2014 Formula 1 Report: USA Edition
Drafting the Circuits
Week 14
Formula 1 Lights Up The Night In Bahrain!
Grand Prix Date Tire Compounds
Bahrain Grand Prix April 4-6 Medium/Soft
Chinese Grand Prix April 18-20 Medium/Soft
Grand Prix of Spain May 9-11
Drivers’ championship:
1. Nico Rosberg 61
2. Lewis Hamilton 50
3. Nico Hulkenberg 28
4. Fernando Alonso 26
5. Jenson Button 23
6. Sebastian Vettel 23
7. Kevin Magnussen 20
8. Valtteri Bottas 18
9. Sergio Perez 16
10. Daniel Ricciardo 12
11. Felipe Massa 12
12. Kimi Raikkonen 7
13. Jean-Eric Vergne 4
14. Daniil Kvyat 3
Constructors’ championship:
1. Mercedes 111
2. Force India 44
3. McLaren 43
4. Red Bull 35
5. Ferrari 33
6. Williams 30
7. Toro Rosso 7
Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix
There has been a lot of discussion this season about the new formula, especially concerning the sound of the engine, or lack there off.
But plain and simply, the race in Bahrain was extremely entertaining! NIGHT RACE! WIND! SAND! And great racing on the track.
Although Mercedes dominated again, this was the first time we saw the two Mercedes pilots battle it out on the track. Due to a NASCAR-like late safety care, the field bunched up and the final 10 laps were battle racing for points at the sharp end of the field.
A spectacular rollover occurred when Pastor Maldonado’s Lotus speared the Sauber of Esteban Gutierrez as the fought for the same piece of desert in turn 1 set up the last lap day to the finish.
As Hamilton and Rosberg took off into the Bahrain night to settle this amongst themselves, it appeared the Nico had the advantage. Rosberg had the benefit of the softer compound while Hamilton was running the medium compound which had shown to be slower by approximately 6.5 tenths per lap. The last 10 laps featured great side by side racing with both drivers making moves to attack and defend. Rosberg looked like he was going to take to point, but some smart tactical racing kept Hamilton in the lead. Hamilton prevailed, but it took all of his considerable talent to hold of the driving Rosberg who could not strike another attack as his tires overheated in the last 3 laps.
Joining Hamilton and Rosberg on the podium was Force India’s Sergio Perez who drove a brilliant race. This result coupled with as tong 5th place from Nico Hulkenberg brought Force India into 2nd place in the constructors championship. Force India is having a fantastic start to the season and has obviously grown. Vijay Mallya, Team Principal and Managing Director labelled this as “one of the greatest days ion the history of our team.”
Red Bull Racing continued to move forward their program. Points for both Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel are evidence of Red Bulls steady progress while Ferrari is still struggling to get to the front as they occupied the final points position of 9th for Alonso and 10th for Raikkonen.
Notables from Bahrain
- This was the 900th grand Prix race
- This was Jenson Buttons 250th Grand Prix race
- Adrian Sutil was given a 5 place grid penalty dying qualifying for obstructing Romain Grosjean. This dropped him to the back of the field for the start of the Grand Prix.
- Daniel Ricciardo qualified 3rd, but had to drop back 10 places for the unsafe release penalty in Malaysia.
- Lotus’ Pastor Maldonado was given a 5 place grid penalty for the Chinese Grand Prix after initiating contact with Esteban Gutirrez which resulted in the Sauber being flipped and rolled in turn 1. Maldonado was also given a 10 second stop and go during the race for the same incident. Finally , Maldonado was awarded 3 penalty penalty points on his Superlicense.
- 2 teams are set to join the F1 circus for 2015. Gene Haas of NASCAR’s Stewart Haas racing is one of those teams
- Cost Cap plans for 2015 have been tabled
Penalty Points on Super License
Pastor Maldonado 3
Valtteri Bottas 2
Kevin Magnussen 2
Jules Bianchi 2
Adrian Sutil 2
“If a driver accrues 12 penalty points his licence will be suspended for the following Event, following which 12 points will be removed from the licence. Penalty points will remain on a driver’s Super Licence for a period of 12 months after which they will be respectively removed on the 12 month anniversary of their imposition.”
2014 Malaysian Grand Prix – Race result
Pos Driver Team Time/Gap 1. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1h38m42.743s 2. Nico Rosberg Mercedes +1.085s 3. Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes +24.067s 4. Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault +24.489s 5. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes +28.654s 6. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault +29.879s 7. Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes +31.200s 8. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes +31.800s 9. Fernando Alonso Ferrari +32.500s 10. Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari +33.400s 11. Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Renault +41.300s 12. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault +43.100s 13. Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari +59.900s 14. Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault +1m02.800s 15. Kamui Kobayashi Caterham-Renault +1m27.900s 16. Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari +1 lap 17. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes +2 laps Retirements
Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes 40 laps
Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 39 laps
Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault 33 laps
Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Renault 18 laps
Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 17 laps
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