2014 - half-time overview

**longisland** · 8th August 2014, 09:15

Top 6 drivers
The drivers I picked are not necessary the best drivers; rather based on their performance against their teammate & other drivers with the equipment provided.

1) Daniel Ricciardo
2 wins from the quicker Mercs & outperformed his more illustrious teammate.
2) Valtteri Bottas
Quick out of the block especially in qualifying. Equally quick in race day & more importantly, outperforming his more experienced teammate.
3) Jules Bianchi
Score the very first points for the team by merit rather than attrition or luck. Plow his way through the field & scored points despite of the penalty.
4) Daniel Kvyat
Rookie of the year in my book. Head & shoulder with is more experienced teammate, constantly challenging Q3. I rated him higher than Magnussen because Kvyat has less mistakes on track.
5) Fernando Alonso
It's difficult to replicate the 2011 performance but Fred's last few races reminds everyone why he is touted as the most complete driver despite driving a relatively poor car. I'd wished he was less political & whinny.

6) There's no sixth driver on the list because the rest of the pack performed as expected or below par of the car given.

Top 3 teams

1) Mercedes
Fastest car on the grid but till has chink in the armor with reliability issues. The team is doing a decent job on track but there's room for improvement. IMHO, the team my need to discuss with FIA certain radio transmission needs to be kept private, especially on the team orders.
2) Williams
The most improved team with the 2nd fastest car on grid & going strong. It's been a while since Williams are among the front runners; they've made some questionable or conservative calls that may have cost them chances to challenge for the win.
3) Marussia
The smallest team beating bigger brother Sauber & also Caterham to score it's first constructor's point.

Under Par Drivers

1) Kimi Raikkonen
Raikkonen's performance is appalling by his high standard. He can't seemed to get into the rhythm as he did in Lotus last season.
2) Pastor Maldonado
It's a given Pastor's on the list. The biggest mistake was to switch from Williams to Lotus. The rest is history.
3) Estaban Gutierrez
The car's a donkey but Estaban were involved in too many crashes or collisions.
4) Felipe Massa
Massa has been involved in several huge shunts this season. Unfortunately, it takes 2 to have a collision. Even though Massa was unfortunately to be collected by Kimi, but had he not started from the back, he would have avoided the crash. The crashes Magnussen & Perez were 50/50; Button would have avoided both IMO.

Under Par Teams

1) Renault
The biggest under achiever is Renault. All Renault teams suffered as a result of the power unit.
2) Mclaren
It's shocking & disappointing to see Mclaren is currently the worst Mercedes powered team on the grid.
Regulations

I'm fine with the revised qualifying time slots & the penalties; dislike DRS, ERS & the V6 but understand they are necessary evil. Do not agree with the double points.
The other regulation I strongly disagreed with is the fuel cap. Formula 1 is supposed to be all about performance. Drivers shouldn't be coasting in certain stretch to save fuel. This is the first year of the new power train so the teams should be allowed to carry more fuel. The fuel may then be reduced in the following seasons with the development of the hybrid system.
Another issue is the mid season change of the regulation; last year the tires were changed & this season we saw the linked brakes were banned having spent a fortune developing over a year.

**Tazio** · 8th August 2014, 16:50

Originally Posted by longisland

The drivers I picked are not necessary the best drivers; rather based on their performance against their teammate & other drivers with the equipment provided.

If this was really true you would have Fred as #1 hands down,

5) Fernando Alonso
It's difficult to replicate the 2011 performance but Fred's last few races reminds everyone why he is touted as the most complete driver despite driving a relatively poor car. I'd wished he was less political & whinny.

Translation; I can't handle the fact that Fred is the best all around pilot in the field, and don't understand that he is really just painfully honest in his comments about the team and his chances. He is very professional about how he conducts himself and I haven't heard any whining from him in years.

4) Daniel Kvyat
Rookie of the year in my book. Head & shoulder with is more experienced teammate, constantly challenging Q3. I rated him higher than Magnussen because Kvyat has less mistakes on track.

JEV has scored almost twice as many points as DK so this is a bit specious. The races are run on Sunday, scoreboard baby. I do think that DK is developing into a fine driver, and I'll go along with rookie of the year.
2) Williams

The most improved team with the 2nd fastest car on grid & going strong. It's been a while since Williams are among the front runners; they've made some questionable or conservative calls that may have cost them chances to challenge for the win.

No Red Bull are the second fastest car on the grid and have scored almost twice as many points as Williams. The car lacks mechanical grip, and is very sensitive to climatic change. But they are very good.

**steveaki13** · 8th August 2014, 16:57