While the 2014 Formula One World Championship may have wrapped up last week, that doesn’t mean that work has finished for the teams of the Formula One World Championship. After the season finale, the teams stayed on for another couple of days to learn some last lessons from their 2014 cars and start work on 2015.
F1 2014
F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix: Double the Points, Double the Fun
Double points, regular points and no points. It doesn’t matter what the points on offer would have been in the final race of the 2014 Formula One World Championship because the result would have been the same. With an ERS failure crippling his car for the final half of the race, reliability was finally on Lewis Hamilton’s side as he scored the win and clinched the World Drivers’ Championship.
F1 Power Rankings: Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
So we’ve reached the final race of the 2014 Formula One World Championship. Normally, the 17 point gap between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg would be insurmountable under normal circumstances. However, thanks to the wonder that is double points, he’s not out of it yet. A couple of positions between the Silver Arrows can mean the difference between a championship and 2nd place.
You know, I didn’t like the idea of NASCAR’s new Chase format (or any of their Chase formats) but it worked brilliantly in practice. I don’t think double points is going to win anyone over unless Lewis wins the title. Even then, no one will like it.
F1 Brazilian Grand Prix: And Then There Was One (Race)
In Formula One, all it takes is one mistake to ruin your day. Lewis Hamilton had the superior race pace despite not having as quick qualifying paste as his teammate, Nico Rosberg. However, a spin at the end of his second stint ended any chance he had of getting past Rosberg and instead kept his teammate alive in the hunt for the World Drivers’ Championship.
Of course, that wasn’t all of the news of the weekend. Money was still a hot topic of conversation and it looks like that discussion is only going to get more contentious from here.
F1 Power Rankings: Brazilian Grand Prix
We’ve reached the two to go mark of the 2014 Formula One World Championship. Despite the fact that Lewis Hamilton has won ten of 17 races so far, he still hasn’t clinched the championship. He can’t even clinch it this weekend. A combination of bad luck and ridiculous double-points rule threaten to make a farce out of the 2014 World Drivers’ Championship.
As for the Brazilian Grand Prix Power Rankings, the only way they can be made a farce of is if a monumental downpour screws up running on Sunday. Actually, I’d quite enjoy the chaos of a monsoon race.
F1 United States Grand Prix: Two-Stop Two-Step
Nico Rosberg might have started the race on pole but he wasn’t able to finish on the point. Despite a late charge from the German, it was Lewis Hamilton who won his 10th race of the 2014 season and became the winningest British driver in Formula One history in only his 7th season in the top flight of international motorsport.
However, the race was really only a B-plot to this weekend’s story. The three weeks leading up to the United States Grand Prix saw two of the 11 teams on the grid go into administration and fail to turn up for this weekend’s race. In fact, neither team is expected to return in 2014 and may not be back in 2015. The weekend’s real story is the state of the sport and the financial viability for the whole grid and not the mainstays at the sharp end.
F1 Power Rankings: United States Grand Prix
There are three races left in the season and a maximum of 100 points left on the board for Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. The pair are separated by only 17 points but Nico needs to sweep the final three races and get some luck if the pair 1-2 every race. A non-top-two finish completely screws up those permutations but a non-top-two finish would almost certainly end Nico’s chances.
There’s a lot of pressure heading into this weekend’s race if you’re running for the championship.
F1 Russian Grand Prix: From Russia, No Love
For the first time in 100 years, Russia held a Grand Prix motor race and for the first time, it was Formula One racing in Russia. And while the Bond film might be called From Russia With Love, there is no love lost between the two chief protagonists in the 2014 F1 World Drivers’ Championship. The fierce rivalry between the two led to a spectacular first corner confrontation that was the race’s only memorable moment as Lewis Hamilton held his nerve and picked up the win in Russia.
F1 Power Rankings: Russian Grand Prix
Though most of the Formula One fraternity is still focused on the events last weekend in Japan, the 2014 Formula One World Championship rolls on as the tour makes its first appearance in Russia. I’d imagine that if we weren’t talking about Jules Bianchi’s accident and rules changes that should be made, we’d probably be talking about the politics of racing in Russia but it’s probably for the best that we don’t talk about that now. Let’s look at the power rankings for the first Russian Grand Prix in 100 years.
F1 Japanese Grand Prix: Rain, Rain, Go Away
Heading into this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix, all the talk was about the weather and whether it would allow for the race to be run at all let alone to the 75% mark where full points would be awarded. The race made it four laps past the 75% mark, completing 44 of the scheduled 53 laps. When the race was red flagged and ruled complete, Lewis Hamilton was declared the winner but no one was focused on that.
A couple of laps prior, Jules Bianchi lost control in the deteriorating conditions and hit a car recovery tractor. As of writing, Bianchi is in an ICU in Japan after surgery for a head injury suffered in the collision.
The Lowdown 