EXTRACT, F1CBC2010s

2014

The 2.4-litre V8 formula that had been in place since 2006 was replaced with 90-degree 1,600cc V6 turbo-hybrids, which were augmented by up to 160bhp from two Energy Recovery Systems for up to 33sec per lap. The Motor Generator Unit – Kinetic (MGU-K) harnessed energy generated under braking and Motor Generator Unit – Heat (MGU-H) used exhaust gases from the turbocharger. The expensive technology placed further financial strain on the teams and was criticised by spectators and promoters alike for lack of aural appeal. Development until 2020 was to be limited by a token system to keep costs from spiralling out of control. By far the best of these more road-relevant power units was produced by Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains in Brixworth so Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg dominated the 2014 World Championship.

The Japanese GP was overshadowed by the terrible accident that befell Marussia’s Jules Bianchi, who suffered head injuries from which he died on 17 July 2015. Bianchi’s accident led to the introduction of the ‘Virtual Safety Car’, whereby drivers had to reduce speed as directed, and prompted research into various closed-cockpit solutions.

Engine penalties were revised to reflect the complex new Power Units (PUs), as they were now described. During a season, drivers were allowed to use five PUs, the configuration of which was categorised into six elements: internal combustion engine; MGU-H; MGU-K; energy store; turbocharger; and control electronics. A driver would be handed a ten-place grid penalty when a sixth element was required, with a five-place drop for any subsequent sixth element. Fuel was now limited to 100kg for the whole race, with a top flow rate of 100kg per hour above 10,500rpm, which placed a premium on consumption. The rev limiter was reduced from 18,000 to 15,000rpm.

The FIA redefined the list of parts a team/constructor must make itself or own the intellectual property if manufactured elsewhere: monocoque, safety cell, front crash structure, radiators, bodywork, wings, floor and diffuser. Teams were permitted to buy non-listed parts such as power unit, gearbox, suspension and steering.

The height of the nose was lowered to 185mm, resulting in a spate of long, thin protrusions, dubbed ‘anteater’. The width of the front wing was reduced by 150mm to 1,650mm with a 500mm central ‘neutral’ zone, which made endplates crucial in creating outwash to guide air outside the front wheels, and reattach to the central flow. A new development was the blown front axle, whereby air was channelled from the brake ducts through a hollow axle and out through the wheel nuts.

Rear beam wings were banned and the opening of the Drag Reduction System increased from 50mm to 65mm. A rearward-facing, centrally mounted single exhaust, angled upwards by five degrees, was stipulated to prevent the use of exhaust blowing to generate downforce. The cooling requirements for the turbocharged power plants and new mandatory side impact structures led to larger sidepods. Rear brake-by-wire systems were introduced. Gearboxes now had eight forward gears, with ratios chosen before the season, and had to last six races. The minimum weight including the driver was raised to 691kg. The FIA’s Charlie Whiting wrote to the teams before the German GP effectively banning Front-and-Rear Interconnected Suspension (FRICS), which had been in use since 2008.

In-season testing was increased to two-day sessions after the Bahrain, Spanish, British and Abu Dhabi GPs. Driver licence penalty points were introduced for transgressions such as causing a collision, ignoring yellow flags, unsafe release in the pits or impeding, with a one-race ban for anyone who accumulated more than 12 points in a calendar year. Stewards were handed the power of imposing a time penalty – to be served at a pitstop or added after the event – rather than a harsher drive-through for some offences. A partial ban on radio communication between pitwall and driver was introduced in Singapore: ‘No radio conversation from pit to driver may include any information that is related to the performance of the car or driver.’

Hermann Tilke designed a circuit around the 2014 Winter Olympics facilities in Sochi to host the inaugural Russian GP at the start of a seven-year deal. Melbourne and Montréal extended its contracts to 2020 and 2024 respectively, but the Indian GP was abandoned two years early. Austria returned to the calendar for the first time since 2003 at the revamped and renamed Red Bull Ring. Korea, New Jersey (scheduled just a week after Monaco) and Mexico were listed as provisional on the original 22-date calendar but did not proceed. The Bahrain GP was a night race for the first time.

The Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile’s controversial decision to award double World Championship points for the Abu Dhabi GP, to increase the possibility of the title being decided at the final round, was roundly criticised and not repeated. Drivers chose lifelong racing numbers with #1 reserved for the World Champion should he decide to use it. Lewis Hamilton opted to continue with his preferred #44 (which dated back to his karting career) throughout his title-winning years at Mercedes.

FIA president Jean Todt was re-elected unopposed for another four-year term on 6 December 2013 after David Ward withdrew his candidacy. Bernie Ecclestone settled legal proceedings in Munich relating to the sale of the sport to CVC Capital Partners in 2006. The Formula One Teams’ Association was disbanded before the season. Alexander Wurz succeeded Pedro de la Rosa as chairman of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association in October.

The motor racing world was shocked by news that Michael Schumacher had suffered serious head injuries in a skiing accident near Méribel, France, on 29 December 2013. Triple World Champion Sir Jack Brabham died at his home on Australia’s Gold Coast on 19 May 2014.

 

MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS F1 TEAM

That Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains had produced the best turbo-hybrid power unit was beyond doubt, with fuel supplier Petronas key to development. The Mercedes PU106A 90-degree V6 had more power, better fuel economy and smaller cooling requirements than its rivals from Maranello and Viry-Châtillon. It was also the best-packaged solution, with turbocharger split between the compressor at the front of the Internal Combustion Engine and turbine at the back, and with the MGU-H positioned between the cylinder banks. A shaft ran the length of the ICE to connect these elements. To save space, the works team chose a water-to-air intercooler that could be mounted out of the airflow, while its customers all preferred more conventional air-to-air intercoolers. Turbulent Jet Injection was a new and more fuel-efficient alternative to spark plugs.

Crucially, engine, chassis and aerodynamics departments worked in concert to produce the dominant technical package of 2014. Mercedes won a record 16 out of 19 GPs, 11 of which were 1–2 finishes, and started from pole position 18 times. Thankfully, the team allowed its drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, to race freely, ensuring a fierce title fight between them. Their strained relationship threatened to boil over during qualifying at Monaco and when contact between them occurred in Belgium.

After Ross Brawn’s resignation at the end of 2013, the team principal role was split between executive directors Toto Wolff (business) and Paddy Lowe (technical). Bob Bell (technical director), Aldo Costa (engineering director), Geoff Willis (technology director), John Owen (chief designer) and Mike Elliott (head of aerodynamics) gave stability during the design and build of the Mercedes F1 W05 Hybrid. Chief simulation engineer Giles Wood and head of vehicle dynamics Mark Willis joined from Red Bull Racing. DTM race winner and simulator driver Pascal Wehrlein was promoted to reserve after the Italian GP.

The W05 was the first car out on track at the first Jerez test on 28 January, and the team never looked back. It featured an elegant solution to the awkward nose regulations, with a wide design that was as low as allowed, and twin supports for the front wing. Introduced at the Chinese GP, a shorter version with a larger gap to the wing’s neutral central area improved airflow downstream. The rear wing was centrally mounted via twin pylons while the suspension featured front pushrods and rear pullrods as before. At the front, the aerodynamic lower wishbones were conjoined with a very narrow angle to optimise airflow to the bottom of the sidepods, which featured larger air intakes and exits. The split turbo allowed the gearbox to be moved forward to free additional space for optimising rear-end aerodynamics. A new dynamic full-car rig at the team’s factory in Brackley allowed the car, power unit and gearbox to be run as one during the winter.

Mercedes covered more miles than anyone at Jerez despite Hamilton’s Turn 1 crash on the opening day following front-wing failure. They were first and second next time out in Bahrain but gearbox and power unit issues at the final test raised concerns. However, pre-season predictions proved accurate in Australia when Hamilton qualified on pole and Rosberg dominated the race. Hamilton’s power unit dropped a cylinder on the grid, so the car was withdrawn after two laps.

The Englishman bounced back by leading a silver 1–2 at the next four races. In control of the Malaysian GP as Rosberg held off Sebatian Vettel’s Red Bull-Renault, Hamilton narrowly lost pole in the Bahraini desert to his team-mate, before winning their race-long duel for victory by 1.085sec. Hamilton led from start to finish in China, where Rosberg spun during qualifying and had to fight back from sixth following a poor start. A major upgrade with modified front wing and sidepods in Spain increased their advantage. Hamilton snatched pole from Rosberg when a second clear of the opposition and then held off the German’s DRS-assisted challenge by 0.636sec.

Tension between the drivers turned to public hostility during qualifying in Monaco. Quicker after their first Q3 runs, Rosberg’s slide up the escape road at Mirabeau triggered yellow flags that prevented second-placed Hamilton’s final attempt to retake pole position. Rosberg was cleared of running off the road on purpose, but Hamilton was unconvinced. Those positions were maintained on Sunday despite having to double-stack in the pits during the safety car period, Rosberg having fuel-consumption worries and Hamilton slowing late in the race due to impaired vision from debris in his left eye.

They occupied the front row as usual in Montréal with Rosberg ahead by 0.079sec after Hamilton locked up on his crucial lap. However, their run of successive 1–2 finishes ended due to the MGU-K on both cars shutting down when the electronics overheated. Hamilton retired with a related rear-brake issue and the down-on-power Rosberg was finally overhauled by Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull-Renault two laps from victory. In Austria, Hamilton had his first Q3 time deleted for exceeding track limits and spun on his final attempt. Starting third after he had to abandon his lap due to Hamilton’s spin, Rosberg took the lead on lap 27, survived Valtteri Bottas’s pressure, plus running wide and rising temperatures, to score his third victory of 2014. Hamilton jumped from ninth to fourth on the opening lap before undercutting Bottas at the second pitstops to claim second. Hamilton aborted his final qualifying lap at Silverstone and dropped from first to sixth as Rosberg claimed pole by 1.620sec as the track dried. Their fortunes were reversed in the race when Rosberg’s gearbox failed while in the lead, leaving Hamilton to win by 30.135sec.

That Hamilton would emerge as World Champion seemed unlikely when Q1 mechanical issues stymied his next two race weekends. Failure of the front-right brake disc caused him to crash at Hockenheim’s Sachskurve, so he started 20th after taking a grid penalty for a gearbox change. He charged through the field to third, albeit following contact with Adrian Sutil, Kimi Räikkönen and Jenson Button. A fuel leak caused his car to catch fire before he could set a time in Hungary. Starting from the pitlane, he spun at the second corner before scything through the lower order and into the points. He refused a team order to let Rosberg pass as they finished third and fourth. Already elated by his recent marriage and Germany’s victory in the football World Cup, Rosberg dominated the German GP from pole to chequered flag: ‘Wow, what a great day after so many great events for me this week!’

Simmering tension between the drivers exploded on the first lap of the Belgian GP. Having made a slow start from pole position, Rosberg’s attempt to pass Hamilton at the end of the Kemmel Straight on lap two ended in a collision that damaged Rosberg’s front wing and punctured Hamilton’s left-rear tyre, leading to floor damage that forced Hamilton’s withdrawal after 38 laps. Rosberg changed his front wing at his first pitstop and recovered from fourth to second. The drivers were summoned to Brackley five days after the clash, following which a statement was issued in which Rosberg acknowledged fault and the team reiterated that ‘there must be no contact between the team’s cars on track’, although ‘they remain free to race for the 2014 FIA Formula 1 World Championship’.

Now trailing Rosberg by 29 points, Hamilton won the next five races – Italy, Singapore, Japan, Russia and the United States – to turn the championship on its head. He dropped from pole to fourth at Monza when unable to engage the correct engine mode at the start before closing on Rosberg and taking a decisive lead after 28 laps when his team-mate straight-lined the Rettifilo chicane for the second time in the race. Rosberg surrendered the points lead in Singapore when his electronics short-circuited to render his clutch inoperable, which meant he could not restart at his first pitstop. The last upgrade – tighter rear bodywork – was introduced at Suzuka, where Hamilton drove round the outside of his rival at Turn 1 to win. Mercedes clinched the constructors’ title at the inaugural Russian GP. Locking brakes spectacularly at the first braking zone of the race (Turn 2) forced Rosberg to make an early pitstop, after which he drove back through the field into second. At the Circuit of the Americas, where the W05 was a second a lap faster than the opposition, Hamilton completed his five-race winning streak by passing Rosberg into Turn 12.

Rosberg extended his title challenge to the final double-points round at Abu Dhabi by winning the Brazilian GP from pole position. Hamilton lost 6sec when he spun at Turn 4 immediately before his second pitstop, then recovered to within DRS range during their final stint but could not pass. Needing second place in Abu Dhabi to secure the title, Hamilton out-dragged Rosberg at the start and controlled proceedings thereafter despite Felipe Massa’s best endeavours. Rosberg qualified on pole by 0.386sec but dropped out of the points when his Energy Recovery System failed.

 

INFINITI RED BULL RACING

Red Bull Racing’s four-year dominance ended abruptly. The team began 2014 in disarray but emerged as Mercedes-Benz’s closest challengers with newcomer Daniel Ricciardo the only non-Mercedes driver to win, three times as he outshone Sebastian Vettel. That relative success was due to another nimble and efficient chassis despite Renault’s reliability and power deficit.

The new Formula 1 rules frustrated chief technical officer Adrian Newey, who later wrote of his ‘diminishing passion for the sport as it currently finds itself’ in the epilogue of How To Build A Car. ‘I didn’t want to be flogging my guts out trying to find competitiveness in a car that couldn’t compete on engine performance.’ He turned down approaches from Mercedes and Ferrari in the spring before agreeing to a less F1-centric role with team principal Christian Horner in June, effective at the end of 2014. This included the establishment of Red Bull Advanced Technologies to give him scope to explore opportunities outside F1, although Newey’s influence on the team would remain for another decade.

Vettel extended his contract by another year on 11 June 2013, albeit with performance clauses for 2015. Later that month, Mark Webber announced that he was leaving F1 to race for Porsche in the 2014 World Endurance Championship. Explorative talks with Kimi Räikkönen’s representatives proved inconclusive. After Ricciardo impressed when testing a Red Bull RB9-Renault at Silverstone on 18 July 2013, his promotion from Scuderia Toro Rosso was confirmed by the Red Bull-owned Servus TV channel on 2 September 2013. António Félix da Costa joined Sébastien Buemi as reserve driver.

Rob Marshall continued as chief designer, but there was change within the technical team even before Newey’s own deliberations. Head of aerodynamics Peter Prodromou was placed on ‘gardening leave’ when he resigned in October 2013 pending a return to McLaren, while head of vehicle dynamics Mark Willis and chief simulation engineer Giles Wood both headed to Mercedes. McLaren also believed that it had lured chief aerodynamicist Dan Fallows in April, but he decided to stay in Milton Keynes as head of aerodynamics.

As always with a major regulation change, the latest offering from Newey’s fertile brain had been keenly anticipated. The Red Bull RB10-Renault was revealed at Jerez on 28 January with an alternative take on the ‘anteater’ nose. This had an aerodynamic section beneath the protrusion that tapered to the slender nose and rose to the chassis. The forward-facing camera was mounted within the nose to reduce drag, although the team was forced to adopt conventional mountings from Monaco due to poor picture quality. The rear wing was supported by a single pylon and its endplates adjoined the floor. A small ‘monkey seat’ wing was fitted beneath the central exhaust by lowering the rear crash structure. The sidepod inlets were enlarged due to the extra cooling required by the turbo-hybrid power unit, the batteries for which were positioned under the fuel cell rather than adjacent to the gearbox to improve weight distribution. Pushrod front and pullrod rear suspension was retained and the ‘Coke bottle’ was more tightly packaged than on any rival design.

Crippling reliability issues during the winter meant the RB10’s potential was impossible to judge, with just 21 laps completed over the four days of the first test. There were problems with the Renault Energy F1-2014 power unit’s Energy Recovery System and control software. Overheating, caused in part by Renault’s optimistic heat-dissipation projections, restricted mileage, and the bodywork around the exhausts even caught fire. Upgraded software at the second test improved matters a little but there were more electrical issues at the final pre-season outing as Renault continued to lag on reliability and performance.

Red Bull had to run an ultra-low downforce set-up at places such as Spa-Francorchamps and Monza to boost its poor straight-line speed, so much so that Ricciardo even posted the fastest speed trap figure of the year – 362.1kph at Monza. However, that lack of downforce made the RB10 a handful in high-speed corners when that set-up was adopted. Renault modified its MGU-K following crankcase failures, and cooling for the MGU-H and batteries was bolstered. Temporary solutions at the first four long-haul races helped before a more permanent fix was introduced for the European season. Renault improved its engine-management software during the campaign, although Mercedes remained unassailable.

Such was the lack of winter mileage that Ricciardo’s performance in Australia was a shock. New front wings, sidepods and brake ducts, plus revised engine software, improved drivability and better cooling, transformed the RB10 into Mercedes’s closest challenger in Melbourne, despite being 14kph slower than the fastest Mercedes-powered car in the speed trap. Ricciardo raised a local cheer by snatching second on the grid as the track dried and finished in that position only to be disqualified for exceeding the permitted fuel-flow rate, a decision that was confirmed by the FIA’s Court of Appeal on 14 April. An ill-timed yellow flag contributed to Vettel’s Q2 demise, and he lost power after just three laps.

A revised rear wing was introduced in Malaysia, where Vettel started from the front row and finished third. Ricciardo lost a lap and fourth place when he was released from his final pitstop with a loose left-front wheel. With 85sec already lost, he was handed an additional 10sec penalty and had an unscheduled stop to replace his damaged front wing, so he was withdrawn. Third fastest in qualifying in Bahrain before a ten-place grid penalty for his Malaysian misadventures, Ricciardo passed Vettel and Nico Hülkenberg in the last eight laps to claim fourth. The Red Bull drivers split the dominant Mercedes duo on the Chinese grid despite losing a second a lap on Shanghai’s never-ending straights. Second on the grid, Ricciardo made a poor start but finished fourth again after Vettel finally obeyed instructions to let him pass.

The engine software was improved for the Spanish GP, where the floor was revised. Ricciardo continued his strong form by qualifying and finishing third to register his first official podium. Restricted to 15th on the grid due to a gearshift problem during Q3 and subsequent five-place grid penalty, Vettel made an early switch to hard tyres to charge back into fourth.

Italian press reports that Newey had talked to Ferrari were such that Red Bull issued a press release at Monaco stating that he was not leaving. The turning vanes under the nose were revised for that race with an additional mini-wing placed above the exhaust. That the Red Bull-Renault was ‘best of the rest’ behind the Mercedes steamroller was confirmed by Ricciardo leading a qualifying 3–4. Vettel made the better start, but his turbo failed after just five laps; Kimi Räikkönen’s puncture handed Ricciardo another third-place finish.

Red Bull introduced a new low-downforce rear wing for Canada as it tried to compensate for the engine’s power deficit. Vettel qualified and finished third, but it was Ricciardo who delivered the team’s first victory of the season. He jumped his team-mate at the second pitstops due to a stellar in-lap, then passed Sergio Pérez’s Force India-Mercedes into Turn 1 and snatched the lead from Nico Rosberg’s ailing Mercedes with two laps to go. Nevertheless, this victory could not hide the growing tension between Red Bull Racing and Renault, which was further tested in Austria when Vettel lost power on the opening lap and was eventually withdrawn. ‘Reliability is unacceptable, performance is unacceptable. There needs to be change at Renault. It can’t continue like this,’ was Horner’s damning post-race assessment.

Eighth at the Red Bull Ring, Ricciardo used a one-stop strategy and 37-lap final stint on medium tyres to finish third at Silverstone. Vettel, who qualified second on a drying track but made a slow start, snatched fifth from Fernando Alonso with an audacious move into Copse after a feisty scrap. Their duel continued from the start of the German GP before Vettel switched to a three-stop strategy to secure fourth. Ricciardo was delayed by a first-corner shunt involving Felipe Massa and Kevin Magnussen before recovering from 15th to sixth, finishing just 0.082sec behind Alonso.

The timing of the early safety car in Hungary after the top four had passed the pit entry allowed Ricciardo to jump from sixth to first. He completed victory by switching to soft rubber with 16 laps to go and closing the 9.537sec gap to Alonso’s lead Ferrari, then repeated that shock success at the next race in Belgium after the Mercedes drivers collided. Seventh in Hungary after ceding track position at the first safety car and having spun, Vettel challenged for the lead at the start of the Belgian GP only to spin at Pouhon. Having swapped to soft tyres late in the race, he climbed from eighth to fifth in the last three laps following a frenetic battle with Alonso, Magnussen and Jenson Button.

Ricciardo charged through the field in Italy following a long opening stint to finish fifth with Vettel sixth. The RB10 was well suited to Singapore’s Marina Bay streets where Vettel headed a 2–3 result, Ricciardo experiencing delay due to an intermittent battery problem. An overnight gamble on a high-downforce set-up for the Japanese GP in anticipation of rain meant that the drivers had climbed into the top four when the race was stopped due to Jules Bianchi’s horrific accident, with Vettel third on the weekend he signed for Ferrari.

They occupied only the minor placings after struggling in Russia. Ricciardo recovered from a slow start to take third in America with Vettel seventh after starting from the pitlane due to using his sixth power unit of the season. In Brazil, Vettel recovered from running wide at Turn 4 on the opening lap to claim fifth but Ricciardo retired with front-left suspension failure. Both cars were excluded from qualifying at the Abu Dhabi finale when their front wings failed the flexible bodywork test and were forced to start from the pitlane. Ricciardo surged through to fourth as he finished third in the World Championship, with Vettel a low-key eighth on his last appearance for the team. Red Bull-Renault was distant runner-up in the constructors’ standings.

 

WILLIAMS MARTINI RACING

The emergence of Williams as the second-fastest team by the end of the season was one of the uplifting stories of 2014. After two years with Renault power, a new seven-year agreement with Mercedes-Benz was announced on 31 May 2013. That Williams had chosen its new alliance well was illustrated by pole position in Austria, nine podium finishes and third in the standings.

Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A.’s five-year title sponsorship deal ended after just three, with PDVSA and Pastor Maldonado transferring to Lotus-Renault. The error-prone Venezuelan was replaced as Valtteri Bottas’s team-mate by Felipe Massa, who signed a three-year contract after being dropped by Ferrari. Reserve driver Felipe Nasr participated in five free practice sessions and development driver Susie Wolff became the first female since 1992 to take part in an F1 race weekend when she fulfilled that role at Silverstone (where her power unit failed after four laps) and Hockenheim.

Pat Symonds restructured Williams’s technical department and working practices when he arrived as chief technical officer on 19 August 2013. Ed Wood, who worked with Symonds at Benetton, continued as chief designer while another former colleague, Rod Nelson, was appointed as chief test and support engineer. Also hired were Lotus’s David Wheater (head of aerodynamic performance), Force India’s Jakob Andreason (performance and operations engineer) and Marussia’s Richard Lockwood (strategy). Lockwood’s appointment in February coincided with the arrival of Massa’s erstwhile race engineer Rob Smedley as head of vehicle performance, with responsibility for running the race team. Chief race engineer Xevi Pujolar moved to Scuderia Toro Rosso.

The Williams FW36-Mercedes made its track début at Jerez on 28 January with Massa fastest on the final day of that test. Reliability was impressive and confirmation that F1’s sleeping giant had taken a step forward came when the Brazilian topped the timing sheets at the last pre-season session in Bahrain. Central to that progress was the class-of-the-field 1.6-litre Mercedes-Benz PU106A turbo-hybrid V6, MGU-K and MGU-H, plus a low-drag concept in anticipation that fuel consumption would be all-important. The seamless-shift semi-automatic gearbox was built in-house. Petronas supplied fuel and lubricants. Jason Somerville, who remained as head of aerodynamics, opted for a squared-off ‘anteater’ nose, with triangular supports for the front wing. Pushrod front and pullrod rear suspension were retained. Cooling for the power unit and its ancillaries was a particular strength. The rear wing was supported by the endplates, which included a supplementary wing fitted beneath the central exhaust within regulation 150mm bodywork height. As a particularly light design, the FW36 could accept more ballast than most rivals, giving more potential for circuit-specific weight redistribution. The car was aerodynamically efficient with prodigious straight-line speed, although it lacked rear downforce in slow-speed corners. The initial plain navy-blue livery was replaced by Martini stripes and white bodywork when the Italian drinks company was announced as title partner before the last test.

Williams was Mercedes’s closest challenger in Australia on pure pace, albeit a second a lap slower, but struggled for rear traction in wet qualifying at the first two races. Massa was a casualty of Kamui Kobayashi’s first-lap assault in Australia while Bottas, who started 15th following a gearbox penalty, dented his podium chances after nine laps by clipping the Turn 10 wall. He changed his damaged wheel during the subsequent safety-car period and recovered to sixth, which became fifth following Daniel Ricciardo’s disqualification. Eliminated during second qualifying in the Malaysian rain, they finished seventh (Massa) and eighth (Bottas) after the Brazilian refused to let his team-mate past in the closing stages.

Bottas qualified third in Bahrain, but it was Massa who made a great start to lead a Williams-Mercedes 3–4 in the early stages. However, rear-tyre degradation forced Williams to adopt three-stop strategies so Massa and Bottas slipped to seventh and eighth once more. In China, new front and rear wings that aimed to increase rear downforce improved wet-weather performance. Massa lost a minute in the pits when, as Smedley reported, ‘we tried to fit the left [rear tyre] on the right and vice versa’. Bottas was seventh after being hit by Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes in the first corner.

Upgrades at the Spanish GP ‘worked as expected’ for Bottas to qualify fourth. He gained a position off the grid before both Red Bull-Renaults passed him, only losing fourth to Sebastian Vettel with three laps to go. ‘It was one of my best,’ Bottas said, ‘a good start, zero mistakes and a clean race.’ In contrast, Massa started ninth and fell out of the points as his tyres degraded once more. Generating front-tyre temperature was a struggle in Monaco, where Massa, who missed Q2 after Marcus Ericsson’s Caterham-Renault hit him at Mirabeau, stayed out of trouble to finish seventh; engine failure denied Bottas points.

The FW36 was suited to Montréal’s long straights and heavy braking zones. Bottas headed a qualifying 4–5 and Massa briefly led the race after Mercedes hit trouble. A slow first pitstop (wheel gun failure) and being held up by Bottas before being ordered through dropped Massa out of contention for victory to fifth late on. An attempt to overtake Sergio Pérez’s Force India-Mercedes as they started the penultimate lap ended in the barriers following their high-speed collision. Bottas finished seventh despite issues with his brakes and Energy Recovery System.

They delivered on single-lap promise in Austria when Massa snatched pole from Bottas by just 0.087sec, his first since the 2008 title decider. They ran 1–2 until the first pitstops before slipping behind the Mercedes duo to finish third and fourth, Bottas ahead. Massa crashed at Silverstone’s Stowe corner on Friday, and both drivers were caught out by England’s fickle weather in qualifying. Bottas jumped from 14th to ninth in the two laps before the British GP was red-flagged. He stopped once more to claim second and repeated that result in qualifying and the race at Hockenheim. Massa was eliminated by first-lap shunts at both events, crashing into Kimi Räikkönen’s stricken Ferrari at Silverstone and launched into a roll by Kevin Magnussen at the first corner of the German GP after starting third.

The FW36s had new rear wings and an extra aerofoil behind the roll hoop for Hungary, where both drivers ran as high as second. Starting third, Bottas only finished eighth due to the timing of the first safety car (after the top four had passed the pit entry) and a 5.2sec pitstop. He passed Vettel and Räikkönen during his final stint at Spa-Francorchamps to claim third – his fourth podium in five races. Fifth at the Hungaroring, Massa’s Belgian GP was compromised by debris from Lewis Hamilton’s punctured tyre.

Italy saw a Williams-Mercedes 3–4 in qualifying and the race. While Massa claimed his first podium for Williams with third place, excessive wheelspin at the start dropped Bottas to 11th on the opening lap, after which he made eight on-track passes as he recovered to fourth. Both drivers had to nurse soft tyres over a mammoth final stint in Singapore with differing outcomes. ‘I was driving like a grandmother, very smooth,’ was Massa’s reaction to finishing fifth, while Bottas slipped from sixth to 11th in the last two laps. A final upgrade at Suzuka included lower sidepods, but a new front wing was not raced. They qualified third (Bottas) and fourth (Massa) in the dry but faded to sixth and seventh respectively in the race when rain fell.

A scruffy end to his qualifying lap denied Bottas pole in Russia, where he started and finished third, setting the fastest lap at the very end. Massa, who was only 18th on the grid following a problem with his fuel pump and having required a fresh engine for the race, stopped after just one lap to switch from medium to soft Pirellis, then spent too long stuck behind Pérez on his way to 11th place. With the drivers filling the second row once more in the United States, Massa out-dragged Bottas at the start and they went on to finish 4–5. Having led another row-two lock-out on home soil in São Paulo, Massa maintained third at the start and finish, despite a 5sec penalty for speeding in the pitlane and having stopped in the McLaren pit in error. Suffering severe graining of his left-rear tyre, Bottas was tenth after he lost 12sec having his seatbelts tightened at his second pitstop.

Bottas started and finished third in Abu Dhabi. Massa passed his team-mate at the start and used a late change to supersoft tyres to challenge Hamilton for victory, reducing his deficit to the Mercedes from 10.863sec to 2.576sec in the last 11 laps before having to settle for second. Bottas was fourth in the drivers’ championship with Williams-Mercedes third overall after its best campaign since 2003.

 

SCUDERIA FERRARI

Formula 1’s most celebrated team endured its first winless campaign since 1993 as it slumped to fourth overall. This latest failure at Maranello was felt at the top of the Scuderia. Team principal for six years, Stefano Domenicali resigned on 14 April, saying: ‘I take responsibility of the situation we are in. It’s a decision made with the desire to do something to shake things up and for the good of the group.’ He was replaced by Ferrari North America president Marco Mattiacci, who had no racing experience. Long-time engine chief Luca Marmorini left on 1 August and Mattia Binotto was promoted to that department’s chief operating officer, with Lorenzo Sassi appointed chief designer (power unit). Luca di Montezemolo, Scuderia Ferrari president for 23 years, was the ultimate casualty for he relinquished his position with the team and car company on 13 October, on the day that the newly merged Fiat Chrysler Automobiles floated on the New York Stock Exchange. His replacement was Fiat chief executive officer Sergio Marchionne, the architect of his downfall.

New chassis technical director James Allison only joined on 1 September 2013 so had limited influence on the original concept for the Ferrari F14T. The new challenger was launched online on 25 January rather than at Maranello as had been traditional. With Pat Fry directing technical matters until Allison arrived, chief designer Nikolas Tombazis, his deputy Simone Resta and consultant Rory Byrne prioritised aerodynamic efficiency as the turbo-hybrid era was expected to be a fuel-consumption formula.

Crucial to Ferrari’s chances was the 1.6-litre Tipo 059/3 turbo-hybrid V6 from Marmorini’s engine and electronics division. The first iteration ran on the dyno in August 2012, far later than Mercedes. The aim was to produce a power unit that required smaller radiators to benefit the aerodynamics with a water-to-air intercooler chosen for its packaging advantages. ‘The big challenge of these regulations was the packaging of the power unit,’ Fry later told Autocourse. ‘You can have massive radiators and more engine power, or smaller radiators and less. We’re to the aero end of the spectrum on radiator size.’ Although Ferrari’s turbo-hybrid was generally reliable in testing, contrary to doom-ladened winter rumours, it proved to be the weakest of the three power units in 2014, being heavier and lacking the power of the Renault and all-conquering Mercedes units, especially in race specification. As the Energy Recovery System did not regenerate enough from the exhaust gases, it would run out of power by the end of long straights. Di Montezemolo regretted the new formula, as he later told Mark Hughes in an interview for Motor Sport: ‘The type of expertise necessary for these hybrids was not in-house, and I think I made a mistake in approving these regulations at a time when we were far from ready.’

Ferrari had a different take on the new nose regulations. Eschewing the prevalent ‘anteater’ design, the F14T’s nose was as low as possible with a flat ‘platypus’ snout, and short, rounded supports for the front wing. These guided air over the nose and front wing before it was sucked under the chassis to the floor, turning vanes and sidepods. Pullrod suspension was retained at all four corners, with acutely angled wishbones at the front, and rear lower wishbones in concert with the driveshafts. The mandated central exhaust position allowed Ferrari to concentrate on optimising the ‘Coke bottle’ rear. The F14T’s sidepods were narrower than before and featured low radiator exits. The oil tank was moved from the rear bulkhead to within the gearbox casing. The rear wing, with vertical slot gaps in its endplates, was centrally mounted by twin pillars that curved around the exhaust. Ferrari adopted a unique twin-battery arrangement for the Energy Recovery System that only came into the spotlight in 2018.

The dynamic between Ferrari’s superstar drivers was as eagerly anticipated as the team’s response to the sweeping new rules. Fernando Alonso was contracted until 2016 despite his barely concealed recent frustrations. After Felipe Massa’s departure, an ‘A’ list line-up was confirmed when Kimi Räikkönen’s two-year deal was announced after the Italian GP. Pedro de la Rosa entered his second season as reserve driver. Modernisation of Maranello’s 60 percent wind tunnel was completed in October 2013, allowing the correlation issues that had previously blighted development to be addressed.

Räikkönen coasted to a halt on his installation lap at the beginning of the Jerez test but ended the first day with the fastest time. The F14T lacked grip and was difficult to drive, and also had an unsatisfactory brake-by-wire system and abrupt power delivery. That latter issue was eased by software development during the season. The true level of Mercedes’s advantage became clear at the next test in Bahrain where Räikkönen crashed on the final day. With a deficit to Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg of up to 1.5sec, Ferrari entered the season on the back foot and never caught up.

The lack of straight-line speed was shown by Alonso spending the opening 33 laps of the Australian GP stuck behind Nico Hülkenberg’s Force India-Mercedes. He jumped the German driver in the pitstops to finish fourth, a result he repeated in Malaysia by passing him with four laps to go. Räikkönen crashed out of Q2 in Melbourne so only finished seventh on an underwhelming return. He was seventh on the second lap of the Malaysian GP when his right-rear tyre was punctured by Kevin Magnussen’s front wing, an incident that ‘destroyed our race’. The same two drivers clashed on the opening lap in Bahrain, where the Ferraris trailed in ninth (Alonso) and tenth (Räikkönen).

Thanks to an upgrade that included revised engine software and a hollow front axle that channelled air around the wheels, Ferrari was more competitive in Shanghai, where Alonso finished third and Räikkönen eighth. Alonso dedicated his podium result to Domenicali, who had just resigned, saying: ‘Everything we do up to July will… be the result of his efforts. I was on the limit all race long and I really don’t think I could have done any more.’ As part of its next upgrade in Spain, Ferrari switched to a single support for the rear wing mounted on a bracket over the exhaust. Tyre degradation prompted Alonso to switch to a three-stop strategy, which allowed him to catch and pass Räikkönen for sixth, the Finn following him home in seventh.

Räikkönen was denied a podium finish in Monaco by a puncture when hit by Max Chilton as the Marussia driver unlapped himself behind the safety car. The Finn’s subsequent over-optimistic pass on eighth-placed Magnussen at the hairpin left both cars lodged against the barrier. He earned a reprimand after reversing into the McLaren-Mercedes as he tried to rejoin. Alonso was a distant fourth when slowed by an issue with his Energy Recovery System.

A major engine upgrade in Canada included extra insulation for the turbocharger to increase the heat available for the MGU-H. The tighter-fitting engine cover improved straight-line speed but longer sidepods were abandoned when cooling proved insufficient. Alonso inherited sixth when Massa and Pérez crashed on the penultimate lap, while Räikkönen finished tenth after a spin. Austria yielded fifth place for Alonso and another tenth for Räikkönen.

That both cars were eliminated in Q1 at Silverstone was due to Räikkönen’s errors and Alonso not being on track when it was driest. The Finn caused the race to be stopped on the opening lap when he crashed heavily on the Wellington Straight. Alonso used the red flag to switch from hard to medium tyres, after which he climbed through the field and, having served a 5sec penalty at his pitstop for a starting infringement, only lost fifth to Vettel at Copse following a feisty battle. Räikkönen was rested for the subsequent Silverstone test with Ferrari junior Jules Bianchi quickest on the second day in his stead. Alonso finished fifth in Germany while Räikkönen was only 11th after his race was, according to Fry, ‘affected by a couple of collisions that damaged his front wing and affected tyre behaviour’.

Among the top four cars delayed by the timing of the early safety car in Hungary, Alonso gambled on a long final stint on soft tyres and took a shock lead with 16 laps to go, but he was powerless to withstand Ricciardo’s superior pace and had to settle for second, saying: ‘We need crazy races to get some podiums and today we took our opportunity.’ Räikkönen came from 16th on the grid to finish sixth. Belgium was the only race of the season at which Räikkönen finished ahead of Alonso, fourth versus seventh, the Spaniard handicapped by a 5sec penalty imposed because his mechanics were still trying to fire the engine as the formation lap began. During a late-race four-way battle, Alonso was squeezed onto the grass by Magnussen on the Kemmel Straight and lost part of his front wing against Vettel’s Red Bull-Renault.

Monza was a disaster as Alonso retired with a recurring ERS fault and Räikkönen trailed home ninth. Ferrari’s most competitive showing of the year came in Singapore, where Alonso qualified within 0.226sec of pole position, albeit fifth, and ran second before the safety car forced an early final pitstop that dropped him to fourth. Räikkönen could not match that race pace and was passed by both Williams drivers on his way to eighth. That Singapore form proved to be track-specific as the F14T’s lack of power and tricky balance continued to limit results thereafter. Electrical failure ended Alonso’s Japanese GP on the weekend it emerged that he was leaving Ferrari at the end of the season.

Alonso held fourth until half distance of the Russian GP thanks to a fast getaway from seventh on the grid, but then lost two positions at his pitstop due to a jack failure. He also finished sixth at both the Circuit of the Americas and Interlagos, albeit more than a minute behind the winner. Räikkönen languished outside the points in Japan and America and was ninth in Russia. He was the only driver to make a two-stop strategy work in Brazil (rather than the normal three) although a broken jack cost him four seconds in the pits. He finished seventh after his team-mate passed him with four laps to go.

Outqualified by Räikkönen in Abu Dhabi for just the third time in 2014, Alonso finished his final race for the Scuderia in ninth place with the Finn tenth. That was a suitably lacklustre ending to Ferrari’s worst campaign in two decades.

 

McLAREN MERCEDES

Five years after relinquishing day-to-day responsibility for the Formula 1 team he had nurtured, Ron Dennis was reappointed as McLaren Group chief executive officer on 17 January 2014. That came after major shareholder Mansour Ojjeh’s replacement on the board by his brother Aziz following a double lung transplant in November 2013, in what the press described as a boardroom coup d’état. Martin Whitmarsh, who had fulfilled both that role and F1 team principal, was sidelined and eventually left in the autumn.

Dennis was adamant that having a works engine partner was crucial in the new turbo-hybrid era as McLaren and Honda announced their renewed association, effective from the start of 2015. McLaren’s customer deal with Mercedes-Benz covered 2014, albeit without the previously close working relationship with Brixworth (at board level and in the pit garage) for fear of any Mercedes secrets helping Honda’s development programme.

Vodafone had informed McLaren that it was not renewing its title partnership at the start of 2013. A planned announcement of its replacement on 2 December passed quietly and it was apparent at the car launch that there would be a commercial void in 2014. The fluorescent highlights of the Vodafone livery were gone, with the McLaren MP4-29-Mercedes finished in chrome and black.

McLaren exercised its option on Jenson Button’s services for 2014, but Sergio Pérez was released in the lead-up to the United States GP. His replacement was test driver and newly crowned Formula Renault 3.5 champion Kevin Magnussen, McLaren’s first rookie driver since Lewis Hamilton in 2007. Button mourned the passing of his father John Button, who had been runner-up in the 1976 British Rallycross Championship, on 12 January, and wore a pink tribute helmet at the British GP to match that popular paddock character’s favourite shirt colour.

Just days after passing its FIA crash test, the MP4-29 was launched at the factory on 24 January. Conceived under the direction of Tim Goss and involving Matt Morris (engineering director), Phil Prew (chief engineer), Mark Williams (head of vehicle engineering), Mark Ingram (vehicle design) and Marcin Budkowski (aerodynamics), the MP4-29 was reliable and very driveable but lacked downforce and was ultimately not fast enough to challenge for victory. Ciaron Pilbeam joined from Lotus-Renault as chief race engineer.

The first of the new-generation cars with ‘anteater’ nose to break cover, the MP4-29 featured a relatively high nose to optimise rearward airflow, with arched supports for the three-element front wing. The wing gave greater outright front downforce than multi-element alternatives at the cost of driveability and airflow separation to the rest of the car. Pullrod suspension was retained at the rear, with two so-called aerodynamic ‘blockers’ that enclosed the rear wishbones and worked in concert with the rear wing and diffuser to restore some of the downforce of the banned beam wing. The upper blocker was removed in Canada and from the British GP onwards to limit the extra drag it caused. McLaren reverted to pushrods at the front after just one disappointing year. The sidepod inlets were enlarged due to the extra cooling required by the 1.6-litre Mercedes-Benz PU106A turbo-hybrid, which was paired with McLaren’s seamless-shift eight-speed gearbox. McLaren did not benefit fully from what was the class-of-the-field V6, for while the power unit had been designed with input from works fuel supplier Petronas, McLaren was the only Mercedes customer not to use the Malaysian company’s product. Team insiders reckoned this initially cost up to 40bhp although development from McLaren’s partner, ExxonMobil, gradually reduced the deficit, helping to improve consistency and results as the season unfolded.

Dennis immediately set about restructuring. The team principal role was split between a track-based racing director and factory-based F1 chief executive officer. Rather than promote sporting director Sam Michael to the former role, Dennis lured Éric Boullier from Lotus-Renault before the season; McLaren Racing managing director Jonathan Neale added the CEO responsibilities on a temporary basis. Budkowski left following ‘differing views on the strategic plans affecting the aerodynamics department’ and was replaced by Doug McKiernan. Red Bull aerodynamicist Dan Fallows accepted an internal promotion in April rather than move to Woking as had been agreed, prompting legal action that was settled out of court. Olympic rowing silver medallist Tom Stallard replaced Dave Robson as Button’s race engineer from the German GP.

Early signs were promising when the MP4-29 hit the track on the second day of the Jerez group test. Button topped the time sheets on his first appearance and Magnussen set the quickest time of all 24 hours later. However, that pace evaporated at the final winter test with best-placed Magnussen only 11th fastest and reliability suddenly in question. Button noted: ‘We can do consistent laps, and the pace is reasonably good. At the moment we’ve got a good base, but there’s a lot of work needed still to be competitive. We need more downforce, but that’s coming… for the first race.’ The high-nose philosophy was integral to the design and could not be lowered. Development of new front wings continued throughout the season without fully resolving that lack of front-end downforce and aerodynamic imbalance.

The outer elements of the front wings were simplified for Melbourne, where Magnussen starred on début. He qualified fourth and recovered from a compromised start to run in the top three all day and score McLaren’s first podium in 19 GPs with third place. Button finished fourth, 3.250sec behind, after starting only tenth due to his struggles for grip in wet qualifying. When second-placed Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull-Renault failed post-race scrutineering, the McLaren drivers were elevated to second and third, giving the team a short-lived lead in the constructors’ championship. Little did anyone know at the time that it would be five years before a McLaren driver would stand on the podium again.

An upgrade for Malaysia included the nose behind the ‘anteater’ being raised to the maximum permitted height, but any improvement was negated by the high ambient temperatures. The drivers qualified in the lower reaches of the top ten due to poor performance in high-speed corners and excessive tyre wear. Button withstood the faster Williams-Mercedes to finish sixth, while Magnussen was a lapped ninth after an early collision with Kimi Räikkönen damaged his front wing and earned a 5sec penalty at his pitstop.

Celebrating his 250th GP appearance, Button was robbed of fifth place in Bahrain due to clutch issues, which had already led to Magnussen’s retirement. The dearth of downforce and low temperatures in Shanghai meant that neither driver could generate enough front-tyre temperature and they finished outside the points after a desperate weekend among the also-rans. With revised front wing and having reverted to the original brake ducts, Button qualified eighth in Spain but finished 11th for the second successive GP following a poor start and a slow final pitstop.

The deficiencies of the MP4-29 were less apparent in Monte Carlo. Button survived first-lap contact with Pérez to finish this race of attrition in sixth. Magnussen started eighth and was on course to finish in that position until he lost power and was compromised by Räikkönen’s optimistic lunge at the hairpin, which dropped him to tenth. To improve straight-line speed, the top suspension ‘blocker’ was removed in Canada, where downforce was less critical. Both drivers scored with Button fourth after passing Valtteri Bottas, Nico Hülkenberg and Fernando Alonso during the final stint.

A major upgrade for Austria included a narrower front wing and new turning vanes, floor (featuring slots ahead of the rear wheels) and brake ducts, these measures improving usable downforce and airflow over the rest of the car. Magnussen started sixth and only lost that position to Pérez when he ran wide in the closing stages, with a frustrated Button 11th once more. The single-tier blocker rear suspension was re-employed at Silverstone, where further aerodynamic progress was made. They qualified third (Button) and fifth (Magnussen) in drying conditions before initially running 2–3. That could not be maintained on a dry track so they dropped to fourth – Button within a second of scoring a home podium – and seventh.

In Germany, Magnussen made a fast start from an impressive fourth on the grid but had nowhere to go when Felipe Massa turned into the first corner, the inevitable contact launching the Williams-Mercedes into a barrel roll. Later describing the incident as ‘unfortunate’, Magnussen recovered to finish ninth, one place behind Button, who had clashed with Lewis Hamilton’s faster Mercedes. Hungary brought scant reward for the progress that McLaren-Mercedes was making, the race ruined for both drivers by incorrect calls made in the belief that rain would fall. Tenth-placed Button was given a second set of intermediate tyres despite the track being dry, while 12th-placed Magnussen, who started from the pitlane after crashing on his first Q3 lap, did not pit behind the safety car.

Downforce was trimmed to such a degree at Spa-Francorchamps that the MP4-29 was among the fastest cars in the speed trap although a handful in fast corners. Magnussen and Button joined Vettel and Alonso in a frenetic four-way tussle over fifth, eventually won by the reigning champion. Magnussen finished sixth on the road but was docked 20sec after the race for forcing Alonso onto the grass with two laps to go as they lapped Marcus Ericsson on the Kemmel Straight, so dropped to 12th in the results. That promoted Button, who passed Alonso on the last lap, to sixth.

Having pipped his team-mate for fifth on his last qualifying lap at Monza, Magnussen jumped into second at the first corner but then gradually fell back to finish seventh – two places ahead of Button – before being hit with another post-race penalty, 5sec for forcing Bottas off the track at the first chicane, which demoted him to tenth and promoted Button to eighth. A faulty radiator seal caused Magnussen’s cockpit and seat to overheat in Singapore so tenth was ‘the hardest point I’ve ever earned’. Button lost seventh due to an electrical failure with eight laps to go.

Magnussen outqualified his team-mate for the fourth race in a row when they started seventh and eighth in Japan. However, Button’s switch from full wet to intermediate tyres as the initial safety car period ended was inspired. He ran as high as third before dropping to fifth because an electronic issue forced him to change his steering wheel at his second pitstop. An unscheduled stop to rectify related problems and a spin dropped Magnussen out of contention. Russia was McLaren’s most competitive race since Australia thanks to a new front wing. Under pressure to retain his seat in 2015, Button enjoyed a starring role by qualifying and finishing fourth. Starting 11th due to a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change, Magnussen made an early charge into fifth, where he finished despite ‘driving like it was a relaxing Sunday afternoon’ to save fuel. He was eighth in America and ninth at Interlagos. A gearbox grid penalty ruined Button’s United States GP before the 2009 champion took advantage of Bottas’s slow pitstop to finish fourth in Brazil.

A year after he agreed to return to Woking, Red Bull’s Peter Prodromou began work as chief engineer on 15 September, and an experimental five-element front wing was tried on Friday at the final race in Abu Dhabi with a view to 2015. Still unsure whether he or Magnussen would be retained alongside the newly recruited Fernando Alonso, Button ended his season with a strong fifth. Opening-lap contact with Adrian Sutil caused enough front-end damage to increase tyre wear and consign Magnussen to a disappointing 11th-place finish. McLaren beat Force India into fifth overall as the third-best Mercedes-powered team – an unsatisfactory return by its high standards – in its final season before switching to Honda power.

 

SAHARA FORCE INDIA F1 TEAM

It was all change at Force India for 2014 with both Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta released. ‘I could have retained either of my existing drivers,’ team owner Vijay Mallya said in December. ‘I consulted my other team members and they all said, “New car, new regulations, let’s get a new set of drivers who have fire in their belly, who are really hungry.”’ Nico Hülkenberg rejoined after being overlooked by larger teams, with McLaren refugee Sergio Pérez announced just days later. New reserve driver Daniel Juncadella appeared on Friday morning at the British, Italian and Brazilian GPs.

The Force India VJM07-Mercedes was the first new challenger to be revealed when a side-on digital render was distributed on 23 January. Technical director Andrew Green produced a conservative solution to the new rules, adopting a truncated, drooping nose with an ugly ‘anteater’ to comply with regulations. Twin pylons slanted forward to suspend a more complex front wing with vertical turning vanes on the endplates to guide air around the wheels. The airbox had a secondary intake to cool the 1.6-litre V6 Mercedes-Benz PU106A power unit and its ancillaries. Force India’s agreement with the German manufacturer was extended in April 2013 to cover the semi-automatic gearbox that replaced the McLaren units it had used for five years, which obliged Green and 2014 chief designer Akio Haga to adopt Mercedes’s pullrod rear suspension layout. Force India switched from Mobil 1 fuel and lubricants to Petronas, as used for the power unit’s development. The rear wing featured twin pylons on either side of the central exhaust at launch, although it switched to a single central support from the British GP. The initial aero package was conservative but effective enough to hold third in the early constructors’ standings. However, too many upgrades did not work, and better-funded midfield rivals developed at a faster and more consistent rate, so Force India-Mercedes eventually faded to sixth in the constructors’ standings.

Green told Racecar Engineering: ‘It [the car] doesn’t look hugely different, but it is. Almost every single part is a new design, from the front wing right back to the diffuser. Its genetics still lie in the 2013 car, but we’ve had to achieve the same results in a slightly different way. From the nose backwards it looks quite similar. It’s a little bit “fatter” for the increased cooling requirements, but we hope to trim that out during the early part of the season.’ Unfortunately, that planned diet was impossible without the cost of a new chassis, which resulted in a compromised rear aero package and narrow set-up window that was particularly sensitive to ride-height changes. The VJM07 caused a red flag on the first three days of testing at Jerez as teething problems were worked through until Juncadella completed 81 laps on the final day. It showed a promising turn of pace at the final test in Bahrain, especially on long runs, with Pérez setting the week’s sixth fastest time. The car had strong straight-line speed and was very kind on its tyres.

Hülkenberg scored points at the opening ten races without quite challenging for a podium. Sixth on his return to the team in Australia, he was fifth in Malaysia (the only scorer to manage a two-stop strategy) and Bahrain. Eliminated in Q2 at the opening two races, Pérez was tenth in Australia despite being rammed by Esteban Gutiérrez’s Sauber-Ferrari at the end of lap one and had a gearbox issue on the way to the grid in Malaysia. The Mexican was competitive all weekend in Bahrain, where he started fourth, lost out to Hülkenberg in the first pitstops before forcefully reclaiming the position to finish third – Force India’s first podium since the 2009 Belgian GP. The sidepods were modified for China, where the team’s strong start continued: Hülkenberg held off Valtteri Bottas’s faster Williams-Mercedes for sixth with Pérez ninth.

A revised floor was introduced at the Spanish GP, where Pérez beat his team-mate as they squabbled over the final points-scoring positions. Damage to Hülkenberg’s floor was detected during the post-race Barcelona-Catalunya test and rectified for Monaco. The German was eliminated in Q2 but benefitted from the high rate of attrition and made a fine overtake at Portier on Kevin Magnussen to secure fifth. Pérez crashed on the opening lap after hitting former McLaren team-mate Jenson Button. Adopting a one-stop strategy in Canada that required 34 laps on a set of supersoft tyres, Pérez challenged Nico Rosberg’s ailing Mercedes for the lead before dropping to fourth due to issues with his brakes and Energy Recovery System. He collided with Felipe Massa’s Williams-Mercedes on the penultimate lap as he defended, causing both drivers to crash at high speed. That elevated Hülkenberg to fifth and earned Pérez a five-place grid penalty for the next race.

The front-wing supports were moved forward to redistribute the centre of pressure and reduce flex as part of an upgrade for Austria. Despite only starting 15th, Pérez led for ten laps during a long opening stint on soft tyres before dropping to sixth by the end. Ninth due to rear-tyre degradation at the Red Bull Ring, Hülkenberg’s fourth on the British GP grid flattered to deceive. Silverstone’s crosswinds upset balance in race trim, so the German faded to eighth. Pérez dropped to the back of the field when hit by Jean-Éric Vergne’s Toro Rosso-Renault at the start.

Cooling for the gearbox was moved into revised sidepods at the German GP, allowing tighter rear bodywork to be fitted, although gains were disappointing. With front-tyre wear limiting performance, the Force India drivers filled row five and scored points – Hülkenberg seventh and Pérez tenth. Hungary was a non-scoring disaster: Hülkenberg ran into the back of his team-mate as they disputed ninth and Pérez spun into the pit wall eight laps later.

Locked in battle with McLaren for fifth overall, Force India had by now slipped outside the qualifying top ten as the limited development budget was felt, but the VJM07 still scored regular points. Neither progressed to Q3 in the Belgian rain but the car’s straight-line speed helped deliver eighth (Pérez) and tenth (Hülkenberg) in the race. Pérez made it through to final qualifying at Monza and held off Button to finish seventh. Revised single-element front-wing endplates were part of the final aerodynamic upgrade in Singapore, where the cars lacked grip on Saturday. A safety car caused by Pérez’s clash with Adrian Sutil also provided the opportunity to change his damaged front wing and regain the lap he had lost. The Mexican then benefitted from fresher rubber to climb into seventh during the closing stages, with ninth-placed Hülkenberg among those he passed.

Having run as high as sixth in Japan, Hülkenberg had an electronics glitch that cut the engine just as the race was red-flagged, leaving him eighth. Pérez was tenth at that race and the next, having had to save fuel in Russia. He was blamed by the stewards in Austin for causing the race-ending first-lap accident with Sutil, then Hülkenberg completed a double DNF when his engine lost oil. Pérez received a seven-place grid drop at the next race for his part in the United States GP contretemps and his Brazilian GP chances were further dented by Juncadella crashing his car on Friday morning. Hülkenberg’s was the highest car to start the Brazilian GP on medium tyres so he led for five laps before he pitted. He ran in the top four for most of the afternoon before a late stop to switch to soft tyres lost him four places. The Force Indias were more competitive at the final race in Abu Dhabi, where Hülkenberg led a strong 6–7 finish for the Silverstone-based team.

 

SCUDERIA TORO ROSSO

Jean-Éric Vergne remained after missing out on promotion to the senior Red Bull-owned team. António Félix da Costa had been expected to replace Daniel Ricciardo, so it was a surprise when GP3 champion-elect Daniil Kvyat was announced on 21 October 2013. Phil Charles was promoted to chief engineer with Xevi Pujolar hired from Williams to work with Vergne. Head of vehicle performance Laurent Mekies joined the FIA in October as safety director.

Scuderia Toro Rosso switched from Ferrari to Renault power for the new STR09 to align with Red Bull Racing. Technical director James Key, chief designer Luca Furbatto and head of aerodynamics Brendan Gilhome reckoned a low-drag design was the best solution for the new fuel-efficiency formula. An ‘anteater’ nose satisfied chassis regulations while keeping the front end as high as possible. This was modified for the second test to increase airflow to the floor with nose moved back, ‘anteater’ section elongated, and wing supported by forward-slanting pylons. Team principal Franz Tost was not a fan of the regulations or the consequent designs. ‘I don’t like these noses,’ he said at launch. ‘I think this is not F1-like. This is how the engineers have found the best solution from the aerodynamic point of view, but I don’t think these noses should have a big future.’

Suspension was via torsion bars with pushrods at the front and pullrods to the rear. The car had oversized sidepods to house the expanded cooling system (now with eight different radiators) and ample ‘Coke bottle’ rear. The air intake behind the driver’s helmet was split between engine cooling and supply to the turbocharger. Rather than use Red Bull gearboxes as had been mooted, Toro Rosso preferred the rear-end design freedom offered by producing its own aluminium-cased eight-speed unit, albeit featuring internals from Milton Keynes. The brake-by-wire system was an initial weakness although it was developed successfully during the season. A two-tier ‘monkey seat’ wing was fitted above the central exhaust, with the rear wing mounted directly to the floor.

Testing was a disaster due to the cooling and reliability issues that afflicted Renault, although the STR09 was faster over a single lap than the budget-comparable Force India-Mercedes. It displayed strong qualifying pace that often disappeared in race conditions. That seventh-placed Toro Rosso ended up 125 points behind Force India was due to poor reliability before mid-season, inferior tyre management and the relative strengths of the power units.

Australia was positive as both Toro Rosso drivers qualified in the top eight and scored points, Vergne eighth and Kvyat ninth, the Russian becoming the youngest debutant to score points at 19 years 324 days. Vergne lost power off the start line in Malaysia and compounded the disadvantage by damaging his front wing against Jules Bianchi’s Marussia-Ferrari in the first corner, then retired with turbocharger failure after 18 laps. Kyvat finished tenth in the Malaysian and Chinese GPs.

Neither driver challenged for points in Bahrain or Spain, the latter race bringing rear-wing and diffuser revisions to boost slow-speed performance, plus improved cooling. Vergne was handed a ten-place grid penalty at Barcelona-Catalunya for an unsafe release during practice (his right-rear wheel was not attached properly) and he had a problem with the exhaust system in the race. Both drivers progressed to the top-ten shoot-out in Monaco but lost top-six finishes when an ignition problem caused the exhausts to fail. The rear suspension was modified for Canada, where Vergne started and finished eighth and Kvyat retired. New front wings in Austria completed the aerodynamic makeover and allowed Kvyat to qualify seventh despite his Drag Reduction System not working on his best lap. However, Vergne had an issue with his brakes and Kvyat’s right-rear track rod broke during the race – his third successive mechanical failure.

The rear suspension was strengthened for the British GP as the technical team concentrated on rectifying the unacceptably poor reliability. They started and finished ninth (Kvyat) and tenth (Vergne) after the Frenchman had clashed with Sergio Pérez’s Force India-Mercedes at the start. A 5sec track-limits penalty ruined Vergne’s German GP while Kvyat, who had spun following contact with Pérez, retired in flames.

In Hungary, a damp track and timing of the first safety car allowed Vergne to run second before he switched to medium tyres and finished ninth. A spin denied Kvyat the opportunity to join Vergne in Q3, and his engine cut out on the grid. Red Bull made an investment in the future by signing 17-year-old Max Verstappen to replace Vergne in 2015 despite interest from Mercedes. The second-generation Dutchman’s preparation was helped by driving on Friday morning at the Japanese, United States and Brazilian GPs.

Kvyat won a race-long battle over ninth with Nico Hülkenberg in Belgium but a front-left brake issue at the first chicane on the penultimate lap of the Italian GP denied another score. The Russian had started 21st after becoming the first driver to serve a ten-place grid drop for taking his sixth power unit element of the season. Vergne rebounded from recent lacklustre performances in Singapore despite two 5sec penalties for exceeding track limits. A late pitstop for fresh soft rubber dropped him to 14th, after which he charged back to sixth.

The STR09’s front end was revised for the Japanese GP with a keel under the ‘anteater’ nose to aid airflow to the rear of the car. An S-shaped duct channelled air from the bottom to the top of the chassis in front of the cockpit, while the ‘monkey seat’ wing at the rear was revised. Engine problems in practice forced Vergne to take his sixth unit, thus prompting his ten-place grid penalty. Vergne was ninth and Kvyat 11th when the race was stopped following Jules Bianchi’s accident.

Kvyat starred on home soil by qualifying fifth for the inaugural Russian GP in Sochi. Vergne jumped from ninth to fifth at the start before both dropped out of the top ten as they needed to save fuel. At the Circuit of the Americas, Vergne barged past Romain Grosjean’s Lotus-Renault at Turn 1 to claim ninth on the road. However, he received his second 5sec penalty of the race for forcing his compatriot off the track, which dropped him to tenth in the results. Docked another ten grid places for taking his seventh power unit, Kvyat lost time in the race when collected by Kimi Räikkönen’s Ferrari. They did not score in Brazil or Abu Dhabi. Kvyat, who started the final race from fifth but retired with ignition failure, was named as the inaugural FIA Rookie of the Year at the prizegiving in Qatar.

 

LOTUS F1 TEAM

The Enstone-based Lotus outfit had been Red Bull Racing’s nearest challenger at the end of 2013, despite being in financial turmoil. It now crashed down the competitive order to eighth overall. Handling of the ultra-sensitive Lotus E22 was inconsistent while Renault’s power unit was unreliable during pre-season testing and gave 80bhp away to the pace-setting Mercedes.

Nico Hülkenberg was favourite to replace the disaffected Kimi Räikkönen when the former champion quit before the end of 2013. The identity of Romain Grosjean’s team-mate was delayed by on/off investment talks with Mansoor Ijaz’s Quantum Motorsports. Ijaz confirmed in November that ‘Nico is excited about doing this and I think it is a matter of a very short period of time before that is all finalised’. A sense of flux within the team was heightened by late wage payments and team principal Éric Boullier’s departure to McLaren. Gérard Lopez of team owner Genii Capital took over Boullier’s day-to-day responsibilities while a full-time replacement was sought. When the 35 percent sale to Ijaz fell through, Lotus had to find a sponsored alternative to Hülkenberg. The Venezuelan PDVSA oil company transferred its backing from Williams to shore up the immediate finances, with Pastor Maldonado announced as Grosjean’s team-mate on 29 November.

The team’s 2014 World Championship entry was originally listed as ‘subject to confirmation’ and was only formalised on 31 January once the entrance fee had been paid. Lotus opted to miss that week’s first test at Jerez although renderings of the dramatic Lotus E22-Renault were revealed at that time. Technical director Nick Chester and his team had a radically different solution to the new regulations at the front and rear of the car. Rather than have a single ‘anteater’ section to comply with the regulations, the E22 featured asymmetric ‘twin-tusks’, which contained the forward crash structure and supported the front wing. That should have freed the central aerodynamic blockage associated with the ‘anteater’ concept, although there was increased drag due to the thickness of both tusks and lost rear downforce when cornering. The original rear wing had a curved support with the exhaust slightly offset to the right. This was replaced by a conventional central exhaust at the Italian GP, with a bridge for the single wing support.

The front wing featured twin turning vanes to guide air around the wheels while the floor had a wing section on the leading edge that worked in concert with the undercut sidepods, which descended steeply to the ‘Coke bottle’ rear. These featured accentuated radiator exits for the power unit’s critical cooling requirements, with a water-to-air intercooler chosen for packaging reasons. Suspension was conventional with dampers and torsion bars activated by front pushrods and rear pullrods. Acutely angled front wishbones improved airflow at the cost of mechanical grip. Low mounting points were retained for the steering track rods.

Nicolas Hennel de Beaupreau had replaced Dirk de Beer as head of aerodynamics while David Wheater, his deputy, moved to Williams in November 2013. CFD chief Jarrod Murphy and race engineer Ciaron Pilbeam moved to Mercedes and McLaren respectively. ‘Losing so many experienced people made it quite tricky,’ Chester told Autocourse. ‘There was more shrinking, but not much restructuring.’

Having made its late début during two promotional filming days at Jerez, the E22 joined the second group test at Bahrain’s Sakhir. ‘We only ran the engine at full power for the first time on Saturday,’ Chester reported (due to software issues), with Maldonado completing 59 laps that day as the quickest Renault-powered driver. However, poor reliability – the E22 completed fewer laps than any rival in Bahrain – and sluggish performance continued at the final winter test. The car had a narrow set-up window and lacked traction in slow-speed corners. Charles Pic was named as the new reserve driver at that final test, with Marco Sørensen and Nicolas Prost handed development roles.

Lotus-Renault’s marked fall from grace was evident during the first four ‘flyaway’ races. ‘We’ve had various problems, some power unit mapping issues, some problems with our brake-by-wire system, and we just haven’t had enough mileage this weekend,’ Chester told the press in Australia, after the drivers qualified at the back and retired with MGU-K problems. Extra sidepod cooling was added for Malaysia, where Grosjean escaped first qualifying and narrowly missed scoring a point in 11th. Maldonado was hit by Jules Bianchi’s Marussia-Ferrari on the opening lap and retired with a faulty turbocharger intake. The cars proved a handful in Bahrain but finished, albeit without threatening to end the team’s points drought. Maldonado had just emerged from the pits at the start of lap 40 when he launched Esteban Gutiérrez’s Sauber-Ferrari into a roll in Turn 1, an indiscretion that was punished with a stop-go penalty, a five-place grid drop in China and three points on his super licence. The Venezuelan’s woes continued in Shanghai when he crashed on Friday in both morning and afternoon. Engine failure prevented him from taking part in qualifying, although, starting last, he did finish 14th. Grosjean used the wet conditions to progress to Q3 for the first time and was on course to claim tenth before he began to lose gears and had to retire.

The size of the intercooler was increased for the Spanish GP, where the E22s sported a new floor and rear wing in their last major upgrade of the season. Grosjean qualified fifth on merit and ran comfortably in the top six before being slowed by a faulty sensor that cut power and slowed gear changes, but he held onto eighth to score the team’s first points of the campaign. In contrast, Maldonado crashed on his first qualifying lap and was handed a five-second penalty plus another point on his licence for hitting Marcus Ericsson’s Caterham-Renault on the opening lap.

The car lacked rear traction in Monaco and the drivers struggled to generate sufficient tyre temperature. Maldonado’s fuel pump failed before the formation lap and Grosjean collided with Adrian Sutil’s Sauber-Ferrari at the start. He recovered from the resulting pitstop to repeat that eighth-place finish although it did disguise the fact that development had stagnated. Both cars retired from the Canadian GP and finished outside the points at the Red Bull Ring and Silverstone. Excluded from qualifying at that latter race due to a fuelling error, Maldonado was the innocent victim of Gutiérrez’s lunge during the British GP, so he withdrew in the closing stages.

From the German GP onwards, the ban on Front-and-Rear Interconnected Suspension (FRICS) – a concept pioneered by the team in 2008 – made balancing the E22’s set-up more tricky. Sidelined by the cooling system at Hockenheim, Grosjean crashed behind the safety car in Hungary. Maldonado finished 12th and 13th in those two races, in Hungary after hitting Bianchi at Turn 1. He spun during first qualifying for the Belgian GP, where both drivers retired, Maldonado with a broken exhaust and Grosjean due to damage sustained in a first-corner contretemps with Bianchi. Autosport technical correspondent Gary Anderson called the Lotus E22-Renault ‘without a shadow of a doubt, the worst racing car I’ve seen in my life’ while watching Friday practice in Italy, where Pic replaced Grosjean in FP1.

Maldonado crashed during practice in Singapore, where the team came within 6sec of stealing a point. The Venezuelan started last in Japan after serving a ten-place grid penalty for using his sixth power unit and was docked 20sec during the race for speeding in the pitlane. ‘We just need more downforce, more power and more balance,’ was his downbeat assessment of Lotus-Renault’s competitive situation. ‘We are slow on the straights, slow in the corners.’ They only beat a Caterham-Renault at a dispiriting Russian GP, where Grosjean was handed a 5sec penalty for tipping Sutil into a spin.

In practice at the United States GP, Grosjean tried an experimental new nose with the area between the tusks filled, as the team prepared for revised 2015 regulations. Having reverted to the twin-tusk variant for the race, Maldonado finished ninth to claim his only points of 2014. That was despite separate 5sec penalties for speeding offences behind the safety car and in the pitlane. Grosjean dropped out of contention for points at that race and the next, due to damage when hit by Jean-Éric Vergne in America, and when a cylinder failed in Brazil. European F3 Champion Esteban Ocon impressed on his free practice début at the final race in Abu Dhabi. Relegation to the back of the grid and an early drive-through for taking extra engine components ruined Grosjean’s chances of ending his season on a high. Maldonado’s power unit burst into flames in a suitable conclusion to his desperate campaign.

 

MARUSSIA F1 TEAM (MANOR)

Not only the financial plight of Formula 1’s lesser teams but also tragedy dominated Marussia’s 2014 campaign. Its championship entry was only confirmed on 31 January once overdue fees had been settled. ‘We’re a small team, and we have to manage our cashflow,’ team founder John Booth told Autosport. Marussia Motors, which had bankrolled the operation – run by Manor Grand Prix – since 2012, closed in April, but Jules Bianchi finished ninth in Monaco to earn the first championship points of the team’s five-year existence. That was enough to claim ninth overall, beating both Sauber and perennial rivals Caterham. Manor Marussia’s second successive top-ten classification in the constructors’ championship was rewarded by lucrative ‘Column 1’ prize money. However, a crippling double blow struck in October when Bianchi was critically injured during the Japanese GP, three weeks before the team entered administration with the Frenchman fighting for his life in hospital.

Development of the 2013 car stopped early in the season with only minor upgrades thereafter. ‘Building a 2014 car from scratch has taken all our resources,’ Booth told Sky Sports in December. ‘So, from Barcelona onwards, we haven’t really brought any updates… We had to make a choice. Some teams have that choice, but they have a parallel development plan going; we don’t have that luxury.’ He also questioned whether the new engine formula should have been introduced now: ‘To go at the same speed and the same distance on two-thirds of the fuel is a massive achievement. But it may be that the timing is not great for Formula 1: the world economy is not recovering properly yet, and we’re always two to three years behind.’ Retaining Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton for a second season was, according to chief engineer Dave Greenwood, ‘an extremely valuable known quantity at the start of a season that is full of unknowns’.

Ferrari power units replaced Cosworth in a deal that also included supply of the Energy Recovery System and semi-automatic gearbox. The team continued to use McLaren Applied Technologies’ wind tunnel and simulator. Technical issues delayed the début of the Marussia MR03-Ferrari until 30 January, when Chilton completed five shakedown laps at Jerez. With John McQuilliam in charge of design and Richard Taylor chief aerodynamicist, this was a conventional evolution with ‘anteater’ nose disguised by black paintwork to match the front wing. Neat sidepods were wrapped around the engine ancillaries, with large, conventional radiators despite the Ferrari equipment’s favourable cooling requirements. The suspension was reworked with pushrods retained at the front and pullrods to the rear. An extended wheelbase accentuated the ‘Coke bottle’ rear. The Red Bull-styled rear wing had a single central support with endplates that attached to the floor and an additional ‘monkey seat’ wing above the exhaust. McQuilliam told formula1.com that the MR03 was the ‘best-ever optimisation of performance versus innovation versus design integrity. The car has been manufactured and finished to a very high standard, whilst achieving our most significant weight-saving targets to date and, importantly, with a crucial eye towards maintaining our excellent record of reliability.’

Despite that aim, teething troubles blighted testing, including a computer virus during the first day in Bahrain, as Marussia struggled to integrate the complex new systems and optimise cooling. Both cars were delayed at the start of the Australian GP when stuck in gear, with Bianchi losing too much time to be classified and Chilton finishing last. Reliability improved for Malaysia only for Bianchi to crash into Pastor Maldonado’s Lotus-Renault on the opening lap, earning two penalty points on his super licence and causing race-ending damage. The MR03 had generally been quicker than the Caterham-Renaults so Chilton was disappointed when beaten into last place by both green cars.

They finished in Bahrain with Chilton 13th and Bianchi 16th after he was penalised for colliding with Adrian Sutil while attempting to overtake. That he was challenging a Sauber-Ferrari was a sign of progress. Lacking grip during qualifying in China, Bianchi lost 17th to Kamui Kobayashi’s Caterham-Renault on what should have been the last lap of the race and was lucky to be handed that position when the chequered flag was waved prematurely.

Marussia now held an advantage over Caterham due to the MR03’s better aero efficiency and stronger engine package. Spain brought a small but effective upgrade to the ‘anteater’ nose and new front suspension arms that lowered the ride height and expanded the set-up window. Chilton outqualified Bianchi by 0.591sec and both finished, with Bianchi 18th. In Monaco, Bianchi recovered from two penalties – a grid drop for a gearbox change and docked 5sec for starting out of position – to pass Kobayashi at La Rascasse for an excellent eighth place on the road, which became ninth after his time penalty was applied but still brought the joyful breakthrough of scoring the team’s first points after 82 barren appearances. Chilton was 14th after colliding with Kimi Räikkönen behind the safety car.

The opening lap of the Canadian GP contrasted sharply to the Monaco celebrations. Chilton, who had been within 0.113sec of escaping Q1 and having never retired from a GP before, slid into his team-mate as he tried to overtake him at the chicane, eliminating both cars. In Austria, 15th-placed Bianchi won the team’s battle with Caterham-Renault, with Chilton two positions back. Correct strategy calls when it rained during first qualifying at Silverstone helped both Marussia-Ferraris to escape Q1 simultaneously for the first time. Bianchi started 12th and only lost two positions after a strong race in the midfield. Penalised for causing the accident in Montréal, Chilton was slowed by damage from Räikkönen’s crash on the Wellington Straight, so finished 16th.

Chilton rued the ban on Front-and-Rear Interconnected Suspension: ‘Our FRICS was very simple, but it worked pretty well. The problem is, ours worked and Caterham’s didn’t, so we’ve felt the effect.’ In addition, Marussia’s lack of development budget began to bite. Quickest on the second day of the Silverstone test when making his Ferrari début, Bianchi finished 15th in Germany and Hungary, having recovered from a slow start at Hockenheim and being hit by Pastor Maldonado at the Hungaroring’s first corner. He excelled in changeable conditions during qualifying in Hungary to oust Räikkönen’s Ferrari from Q1.

The suspension was tweaked using two-year-old components for the Belgian GP, where Bianchi briefly had a new team-mate. On Thursday, Chilton was dropped (or stepped down depending on which press release you read) to allow recently signed reserve Alexander Rossi to make his race début. The American drove Chilton’s car in Friday’s first practice before ‘contractual issues’ were resolved and Chilton was reinstated for the rest of the weekend, much to Rossi’s surprise. The steady Chilton passed Marcus Ericsson at the back of the field with two laps to go. Having starred in the wet qualifying session, Bianchi’s hopes of another strong result were dashed by contact with Romain Grosjean’s Lotus-Renault at the first corner, causing a right-rear puncture, following which his car was withdrawn from last place after 39 laps.

Chilton crashed out of the Italian GP at the Roggia chicane and Bianchi finished 18th on a weekend when the Caterham-Renaults were faster. That form continued in Singapore, where Bianchi could not pass Ericsson late on despite his fresher tyres. An early puncture did not help Chilton’s cause. Will Stevens joined Marussia’s junior ranks at the Japanese GP but plans for the Englishman to drive in Friday morning practice did not happen due to a bureaucratic delay blamed on industrial action in Germany.

All such matters paled into insignificance on lap 41 of a very wet Suzuka. Double waved yellow flags, rather than a full safety car, were deployed when Adrian Sutil spun at the Dunlop Curve left-hander in the closing stages. A lap later, Bianchi aquaplaned off the track and speared straight into the recovery vehicle that was tending the abandoned Sauber-Ferrari. The promising Frenchman was treated in Yokkaichi’s Mie General Medical Centre before being transferred back to the university hospital in his home city of Nice. However, he succumbed to his head injuries nine months later, on 17 July 2015.

Chilton retired a singleton Marussia-Ferrari in Russia when the suspension failed after nine laps. Four days after Caterham entered administration, Marussia followed suit, on 28 October, with the company’s investor ‘unable to provide the required level of funding’ according to administrators FRP Advisory. The team missed the last three races of the season and was wound up on 7 November with its 200-strong workforce made redundant. That did not deter Booth and sporting director Graeme Lowdon, who spent the winter trying to resurrect the renamed Manor Marussia team.

 

SAUBER F1 TEAM

Sauber failed to score a championship point all season for the first time since it made its Formula 1 début in 1993. Tenth overall was its worst performance during that period, and the team only beat Caterham-Renault due to two 11th-place finishes. The Sauber C33-Ferrari was a handful, lacked power and was overweight.

Sergey Sirotkin, aged just 17, signed a long-term driver contract in August 2013 as part of a Russian investment package that appeared to secure Sauber’s immediate future. The original intention was for Sirotkin to make his race début in 2014, although those plans were dropped when the investment was not as had been envisaged. The highly rated Nico Hülkenberg moved to Force India, with Adrian Sutil, who had spent six years with the Silverstone-based outfit, announced as his replacement before Christmas. Rumours of Vitaly Petrov replacing Sirotkin proved false, so Esteban Gutiérrez was retained despite his indifferent rookie campaign. Giedo van der Garde was reserve after losing his Caterham race seat, with seven appearances in free practice part of his deal. Simona de Silvestro was added as an ‘affiliated driver’ in February and tested two-year-old machinery at Fiorano and Valencia. However, plans for an appearance in free practice at the United States GP ended when she left in October.

Launched online on 26 January, the new C33 was, wrote Gary Anderson in Autosport, ‘what we’ve come to expect from Sauber, a very sensible car, ideal for providing a good platform to build from’. He reckoned that the team’s application of the new nose-height regulations was ‘one of the more pleasant designs because it features a main central structure, like an elephant’s trunk’. Forward-slanting pylons supported the front wing. The C32’s narrow sidepods had been discarded due to the increased cooling requirements of the turbo-hybrid power units. The removal of the rear beam wing led to twin supports being adopted for the rear wing, which curved around the large central exhaust. Suspension was a developed version of the 2013 configuration with inboard springs and dampers actuated by pushrods (front) and pullrods (rear). Fuel capacity was reduced and brake-by-wire introduced at the rear. Sauber extended its Ferrari engine deal on a ‘multi-year’ basis, and the Scuderia also supplied the quick-shift gearbox, batteries and Energy Recovery System. However, that deal was completed so late that crucial design elements had to be finalised before full technical details of the power unit were available. The intercooler was water-to-air, which saved space but was heavier than the conventional air-to-air alternative. Éric Gandelin had been promoted to chief designer in July 2013 with Willem Toet head of aerodynamics since the winter of 2011/12. Giampaolo Dall’Ara was reinstated as head of track engineering when Tom McCullough moved to Force India following a single season in that role.

Sutil and Gutiérrez both crashed at Jerez during the first test, which revealed lurid handling, lack of grip at both ends, an unstable brake-by-wire system and abrupt power delivery. The definitive aero package introduced at the final Bahrain test was an improvement but the C33 was simply too slow, with the weakest of the three power units and initially 15–20kg over the weight limit. Gandelin later told Autosport’s Ben Anderson that ‘the late start of the design left very limited time for optimisation. Some of the key data of the powertrain also arrived late, and the development of the power unit was ongoing until the last minute. This forced us to make compromises on the chassis.’ Money was tight and Sauber lacked the necessary development budget to improve the car significantly. Rumours of investment from Canadian entrepreneur Lawrence Stroll in the autumn did not reach fruition.

Both cars were eliminated in second qualifying for the Australian GP, with Gutiérrez further hindered by a five-place grid penalty and running into Sergio Pérez’s Force India-Mercedes on the opening lap. Lapped and outside the points in Melbourne, they had mechanical failures in Malaysia. Both crashed out in Bahrain: Sutil, who received a five-place grid penalty for impeding Romain Grosjean during Q1, was hit by Jules Bianchi’s Marussia-Ferrari, while Gutiérrez was pitched into a roll by Pastor Maldonado’s Lotus-Renault. Sutil’s engine refused to run cleanly from the start in China, where Gutiérrez languished in 16th.

Revisions to the chassis in Spain shed 15kg, accompanied by aerodynamic upgrades to the front wing, sidepods and turning vanes, albeit with little discernible uplift. A rear-suspension modification for Monaco brought improved tyre wear, but both drivers threw away possible points finishes. Sutil crashed as he exited the tunnel and Gutiérrez spun out of eighth when he tapped the inside barrier at Rascasse. Sutil’s was the last car still circulating in Montréal after Gutiérrez, who had missed qualifying following a crash in the morning, was withdrawn due to an issue with his Energy Recovery System.

The brake-by-wire system was revised for the Austrian GP although evidence on the stopwatch was marginal. Gutiérrez was released from his first pitstop before the right-rear wheel was attached, triggering a 10sec stop-go penalty. A message to stop immediately was sent to Sutil rather than Gutiérrez, and the German lost 20sec before being informed of the error. For the British GP, Gutiérrez amassed 15 places in grid penalties, ten for the pitstop calamity in Austria and five for needing a new gearbox after he crashed during qualifying. He was then found predominantly at fault in another incident with Maldonado; Sutil finished 13th after stopping once.

The ban on Front-and-Rear Interconnected Suspension (FRICS) in Germany benefitted Sauber as its system was less developed than those of rivals. Gutiérrez outqualified his team-mate before another grid penalty (three places for his collision at Silverstone) was applied. Sutil flirted with the top ten before his power unit cut out after 47 laps, causing him to spin on the start/finish straight. The improved pace continued in Hungary, where Sutil started and finished 11th. Gutiérrez jumped his team-mate at the start but lost eighth when sidelined by an ERS issue. They finished the next two races outside the top ten, with Gutiérrez’s woes at Monza, where he was classified 20th, including a 20sec penalty for clipping Grosjean’s front wing as he passed the Lotus-Renault for 16th at the first chicane with five laps to go.

Sauber’s final upgrade of the season brought revised front-wing endplates, slots added to the floor ahead of the rear wheels, another variation of sidepod and an adapted engine, all of which were seen in practice in Singapore and raced from Japan. Both cars retired in Singapore with differing mechanical failures. In the extremely wet Japanese GP, Sutil crashed at Suzuka’s Dunlop Curve after 41 laps with tragic consequences because Marussia’s Jules Bianchi lost control at the same point a lap later and crashed into a recovery vehicle, leaving him with severe head injuries.

Sirotkin added local interest at the inaugural Russian GP when he replaced Gutiérrez for FP1 and lapped within 0.5sec of Sutil. Gutiérrez opted for a long opening stint in the hope of a safety car that never came, but he did finish ahead of Sutil after Grosjean nudged his team-mate into a spin. Sutil progressed to final qualifying for the only time at the Circuit of the Americas but hopes of breaking the team’s points duck were thwarted when Pérez hit him at the start of the race. They finished outside the points at the final two races of the season despite Gutiérrez starting 11th at Interlagos. Chinese driver Adderly Fong lapped 1.713sec slower than Gutiérrez on his free practice début in Abu Dhabi.

 

CATERHAM F1 TEAM (1Malaysia RACING TEAM)

Caterham F1 Team (née Lotus Racing) entered its fifth season without ever having scored a championship point and with owner Tony Fernandes threatening to pull out. Increased engine costs (quoted as three-fold by some sources) and prize money lost by being beaten into tenth in the 2013 constructors’ championship stretched Caterham’s already stressed finances. Without progress on the track, Fernandes put the team up for sale after Marussia scored points in Monaco. A takeover was announced in July, but Caterham slid into oblivion by the end of the season amid a very public row between Fernandes and the consortium that had taken control.

Charles Pic, who had signed a multi-year deal in 2013, and Giedo van der Garde were released. Kamui Kobayashi, who returned to Formula 1 after a year racing an AF Corse Ferrari in the World Endurance Championship, and GP2 graduate Marcus Ericsson were named as race drivers on 21 January. Ex-Sauber reserve driver Robin Frijns was confirmed in that capacity in February, and the Dutchman was rewarded with Friday practice outings in Bahrain and at Silverstone. Alexander Rossi replaced Kobayashi in FP1 in Montréal a month before he severed his ties with the team. Nathanaël Berthon and Kevin Giovesi effectively replaced Rossi in July but did not test.

Caterham signed a three-year extension for Renault engines and agreed a new deal to use Toyota’s 60 percent wind tunnel in Cologne. The original Caterham CT05-Renault encapsulated everything that was ugly in the latest rules, with an ‘anteater’ nose and a pronounced step ahead of the chassis. The front wing was suspended by short pillars under that protrusion, with turning vanes to guide airflow to oversized sidepods and undercuts. Caterham switched to pullrod front suspension to match the rear, with acutely angled wishbones. Twin pillars supported the rear wing and there was a small extra wing above the central exhaust. The Renault Energy F1-2014 power unit drove through Red Bull Technologies’ eight-speed semi-automatic gearbox. The team skipped the CT04 designation for its new challenger as that was reserved for a road-car project.

John Iley, who would end the season as technical director, explained to Autocourse’s Mark Hughes that the team was ‘trying to produce a solid and reliable package with the hope of being able to develop and do a B-spec or whatever’. However, its overly conservative initial aero package lacked downforce and this could not be solved by development due to limited budget. Caterham managed more testing miles than other Renault-contracted teams, but times were disappointing and the 90-degree turbo-hybrid V6 was not user-friendly. ‘We have too aggressive power delivery, which is very difficult to handle under acceleration,’ Kobayashi noted.

Hopes of regular Q2 appearances and using reliability to score points looked forlorn after a difficult winter. Teething troubles marred practice in Australia, although Kobayashi caused a surprise by escaping the first qualifying segment. That unexpected promise came to nought when a locking right-rear brake at the start pitched him into Kimi Räikkönen and Felipe Massa. He finished 13th in Malaysia and 15th in Bahrain. Ericsson retired from two of the opening three races and finished 14th at Sepang. Both cars completed the Chinese GP without threatening to end the points drought. Kobayashi passed Marussia-Ferrari’s Jules Bianchi for 17th on what was scheduled to be the last lap, but those positions were reversed in the final results because the chequered flag had been shown a lap early in error.

Technical director Mark Smith paid for the underwhelming start to the season at the Spanish GP when he was replaced by a three-man technical committee reporting to team principal Cyril Abiteboul. Smith’s deputy, Jody Egginton, and performance director Iley became head of performance engineering and design and manufacturing respectively. Gerry Hughes added trackside operations responsibilities to his chief engineer role. Abiteboul brushed aside rumours of late engine payments at the time: ‘It’s a confidential issue, but I’m happy to say that we are settled with invoices with Renault Sport F1.’

A minor upgrade for the Spanish GP included revised wings and floor, but the CT05 lacked grip and was the slowest car all weekend. Ericsson lost time at the start when hit by Pastor Maldonado’s Lotus-Renault and finished last; Kobayashi retired with a brake problem. Their plight was accentuated in Monaco when Bianchi barged his way past Kobayashi at Rascasse on his way to claim arch-rival Marussia-Ferrari’s first championship points. The Japanese driver sustained damage in that contact and faded to 13th, while Ericsson, who was forced to start from the pitlane after hitting Massa’s Williams-Mercedes at Mirabeau during first qualifying, finished 11th. Tyre warm-up issues (and Ericsson’s Q1 crash) were blamed for being almost a second slower than the Marussia-Ferraris in qualifying for the Canadian GP, where both drivers retired. Set-up changes during Friday practice in Austria helped stability and improved grip, allowing Kobayashi to qualify just 0.261sec behind Bianchi. However, he could not hold off the Frenchman in the race due to overly worn soft tyres as their respective one-stop strategies unfolded.

On 29 June, Fernandes sold the team to Switzerland- and Dubai-based investors Engavest, who were represented by experienced F1 fixer Colin Kolles. Abiteboul returned to Renault Sport to sort out its troubled engine programme and former F1 driver Christijan Albers replaced him as team principal, with Manfredi Ravetto (formerly of Minardi and HRT) named team manager. Kolles was only ever referred to as an adviser, but he attended team principal meetings to represent the new owners. ‘He has the last say,’ Ravetto later clarified to www.formula1.com, ‘but is not involved in the day-to-day business.’

Both cars failed to qualify within 107 percent of the fastest Q1 time at Silverstone, Kobayashi after an ERS issue and Ericsson due to a couple of ‘offs’ on the damp track. Given dispensation to race, Kobayashi narrowly missed Räikkönen’s spinning Ferrari on the opening lap and finished a lonely 15th. Ericsson was ahead of the carnage after making ‘a fantastic start, my best of the year so far’, but broke his suspension by hitting the kerbs at Brooklands after the race was restarted. The team attended the subsequent two-day Silverstone test with Will Stevens and Julián Leal driving.

Restructuring by the new owners brought over 40 layoffs, which led to the threat of legal action: ‘The summary dismissal of employees from Caterham was done without warning or consultation and will result in significant compensation claims against the team.’ Egginton and Hughes were among the casualties, while team manager Graham Watson was replaced by Miodrag Kotur, who had worked for Jean Todt at Peugeot and Ferrari. Iley and Gianluca Pisanello were named technical director and head of track engineering respectively.

The ban on Front-and-Rear Interconnected Suspension (FRICS) helped Caterham because its system did not work well. Mechanical issues during practice at Hockenheim prevented Ericsson from attempting to qualify. Kobayashi lost his battle with Bianchi over 15th while Ericsson came from the pitlane to finish last. Both cars retired in Hungary, where Ericsson crashed after seven laps. André Lotterer, three-time Le Mans winner and 2002 Jaguar reserve driver, was Kobayashi’s surprise replacement on the Wednesday before the Belgian GP for a one-off F1 appearance. A revised nose section at that race met with Gary Anderson’s approval, as he told Autosport: ‘The Caterham was the ugliest car on the grid. Changing the nose has made it look much better. The nose support is unchanged, however, so it’s just cosmetic. The vanity panel has been modified to smooth it out, so you don’t have the unsightly wedge any more.’ There were new sidepods and Lotterer’s car sported a revised floor. The German outqualified Ericsson by 0.969sec in the wet but he coasted to a halt without drive after just one lap of his only GP start. Armed with a lighter new chassis, but having to use the old floor, Ericsson’s car was the last still circulating in 17th.

Roberto Merhi was slated to make his F1 début at the Italian GP but was only given a provisional super licence, so he made the first of three FP1 appearances instead. That resulted in a late reprieve for Kobayashi, who flew in from Japan to outqualify and outrace Ericsson and both Marussia-Ferraris on his return. The Swede, who now had the new floor, was forced to start from the pitlane for ignoring yellow flags in practice. Further off-track turmoil during the weekend saw Albers resign for ‘personal reasons’ with Ravetto assuming his responsibilities.

Ericsson ‘beat our closest rivals fair and square’ when he edged Bianchi’s Marussia-Ferrari into 15th in Singapore. Falling oil pressure on the formation lap prevented Kobayashi from starting. The
spectre of closure increased when bailiffs seized a year-old test car and assorted equipment from the Leafield site as they chased debt owed by Caterham Sports Limited, the company that built the F1 cars. ‘We inherited a team that was absolutely collapsing,’ Ravetto told Autosport. ‘The previous ownership was pulling the plug. It was finished.’

Despite the off-track turmoil, minor upgrades continued in Japan with a simplified brake-by-wire system and new front wings that featured more elements in the outer sections. The recent trend of being faster than Marussia-Ferrari continued, with 17th-placed Ericsson winning the ‘race at the back’ despite spinning behind the safety car, although the weekend was totally overshadowed by Bianchi’s serious accident. In Russia, Ericsson logged his best qualifying performance of the season, 16th, but brought up the rear in the race, while Kobayashi was bemused when told to retire his car because of overheated brakes.

Hopes of staying afloat dwindled when Caterham Sports Limited entered administration on 21 October owing £20m, as owners old and new traded words. Appointed as acting team principal by administrators Smith & Williamson, Finbarr O’Connell reached agreement with Bernie Ecclestone to miss the United States and Brazilian GPs as he tried to sell the team as a going concern. A crowd-funding website was launched to finance Caterham’s participation in Abu Dhabi, and it was on the grid for that final race despite not raising the required £2.35m through that scheme. Ericsson had already signed with Sauber for 2015, so Kobayashi returned once more to retire on his last F1 appearance. Afforded a super licence due to his Silverstone test in July, Formula Renault 3.5 racer Will Stevens qualified 0.555sec behind his team-mate and finished last, before driving a singleton Caterham in the post-Abu Dhabi young driver test.

Any lingering hopes for the future ended on 5 February 2015 when, having been unable to find a suitable buyer for the team, Smith & Williamson appointed auctioneers Wyles Hardy & Co to sell its 2014 chassis and assorted assets.