, but it might be what brings other big companies into the sport, and who wouldn't want to see Audi replace Marussia?

I also am a big fan of bringing back things like active suspension, active aero, more computer control of traction, and so on. This makes the sport more attractive to potential manufacturers wanting a test development tool.
 
McLaren finally confirmed their driver lineup for next year, it will be Alonso and Button. Given that this is the first year with Honda, it make sense to go with two experienced drivers. Plus Button has worked with Honda before. Let's see if they can bring back the glory they had in the Senna/Prost years.
 
I'm glad to see Button getting the seat. I think ditching Button would have really hurt McLaren's reputation, especially in the UK (home of much of F1's fans and teams). Kind of sucks for K-Mag, but he still keeps his reserve/test driver job and can move up in a year or two. I feel for K-Mag, as he had a pretty solid season for a junior driver.
 
I'm also glad to see Button being kept on. When the car is just right, Button is awesome. If it's slightly off he doesn't have the ability people like Hamilton and Alonso have to make the difference and ever since he went to McClaren, either the car's been midfield in terms of performance, unreliable, or the team has screwed up the tactics consistently.

Unfortunately I think next year is going to be Button's last in F1 and I strongly doubt that McClaren/Honda are going to turn up with a competitive front running car out of the box, so any chance of getting another world championship is gone, particularly with Alonso on the other side of the garage.
 
I was legitimately giddy when I saw the news this morning. Seriously.

So glad that Jenson kept his seat, and thrilled to see Alonso go to a team with a legit chance.

Ferrari has a lot of rebuilding to do.
 
Honda coming back will be interesting. And Red Bull has a lot of rebuilding to do too.
 
re: Bianchi
Jules Bianchi's father says the injured F1 driver remains in a "stable" condition, more than two months after his Suzuka crash.

Frenchman Bianchi, 25, has been unconscious and in a critical condition since striking the recovery vehicle at Suzuka in early October. He was recently moved from Japan to his native France, where Philippe Bianchi said the Nice community was leaving the family in peace.

"Jules is still stable," Bianchi's father told Var Matin newspaper. "It takes time and patience, and when there is real progress, we will tell. "But as Jules is strong, we try to be strong too. We manage as best we can. We are at his bedside, we will not give up and we are trying to give him all the energy we have," Mr Bianchi added.

http://paddocktalk.com/news/html/story-268996.html
 
Honda coming back will be interesting. And Red Bull has a lot of rebuilding to do too.

Actually Red Bull is right there chassis wise, it's just the Renault engine that is holding them back, and Ricciardo has turned out to be a very good driver (he beat Vettel pretty soundly) so they are good to go. There are rumors of VW coming into F1 under the Audi brand, so I wouldn't be surprised if Red Bull will be running Audi power units in the coming years.

I think 2015 will likely be the same as 2014, unless Honda comes up with something really special and McLaren hits a home run on their chassis design. However McLaren have seemed just as lost as Ferrari lately so I won't get my hopes up.
 
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