2014 driver review

[Tazio]

Dp on purpose my brothas!Come on mate we have a sig bet!! Baggie lost one to me and he got to use a very benign sig, because I was feeling benevolent, and he used it all year. I will give youy an opotion. I can give you a benign semi suggestive sig that acknowledges that I whupped you, and you can fly it for a period of not less than the midpoint of the 2015 a F1 season, or I can spank you with a good one that you would only have to fly for like preseason testing, and the first 2 races. Or as rather unique solution, you could be my agent for securing me at leas an "honorary" membership to the Anglo - Mafia if Fred gets that ride with McLaren.... That is very important to me "brotha-from anotha' motha'"

[kfzmeister]

TOP 2 TO FOLLOW...

Can't wait......

[rjbetty]

While I´m deciding, I´ll do the teams

11.Caterham
disappointed In Tony Fernandes tbh. He gave the team an ultimatum at the start of 2014 saying he'd given them the best of everything, when he clearly hadn't. It was great seeing Kobayashi line up 14th (qualified 15th) in Melbourne and he had a great moment overtaking Vettel in China, but was unfortunately largely invisible. Clearly the worst car, and one of the less run well teams imo. At least they made improvements after Spa, but I suspect Kamui was given inferior equipment thereafter maybe. Poor job by Fernandes who I largely blame for the employees situation. He clearly lost interest during 2012...

10.Marussia
However, Marussia were an inspiration to me in the way they took so little and made it go so relatively far. It was such a breath of fresh air to see their humble and sensible approach of maximising the cheapest areas (mechanical) and not wasting everything on moving to a Spanish base a la HRT. I am extremely disappointed in Bernie wanting them gone, and a bit disappointed in anyone who says they wont be missed and didn't add anything. That's not the case for this fan! On the surface things looked the same, but closer inspection reveals they have always consolidated and moved forwards though the goalposts relentlessly move too. I will also miss the colour scheme.

9.Sauber
Oh dear, I didn't expect much from this lot, but boy it was bad At least they seemed to improve ahead of Lotus later on. Drivers let them down badly as it was a points scoring car.

8.Lotus
Indeed a Benetton 2001 season. The bad start was to be expected but it was most disappointing they didn't improve as I thought. I think the FRIC ban hurt them very badly. What can be expected chassis side in 2015? How much money do they have now. So many people have left. Even the Merc engine should only get them to where Force India were this year, at best...

7.Toro Rosso
Given they were also lumped with the same Renault engine that ruined Red Bull's season, qualifying in the top 10 so often was a massive achievement. That chassis must have been quite something. It looks like James Key is having his effect again as he proves the go-to man for midfield teams. Maybe they can move forward on the chassis side again.

6.Force India
Did very well to beat McLaren early on. This time however, development dried up due to money woes, which I don't think has happened in recent years. It's the first time due to money, which doesn't look good for 2015 as I fear things might finally be cathing up with them. However, they always confound my expectations by producing a good solid car year in year out, so they will probably produce a decent one to start with. I see them fading overall though.

5.McLaren
How did they manage to be so bad again? Well they had the best engine, but Ron Dennis said they lost out badly by not having the latest software to run it. Apparently this could cost a lot of performance, possibly even 0.7sec! Not sure how true any of that is, but it would explain a lot. Peter Prodromou has arrived and is considered very talented having been Adrian Newey's right hand man. He made a front wing later in the season that looked to boost McLaren's performance. Maybe he arrives too late for 2015 but it must help having him. (I am trying to believe the chassis can't have been that awful - almost Lotus bad).

4.Ferrari
Indeed my fears were realised this would be an awful season. The team treated Alonso shamefully imo considering he carried them all these years including this, and saved them huge amounts of embarrassment. Had he not been in that car, Ferrari would have done well to avoid being 6th in the championship... They also acted disgracefully imo in blaming everyone and everything. Sacking the engine chief seemed foolish, since... Who is in charge now? Is the engine going to get better by sacking him. Reeks of the kneejerk sacking of Aldo Costa (now at Mercedes - go figure!) after 2010, after which Ferrari never produced a remotely competitive car again...

3.Williams
Who'd have thought they would have had almost the 2nd best car out there. I don't mind that they were conservative in races and didn't win since I believe you must walk before you can run. Very good approach in just concentrating on bagging 3rd. Smedley and Symonds have clearly had a great effect. We just need Massa to drive like he did in the 2nd half of 2014, not getting caught in costly incidents all the time and they're set. How much can they improve in 2015 though?

2.Red Bull
Considering the pre-season catastrophe, maybe they should be 1st, as their chassis seemed the best out there again. Ricciardo would probably have won the title had the engine been up to the job. However, the possibility of "cheating" having caused the good chassis performance is a bit of a blight. Massive shame on Horner also for sure enough, wanting to change the engine "for the good of the sport".

1.Mercedes
Surprise! Still looked like maybe doing the impossible and throwing the title away at one point! All they need to do is make sure both drivers get completely equal treatment in every way then it's sweet.

btw They did not help Hamilton. All that happened imo was they realised after Spa that helping Rosberg to the title as they had been doing would not be so great publicity after all, so went towards neutral. I don't believe they care about Hamilton, just themselves. They were helping Rosberg for most of the season by giving him "Lewis' guide to driving quick" to study after Malaysia. Not to mention all the suspiciously slow pitstops for Lewis, which I think were solved after Spa funnily enough!! Awaiting your response dj!

[Tazio]

2014 F1 season review

December 3, 2014 at 3:38 pm by Keith Collantine
88 comments

Drivers have little room to hide when being compared with their team mate – their only rival who has the same car.
While some drivers easily had the beating of their team mates in 2014, at other teams the two were much more evenly matched.
As a result some teams faced difficult decision over which of their drivers to drop for the squad, keep for next year or – in the case of Red Bull and Toro Rosso – promote to the top team. In the latter case Jean-Eric Vergne not only missed out on his chance to move up but lost his seat as well – meanwhile his former team mate will be driving an RB11 next year.
McLaren, however, are yet to confirm whether Jenson Button or Kevin Magnussen will be retained for 2015.
Four key pieces of data have been used below to compare how each pair of team mates performed during 2014: who qualified ahead (ignoring penalties and sessions where one driver did not set a time), who finished the race ahead (ignoring non-classifications), how many racing laps each spent ahead of the other, and who scored the most championship points.
Mercedes: Lewis Hamilton vs Nico Rosberg

Lewis HamiltonNico Rosberg0%25%50%75%100%Qualified aheadFinished aheadLaps spent aheadTeam points

	Lewis Hamilton	Nico Rosberg
Qualified ahead	38.89	61.11
Finished ahead	71.43	28.57
Laps spent ahead	49.18	50.82
Team points	54.78	45.22

45.22



Mercedes were so far ahead of their rivals, and their racers were so evenly matched, the battle for the drivers’ championship seldom involved any other competitors. And while the team were concerned unreliability might play a deciding role, that turned out not to be the case.
Nico Rosberg became the first of Lewis Hamilton’s team mates to out-qualify him over the course of a season since Fernando Alonso in 2007 – and that was back when drivers qualified with their starting fuel loads. However Hamilton was usually he quicker of the two on race day, and often made that advantage count: hence his eleven wins to Rosberg’s five.




Williams: Felipe Massa vs Valtteri Bottas


Felipe MassaValtteri Bottas0%25%50%75%100%Qualified aheadFinished aheadLaps spent aheadTeam points

	Felipe Massa	Valtteri Bottas
Qualified ahead	31.58	68.42
Finished ahead	53.33	46.67
Laps spent ahead	52.42	47.58
Team points	41.88	58.12

41.88



In his second season of F1 Valtteri Bottas showed up very well once again. However towards the end of the season Felipe Massa looked to be back to his best and finished ahead of his team mate in the last three races.


One driver ahead

Red Bull: Sebastian Vettel vs Daniel Ricciardo


Sebastian VettelDaniel Ricciardo0%25%50%75%100%Qualified aheadFinished aheadLaps spent aheadTeam points

	Sebastian Vettel	Daniel Ricciardo
Qualified ahead	36.84	63.16
Finished ahead	21.43	78.57
Laps spent ahead	48.12	51.88
Team points	41.23	58.77

Daniel Ricciardo



Daniel Ricciardo’s successful first season at Red Bull and the defeats he inflicted on four-times champion Sebastian Vettel made him one of the most talked-about drivers in 2014, and deservedly so.
The contest between the two wasn’t quite as one-sided as it might have seemed – Vettel defeated Mark Webber at the same team much more emphatically last year. But nonetheless Ricciardo more than justified his promotion to the four-times champions – a move which some questioned when it was announced last year




Ferrari: Fernando Alonso vs Kimi Raikkonen


Fernando AlonsoKimi Raikkonen0%25%50%75%100%Qualified aheadFinished aheadLaps spent aheadTeam points

	Fernando Alonso	Kimi Raikkonen
Qualified ahead	84.21	15.79
Finished ahead	93.75	6.25
Laps spent ahead	84.64	15.36
Team points	74.54	25.46

6.25



The most one-sided team mate battle in 2014 occurred at the only team with two world champions in its line-up. Fernando Alonso was rarely headed by Kimi Raikkonen, who despite a couple of false dawns never got the Ferrari F14 T handling to his liking.
It would have been fascinating to see whether Raikkonen might have fared better against Alonso with the benefit of a second season at Ferrari, or whether he would have been humbled by Alonso in the same way Massa was during their four years as team mates.
But with Alonso moving on, Raikkonen will now go up against another champion – Vettel – in what promises to be one of the most absorbing driver duels of 2015.---Spanky, spanky!
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2014/12/0...-battles-2014/

What I find very interesting about these statistics is that at Williams, when Felipe's rig was running he slightly spanked Bottas in laps lead and finishing position.