Formula1

Leeeeeewis! Great race, worthy winner today and of the complete season. Would have wished to see a more intense race, but well, that's motorsport.

On a different note: That season wasn't as bad as I may have expected it at the beginning of the year. Hope, F1 will comeback in that form next year!
 
Lewis is a deserved champion, I enjoyed this season a lot.
 
Great season in my opinion. It wasn't that tense in front as Mercedes were clearly ahead of everyone, but behind them it was never over until checkered flag was shown.
 
lewis' start was incredible, he deserves the WDC this year no doubt.

and it's good to see nico and lewis friends again, such a romantic season.
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also, anyone see lotus mechanics laughing when maldonado was on fire:LMAO:
 
of course they were laughing. They were thinking: "this is the last time we are dealing with this Renault crap, next year we are with Mercedes" :LOL:
 
Spending the whole afternoon dealing with two guys arguing with me that I was "blind" when I said Lewis is fantastic driver, and that it is shame that Hamilton has two World titles while the likes of Raikkonen and Alonso, "two waaaay better drivers than LH" according to them, have 1 and 2, respectively. I'm tired.

Well done Lewis! Way to go sir! Huge respect towards Nico Rosberg as well for his classy compliment to Lewis. He was done very well for his first proper title challenge against a top notch F1 driver.
 
Lewis is very much one of the best drivers on the grid. A well deserved championship. When you look at the amount of races he won this year plus those that he could have won were it not for technical problems, losing the championship would have been a travesty.

I think he'll go on and do it again next year.
 
there are reports that Force India was the only team that had offered their help to Marussia both with personnel and trucks to transport their freight to the airport so that they can travel to Abu Dhabi. Sadly, Marussia couldn't secure funding so they did not go to Abu Dhabi
 
I don't really like Vettel, though I have to like him now as he is Ferrari driver and I am a huge Ferrari fan.

What I like right at the start though is that he stayed with Ferrari for those 2 test days even though RB decided to not let him off from his contract so he can't drive for Ferrari until January. At first they were going to let him off from contract so that he can drive for Ferrari today or tomorrow, but some of engineers in RB were afraid that he will take some technical secrets to Ferrari while there is still enough time to use them for 2015 car.
 
Few sporting changes in 2015:
- double points that were introduced in this season for final GP are dropped
- it was in Sporting Regulations for 2015 that after SC goes back to the pits drivers will stop on the grid like they do at the start of the race in order they currently are and that race will then be restarted. It has been dropped.
- Restriction on radio messages between engineers and drivers that was introduced at Singapore GP this year is dropped
 
Cuky said:
Few sporting changes in 2015:
- double points that were introduced in this season for final GP are dropped
- it was in Sporting Regulations for 2015 that after SC goes back to the pits drivers will stop on the grid like they do at the start of the race in order they currently are and that race will then be restarted. It has been dropped.
- Restriction on radio messages between engineers and drivers that was introduced at Singapore GP this year is dropped
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great news!!:APPLAUD:

& i don't mind vettel (he's an alrite guy most of the time)but what i don't get about ferrari is that in 2015 they will have 2 drivers who in 2014 got battered by their team-mates, is vettel faster than alonso, i don't think he is and there are hungrier younger drivers out there than kimi raikkonen imo.
 
Well I don't like Vettel in his "office-self" when he has to say what he thinks packed up in PR wrapping. He just doesn't feel comfortable with that and it makes bad impression, for me at least. But whenever I saw him in more casual occasions he really looks like fun chap to be around. And one plus for Ferrari is that he and Kimi are close friends so there shouldn't be any problems between them.

Alonso wanted to leave and there is nothing Ferrari could do about that. It is not really smart to have a driver that doesn't want to be there. Vettel wanted to drive for Ferrari and he is close in his qualities to Alonso imo. Kimi did really voice his unhappiness in later races this season with understeering car that this Ferrari was. Alonso liked to have a bit of understeer on all of his cars through his F1 career, while Kimi likes when car is a bit loose on the back because he is good in controlling it with throttle and is faster when driving in that way. He and Vettel both have quite similar driving style so that means less compromise when car is set up as both of them want almost the same thing. I think this is good pairing, but personally I would love to see someone younger in Kimi's car. Bianchi was a big candidate for that place in 2016 but sadly he is out of that now. Today they gave a chance to Raffaele Marciello to drive F14-T in last test day of the year. He is member of their driver academy and was racing in GP2 this year where he finished 8th with 1 win.


EDIT: Pics came out today of unfinished 60% scale (max. allowed by rules) wind tunnel model of a car Marussia was designing for 2015. Car looks pretty clean (like one used in 2014) with some development at front and especially on the rear around gearbox and suspension parts.
upmaru1.jpg
 
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ye man, i agree with what your saying about vettel, i think him fingering everyone when he used to win all the times pissed people off, but i don't think him being friends with kimi matters too much, after a few races at ferrari, they'l put seb as #1 driver and kimi will get stressed. nico and lewis were friends on unicycles since they were about 14 but throughout the season there was mad tension..
also hope bianchi can return in 2016 or whenever he recovers and drives for ferrari. he too quick to be driving for marussia..

& vergne confirmed on his twitter that he been kicked out of toro rosso for 2015, is 24 yrs old is too old for this team ffs?
 
Cuky said:
Few sporting changes in 2015:
- double points that were introduced in this season for final GP are dropped
- it was in Sporting Regulations for 2015 that after SC goes back to the pits drivers will stop on the grid like they do at the start of the race in order they currently are and that race will then be restarted. It has been dropped.
- Restriction on radio messages between engineers and drivers that was introduced at Singapore GP this year is dropped
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Common sense in F1? Who would have thought it.
 
exactly my thoughts

Just an update on radio messages: restrictions will be less stringent than they were at the end of this season, but engineers are still not allowed to instruct players how to go through corners and which settings to use to gain lap time.
 
I agree. I am all for engineers trying to help drivers troubleshoot some problem they have with a car (like Rosberg in Abu Dhabi), but telling them what brake bias, engine setting or differential setting to use in which corner is something drivers have to work out on themselves.
 
she's not bad, but there are much better drivers that have lost their seat for 2015...Vergne, Sutil, Button, Magnussen (there are rumors that Alonso-Vandoorne is new McLaren lineup) just to name a few.


Toro Rosso has confirmed their lineup for next year earlier today. Current status is:

Mercedes: #44 Lewis Hamilton (has option to use #1 on his car) & #6 Nico Rosberg

Red Bull: #3 Daniel Ricciardo & #26 Daniil Kvyat

Williams: #19 Felipe Massa & #77 Vallteri Bottas

Ferrari: #5 Sebastian Vettel & #7 Kimi Raikkonen

McLaren: TBC, almost certain #14 Fernando Alonso & #TBC Stoffel Vandoorne

Force India: #27 Nico Hulkenberg & #11 Sergio Perez

Toro Rosso: #TBC Max Verstappen & #TBC Carlos Sainz Jr.

Lotus: #8 Romain Grosjean & #13 Pastor Maldonado

Sauber: #TBC Felipe Nasr & #9 Marcus Ericsson

Manor: It is still not confirmed whether they will be racing in 2015
 
Vettel is testing F2012 in Fiorano today
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EDIT: Seems that story with Marussia/Manor future is finally over. Apparently all their assets including their factory are to be sold on auction.
 
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FIA has released the conclusions of their investigation about Bianchi's crash in Suzuka
1. The semi-dry racing line at T 7 was abruptly narrowed by water draining onto the track and flowing downhill along it. Both Sutil, and Bianchi one lap later, lost control at this point in T 7.

2. ||Sutil’s car was in the process of being recovered by mobile crane when Bianchi approached Sectors 7 and 8, which include the part of T 7 where the recovery was taking place. Sectors 7 and 8 were subject to double yellow flags.

3. Bianchi did not slow sufficiently to avoid losing control at the same point on the track as Sutil.

4. If drivers adhere to the requirements of double yellow flags, as set out in Appendix H, Art. 2.4.5.1.b, then neither competitors nor officials should be put in immediate or physical danger.

5. The actions taken following Sutil’s accident were consistent with the regulations, and their interpretation following 384 incidents in the preceding 8 years. Without the benefit of hindsight, there is no apparent reason why the Safety Car should have been deployed either before or after Sutil’s accident.

6. Bianchi over-controlled the oversteering car, such that he left the track earlier than Sutil, and headed towards a point “up-stream” along the barrier. Unfortunately, the mobile crane was in front of this part of the barrier, and he struck and under-ran the rear of it at high speed.

7. During the 2 seconds Bianchi’s car was leaving the track and traversing the run-off area, he applied both throttle and brake together, using both feet. The FailSafe algorithm is designed to over-ride the throttle and cut the engine, but was inhibited by the Torque Coordinator, which controls the rear Brake-by-Wire system. Bianchi’s Marussia has a unique design of BBW, which proved to be incompatible with the FailSafe settings.

8. The fact that the FailSafe did not disqualify the engine torque requested by the driver may have affected the impact velocity; it has not been possible to reliably quantify this. However, it may be that Bianchi was distracted by what was happening and the fact that his front wheels had locked, and been unable to steer the car such that it missed the crane.

9. Bianchi’s helmet struck the sloping underside of the crane. The magnitude of the blow and the glancing nature of it caused massive head deceleration and angular acceleration, leading to his severe injuries.

10. All rescue and medical procedures were followed, and their expediency are considered to have contributed significantly to the saving of Bianchi’s life.

11. It is not feasible to mitigate the injuries Bianchi suffered by either enclosing the driver’s cockpit, or fitting skirts to the crane. Neither approach is practical due to the very large forces involved in the accident between a 700kg car striking a 6500kg crane at a speed of 126kph. There is simply insufficient impact structure on a F1 car to absorb the energy of such an impact without either destroying the driver’s survival cell, or generating non-survivable decelerations.

It is considered fundamentally wrong to try and make an impact between a racing car and a large and heavy vehicle survivable. It is imperative to prevent a car ever hitting the crane and/or the marshals working near it.
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Recommendations and whole article about this can be found here:
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2014/12/03/fia-releases-bianchi-crash-report-findings/


It has also been confirmed that double points and standing re-starts after SC are dropped for 2015. while VSC (Virtual Safety Car) tested in final rounds of 2014 season is introduced with rules as follows:
Article 41: Virtual Safety Car (VSC)

41.1 The VSC procedure may be initiated to neutralise a race upon the order of the clerk of the course. It will normally be used when double waved yellow flags are needed on any section of track and competitors or officials may be in danger, but the circumstances are not such as to warrant use of the safety car itself.

41.2 When the order is given to initiate the VSC procedure a message “VSC DEPLOYED” will be displayed on the official messaging system and all FIA light panels will display “VSC”.

41.3 No car may be driven unnecessarily slowly, erratically or in a manner which could be deemed potentially dangerous to other drivers or any other person at any time whilst the VSC procedure is in use. This will apply whether any such car is being driven on the track, the pit entry or the pit lane.

41.4 No car may enter the pits whilst the VSC procedure is in use unless it is for the purpose of changing tyres.

41.5 All competing cars must reduce speed and stay above the minimum time set by the FIA ECU at least once in each marshalling sector (a marshalling sector is defined as the section of track between each of the FIA light panels). All cars must also be above this minimum time when the FIA light panels change to green (see 41.7 below). The stewards may impose either of the penalties under Article 16.3a), b), c) or d) on any driver who fails to stay above the minimum time as required by the above.

41.6 With the exception of the cases listed under a) to d) below, no driver may overtake another car on the track whilst the VSC procedure is in use.

The exceptions are:

a) When entering the pits a driver may pass another car remaining on the track after he has

reached the first safety car line.

b) When leaving the pits a driver may overtake, or be overtaken by, another car on the track

before he reaches the second safety car line.

c) Whilst in the pit entry, pit lane or pit exit a driver may overtake another car which is also in one of these three areas.

d) If any car slows with an obvious problem.

41.7 When the clerk of the course decides it is safe to end the VSC procedure the message “VSC ENDING” will be displayed on the official messaging system and, at any time between 10 and 15 seconds later, “VSC” on the FIA light panels will change to green and drivers may continue racing immediately. After 30 seconds the green lights will be extinguished.

41.8 Each lap completed whist the VSC procedure is in use will be counted as a race lap.
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http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2014/12/03/double-points-standing-restarts-vsc-2015/
 
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About time. Very strong lineup for McLaren, just hope the car is significantly better to match.

Feel sorry for Magnussen. The test driver position is better than nothing but the uncertainty has denied him the chance to negotiate a seat at another team.
 
Apparently both Alonso and Button have signed 2-year contracts with the team. Dennis has said in an interview that he would rather financially help smaller teams than be forced to run with 3 cars, so there are rumors that McLaren will be looking to financially help Caterham and that Magnussen might also be loaned to them
 
Makes sense in the short term I suppose. The future of Caterham and Marussia may lie as official feeder teams to the big boys. A place to park up-and-coming drivers. Well, Red Bull have been doing this for years so why not other teams?

I don't believe it's good for the sport if the only way small teams can survive is to be propped up by big teams. That's doesn't send out a great message about the financial sustainability of F1.
 
It just needs to be confirmed by FIA World Motorsport Council, but next season will have record 21 races. Mexico was already confirmed to return in 2015, while unexpected return is made by South Korea. Bernie has said that they had to return that race in calendar because of contractual obligations to prevent being sued by South Korea. Race should be held in early May
 
true, might be that. But I have read an article (I am not sure if it was on F1Fanatic or SkySportsF1) where Bernie has said that they had a valid contract, but that race was not popular with fans (eg. stands were empty) so that they decided to give them a year to sort things out with connections to the track, hotels etc. and that they had to put them back in even if they don't want to.

But yes, I think that there is a lot more behind it than we are told.
 
I have a feeling the Mexican GP may not go ahead either. Anyway, there are plenty of countries F1 can go to if they want to pad the calendar and/or get high attendances. Don't forget the old markets in Europe or South America. France is the obvious one. Portugal (at Portimao) would be great too.
 
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