In just two weeks time the wait will be over and the 2014 Formula One season will roar into action with the Australian Grand Prix. We’ve already had two winter tests (the first in Jerez and the second in Bahrain) and the third has just commenced, giving teams and drivers their last opportunity to get to grips with their 2014 machines before the first race, and iron out any problems.
Read on for The H Duct‘s 2014 Formula One Fact-File full of all the information you will need for the year ahead.
Teams and Drivers
Remaining with 2013 teams: Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg, Fernando Alonso, Romain Grosjean, Jenson Button, Valtteri Bottas, Esteban Gutierrez, Jean-Eric Vergne, Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton (11/22)
Moving to a new team for 2014: Daniel Ricciardo, Pastor Maldonado, Sergio Perez, Felipe Massa and Adrian Sutil (5/22)
Returning to a former team: Kimi Räikkönen and Nico Hulkenberg (2/22)
Rookies: Kevin Magnussen, Daniil Kvyat, and Marcus Ericsson (3/22)
Returning to Formula One: Kamui Kobayashi (1/22)
Who’s missing?: Mark Webber (retired – driving for Porche in WEC) Paul di Resta (returned to DTM after losing his F1 seat), Giedo van der Garde (moved to Sauber as a test and reserve driver), and Charles Pic (Lotus reserve and test driver).
For a full list of the 2014 line-up and their new permanent numbers, click here.
Milestones
Kimi Räikkönen and Felipe Massa are both approaching their 200th Grand Prix. Räikkönen has entered 194 while Massa has entered 193.
Ages
(ages specified are correct for 14th March, the day of FP1 in Australia)
Oldest driver: Kimi Raikkonen (34 years & 148 days)
Youngest driver: Daniil Kvyat (19 years & 322 days)
Oldest driver pairing: Ferrari (67 years & 25 days)
Youngest driver pairing: Toro Rosso (43 years & 280 days)
For a full list of driver ages click here!
For a full list of combined team ages click here!
Experience
(in terms of races entered)
Most experienced driver: Jenson Button (249 races)
Least experienced driver: Kevin Magnussen, Daniil Kvyat and Marcus Ericsson (0 races – rookies)
Least experienced driver (excluding rookies): Esteban Gutierrez, Jules Bianchi, Max Chilton, and Valtteri Bottas (19 races)
Most experienced team-mates: Ferrari (411 races)
Least experienced team-mates: Marussia (38 races)
For a full list of number of races entered click here!
For a full list of combined team number of races entered click here!
Newcomers
There are three rookies in Formula One this season, as mentioned above, but who are they and where did they come from?
Kevin Magnussen – McLaren: Danish driver Kevin Magnussen is the son of former Formula One Jan Magnussen. The 21 year old was Formula Renault 3.5 champion last season. He has been a member of the McLaren Young Driver programme for a number of years and has appeared at the Young Driver Test for them.
Daniil Kvyat – Toro Rosso: Daniil Kvyat is a young Russian driver who won GP3 last season. He also competed in the European Formula 3 Championship in 2013, winning one race. The 19 year old was a Toro Rosso test driver as well and beat off competition to replace Daniel Ricciardo for the upcoming season.
Marcus Ericsson – Caterham: Swedish driver Marcus Ericsson is a Formula BMW UK and Japanese Formula 3 champion who finished in sixth place in GP2 last season. The 23 year old drove in the Young Driver Test for Brawn GP in 2009 and was announced as a Caterham driver early in 2014.
Driver Numbers
(follow links to drivers Twitter accounts)
In 2013 the FIA announced that they would be introducing a permanent driver number system from 2014 onwards. This means that drivers have picked a number that they will carry with them for the remainder of their Formula One career. The reigning champion gets #1 by default, should he decide to use it.
#1 Sebastian Vettel – Reigning world champion Vettel has chosen to take number one for the year ahead but has picked #5 for the remainder of his career. He chose this number because it was the number he used when he was karting and also the number he carried on his Red Bull when he won his first championship.
#3 Daniel Ricciardo – Red Bull’s new driver has chosen to take #3 as his permanent number. “It was my first ever number in karting and I was also a fan of Dale Earnhardt,” Ricciardo revealed on Twitter.
#4 Max Chilton – Another driver with ample marketing opportunities from his number selection, Chilton has already had some fun with M4X.
#6 Nico Rosberg – Rosberg will race with #6 on his car this year. “My future wife’s and my dad’s lucky number, so it has got to work for me too! ;),” Rosberg wrote on Twitter. Rosberg’s dad, world champion Keke Rosberg, won the title while running car #6.
#7 Kimi Raikkonen – Raikkonen’s reasoning for picking #7 was that he had the number last year so saw no reason to change it. Simple.
#8 Romain Grosjean – Grosjean picked #8 because he liked it. He revealed on Facebook that his wife’s birthday was on the 8th, they started dating in 2008 and he considers his son to be the eighth wonder of the world (cute!). Like Raikkonen, it is also the number he carried last year.
#9 Marcus Ericsson – Another set of team-mates with consecutive numbers. Ericsson started karting aged 9 in 1999 and won races.
#10 Kamui Kobayashi – Kobayashi has picked the number 10 – the car number he first ran when he stood in for an injured Timo Glock for Toyota back in 2009. He certainly made an impact then so will no doubt be hoping to do the same again.
#11 Sergio Perez – Perez was pleased to get #11, revealing it was a number he had used in karting as a kid and that even his email had 11 in it and it was a number that had “a lot of things to do with it” for him.
#13 Pastor Maldonado – The #13 has been missing in Formula One since 1976 due to the belief that it is an unlucky number. In many cultures it is considered lucky and this is the case in Venezuela, where Maldonado hails from, so he has chosen to bring it back in 2014.
#14 Fernando Alonso – Alonso is another driver who has favoured sentimentality when picking his permanent number. He used #14 when karting and enjoyed considerable success, finishing third in the world championship in 1995, winning the World Junior Title in 1996, and winning championships in Spain and Italy in 1997.
#17 Jules Bianchi – During the driver number selection process, all drivers were asked to nominate three numbers with their first preference first. Numbers were allocated in championship order so poor Bianchi lost out all three of his options – to Raikkonen, Hulkenberg and Bottas. He eventually chose #17.
#19 Felipe Massa – Massa revealed the meaning behind his number to The H Duct in a Twitter Q & A he conducted with Williams: “It was my number when karting & my uncle also used 19 when he raced. Luckily it was one of our numbers this year anyway!”
#20 Kevin Magnussen – Rookie Magnussen won the Formula Renault 3.5 championship last year carrying the #20 on his car. Since choosing the number he has posted a number of McLaren cars bearing the number on Twitter.
#21 Esteban Gutierrez – Keeping it straight and to the point, Gutierrez picked his lucky number – #21.
#22 Jenson Button – After Honda’s withdrawal from Formula One, Brawn GP raced with the car numbers 22 and 23 for the 2009 season. Button won his world championship with car #22 so he hopes the number will bring him more “great memories”in the future.
#25 Jean-Eric Vernge – Another nostalgic pick, with 25 being a number that Vergne used in his karting days.
#26 Daniil Kvyat – Kvyat’s driver number is coincidentally the consecutive number to his team-mate’s. He said after picking it that the number has no story, yet… “the story about the number has to be made,” he tweeted.
#27 Nico Hulkenberg – Following the reveal of the numbers that drivers would be carrying, Hulkenberg expressed his happiness at receiving the number he chose – #27. He said, however, for him it is not such a big deal and it just a number.
#44 Lewis Hamilton – Hamilton is another driver who has chosen a number of early significance to him. Hamilton used #44 in his early karting days, running it in the Champions of the Future Series (which he won).
#77 Valtteri Bottas – When Bottas first hit the F1 scene, he gained a lot of attention on Twitter and had his own hashtag (#BOTTAS). The number 77 provides him with a lot of marketing opportunities as #BOTTAS is set to become #BO77AS. (Valtteri also has a double T…)
#99 Adrian Sutil – Sutil went all out and picked the highest number available. “I went for the highest number – I am aiming for the maximum,” he revealed afterward.
Engine Suppliers
Renault: Red Bull, Lotus, Toro Rosso*, and Caterham
Mercedes: Mercedes, McLaren, Force India, and Williams*
Ferrari: Ferrari, Sauber, and Marussia
* new supplier for 2014
The Calendar
The season will kick off with the Australian GP on the 16th March and finish on the 23rd November in Abu Dhabi. On their trip around the world, the Formula One paddock will visit 19 countries.
There are two new additions to the calendar – the return of the Austrian Grand Prix at the re-branded Red Bull Ring and the Russian Grand Prix in Sochi.
You can see the 2014 calendar by following this link.
If you reside in the UK (or watch Formula One on BBC from somewhere else in the world) here’s a handy guide to keep you right about which races they have fully live and which are extended highlights.
2013
Sebastian Vettel became world champion for a fourth time in dominant fashion. He won 13 races (including nine in a row at the end of the year). In total there were five different race winners in the first half of the season – Kimi Räikkönen, Nico Rosberg, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and Vettel. McLaren had a year to forget, with no podium finishes.
For 2014 the form book can be thrown out the window with the biggest rule changes to the sport in decades.
- 2013 season statistics can be found here.
Rule Changes in a Nutshell
Gone are normally aspirated 2.4-litre V8 engines and in their place are 1.6-litre turbo powered Power Units. Along with this is the loss of KERS which has been replaced with ERS.
Last year’s engines produced around 750bhp with KERS providing an additional 80bhp per lap for a limited amount of time. The 2014 V6s produce around 600bhp but ERS will give drivers an additional 160bhp for a longer, but still limited, amount of time per lap.
Instead of a KERS button, power from ERS is delivered to the rear wheels via the throttle pedal. The new ERS system will mean that cars produce more torque at lower revs, making good throttle control more important than ever.
A problem with ERS could prove more costly in terms of reliability this year. Another factor which teams must incorporate is that there are more complicated regulations in terms of power units and their usage. Last year the rule was simple – drivers could use eight engines without incurring a penalty, but every engine used after the allocation resulted in a grid drop. In 2014, the power unit is split into six components – the engine, the motor generator unit-kinetic, the motor generator unit-heat, the energy store, the turbocharger, and the control electronics. Drivers can use no more than five of each component before incurring a penalty.
Along with the new power units and ERS systems, drivers will also have a new eight-speed, fixed ratio gearbox. Last year teams nominated 30 gear ratios ahead of the season and could run any seven of those 30 at each Grand Prix. This season gearboxes will house an additional gear but the ratios must be the same at every race. Teams can change once but after that they will incur penalties if they change the ratios again.
Another significant change is the introduction of a fuel limit for the race. Last year teams could use as much fuel as they wanted – generally around 160kg – but this season there will be a limit of 100kg per race with fuel flow being limited to 100kg per hour. It will become a battle of fuel efficiency for the engine suppliers and how well drivers can save it.
There are narrower front wings, visibly different noses which have caused much discussion since their reveals, and a re-positioned exhaust. This means that the likes of the ‘coanda effect’ and blown-diffusers will disappear. The nose changes, which most teams have embraced differently, are due to the height of the nose being reduced from 550mm to 180mm. This is for safety reasons to prevent cars being launched airborne in the event of a collision. The height of the chassis has also been lowered from 625mm to 525mm.
Finally, the minimum weight has been increased from 642kg to 690kg for 2014. This weight, which encompasses car and driver, is to compensate for the increased weight of the new power units; however there are concerns that heavier drivers are being penalized.
A link to some further rule changes including penalty points, return of in-season testing, and safety.
Links
Red Bull: www.redbullracing.com – @redbullracing
Ferrari: www.ferrari.com – @InsideFerrari
McLaren: www.mclaren.com – @McLarenF1
Lotus: www.lotusf1team.com – @Lotus_F1Team
Mercedes: www.mercedes-amg-f1.com – @MercedesAMGF1
Sauber: www.sauberf1team.com – OfficialSF1Team
Williams: www.williamsf1.com – @WilliamsF1Team
Force India: www.forceindiaf1.com – @clubforce
Toro Rosso: www.scuderiatororosso.com – @ToroRossoSpy
Caterham: www.caterhamf1.com – @CaterhamF1
Marussia: www.marussiaf1team.com – @Marussia_F1Team
The 'H' Duct 