The fact that the same team pretty much won every race in the 2014 season does not mean that there was no action to be had throughout. 2014 was action packed and the battle for the title went down to the final race. Relive all the best F1 action of the 2014 season in this awesome 2014 season review video montage which is aptly named, ‘ART OF F1 2014 – Season Review’. It’s packed with all the top highlights of the 2014 Formula One season and is brilliantly edited. Enjoy!
![Video: BBC F1 2013 Season In Review [HD]](https://f1madness.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/BBC-F1-2013-season-review.jpg)
The BBC’s awesome end of season credits following the final race of the 2013 F1 season. A quick look at the F1 2013 Season in Review with awesome imagery and highlights from the year. Thanks to the BBC F1 team for this awesome video! We think it rocks!
It would be easy to say that Fernando Alonso’s victory at the Spanish grand prix was effortless and uncomplicated.
In reality it was the way he blitzed the start that set up his afternoon. A fifth place on the grid would have been considered below par for the Spaniard but the Ferrari driver always had his mind fully focused on the race.
A surprise attack from Mercedes had Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton locking out the front row of the grid but the questions about their race performances would linger despite a complete domination of qualifying. Cautiously optimistic would have been the best way to describe Rosberg and Hamilton and with good reason. While Rosberg was able to momentarily hold off a charging Alonso and Sebastian Vettel teammate Hamilton was hastily shuffled through the pack. It wasn’t long before the same fate was dealt to Rosberg and after the first round of pitstops the two Mercedes boys ran the Spanish GP in relative obscurity. A forlorn radio message from Hamilton bemoaning the fact that he had been passed a Williams summed up the entire mood of the Silver Arrows camp. Mercedes’ race performance was no match for their qualifying domination as the team yet again endured a race day shattered by their ever present tyre wear issues.
You could call this victory commanding, controlled or even dominant but what it was, was vintage Fernando Alonso. From fifth on the grid he nearly surged into the lead of the race passing Hamilton around the outside of turn three along the way. He expertly managed a four stop strategy and clinically overtook when it was most needed. On lap fourteen he seized the lead of the race and meticulously powered his way to career victory number 32. To further underline the skill of the man it was confirmed that Alonso made the final pitstop of his race with a slow puncture thrown into the mix; though Ferrari maintain that it never put the race victory in jeopardy.
Logically, consistently scoring points is the right way to go about winning a world championship. But when you are Kimi Raikkonen, someone made to win races, second place can become a bit boring. “It’s only 5 races. We are here to win races and championships. I want to win, the team wants to win. 2nd is disappointing,” said Raikkonen. You wouldn’t expect anything less from a natural born racer.
Felipe Massa’s race performances continue to improve after the Brazilian overcame a three place grid penalty to finish on the third step of the podium. Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber could only manage fourth and fifth as the current world champion placed the blame for Red Bull’s lack of performance squarely on the Pirelli tyres. “We are not going to the pace of the car, we are going to the pace of the tyre,” said Vettel.
Nico Rosberg was able to salvage sixth place from his pole position start but Lewis Hamilton was limited to twelfth. Paul di Resta snuck his Force India into seventh while McLaren, who had pinned much of their hopes on an upgrade package rolled out this weekend, delivered an improved performance. Still not delivering to the standard they would want Button finished in eighth ahead of Sergio Perez in ninth. Daniel Ricciardo did one better than his gridslot to finish in tenth place.
Thirteen years ago Fernando Alonso made his debut in Formula 1 with the Minardi team; since then he’s won two world titles and taken numerous breathtaking victories and through it all he has become one of the most impeccable drivers and certainly one of the hardest to beat.
As great a day as Saturday qualifying can sometimes be it never quite is a predictor of what’s to come in Sunday’s race. There are still some exceptions that make pole the imperative but Formula 1 2013 is whole lot more complex than the position you start in.
The expectation was for Ferrari, Red Bull and Lotus to duke it out for the first few rows of the grid but they hadn’t counted on Nico Rosberg to upset the status quo. The Mercedes driver stunned the F1 paddock as he swept his way to the second pole position of his career.
Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso rounded out the top three but it was Force India that caused the further surprise on Saturday with Di Resta and Sutil lining up fifth and sixth behind the Ferrari of Felipe Massa. Lewis Hamilton managed fourth but a gearbox penalty pushed him down to ninth.
Rosberg led the first two laps of the race but after falling prey to Vettel and Alonso wasn’t ever in contention for either step of the podium. Nevertheless, an extraordinary wheel-to-wheel fight between the top three ensued. Within mere inches of his each, at 200km/h the racing between Alonso, Vettel and Rosberg is as close as three F1 cars will ever get. There is no question why these drivers are considered the best in the world.
Ultimately, Vettel seized the lead of the race and never looked back. His three stop strategy worked to perfection and it was obvious the German had some pace in hand should it be needed. The reigning champion proved unbeatable and controlled his run to the chequered flag effortlessly.
Down the road drivers opted for differing strategies and it would eventually be Kimi Raikkonen, on a two stopper, who finished second. Raikkonen, compromised by an eighth place starting position, found himself stuck in traffic in the early part of the race. But even without these issues it seems unlikely that the Lotus driver would have been able to challenge Vettel at the front.
Clad with a brand new chassis for the Bahrain GP Romain Grosjean delivered his best race of 2013. An alternative strategy starting him on the harder compound tyres, wheel to wheel racing and clean overtaking had the Frenchman on the third step of the podium for only the fourth time in his Formula 1 career. It is rumoured that Lotus are running Grosjean’s contract on a three-race basis and the result in Bahrain will have loosened the leash slightly. The podium was a good step for Grosjean and should be celebrated but his focus should immediately turn to repeating if not bettering this result.
Force India faded slightly from their starting positions but Paul Di Resta kept the Indian team in the hunt for the podium until the closing stages of the race; but with his two-stop strategy was always going to be tough to hold off Grosjean on a fresh set of tyres.
Mark Webber and the two McLarens were involved in a duel throughout the race with the two teammates coming to blows on more than one occasion. Sergio Perez found his feet in the Bahrain GP and aggressively hustled teammate Button but the Brit gave as good as he got.
His eighth place finish may not look remarkable on paper but Fernando Alonso again drove a stunning race to salvage three points. The Spaniard stopped for new tyres on lap 7 but had to dive back into the pits on lap 9 when his DRS wing flap fixed in the open position. It left him way down the field, having to fight back without DRS. It can only be through sheer class and determination that Alonso salvaged anything at all.
Formula 1 in 2013 is all about strategy, about managing tyre degradation. But the reality is that F1 has always had a strategic element to it. Nevertheless, it hasn’t stopped Red Bull from being Pirelli’s most vocal detractor. They maintain, as frontrunners, that they are being unfairly punished. However, with two wins from four races and both the leads of the drivers’ and constructors’ championship it seems that their argument has been shot to pieces.
For ten days before the Formula 1 paddock arrived Melbourne had been experiencing a heat wave of record breaking proportions. But the heavens well and truly opened just before Saturday’s qualifying session.
Thanks to Mother Nature only the first part of qualifying was completed and the rest postponed to Sunday morning. The pace of Red Bull sent an ominous message as the team locked out the front row and Sebastian Vettel racked up pole position number thirty.
Lewis Hamilton slotted his Mercedes into third place as McLaren barely made the final part of qualifying with Jenson Button. A noteworthy session from Felipe Massa saw the Brazillian out-qualify his teammate Fernando Alonso.
The major talking point however, as expected, was the tyres. Jenson Button worryingly said that his set of supersoft tyres was completely shredded after only three laps of qualifying. It wasn’t just talk from JB either as five laps into the grand prix the McLaren pulled into the pits for a new set of medium tyres. It compounded a miserable start to the season for Button and Perez who eventually finished ninth and eleventh with what looks like a fundamentally slow car.
Mark Webber followed suit a lap later but the frontrunners seemed able to push the performance of the supersofts slightly further. Under pressure from the two Ferrari’s, Vettel pitted on lap 8 followed by Massa (lap 9), Alonso and Raikkonen (lap 10).
Lotus ended pre-season testing with several reliability issues and little to show for four days running. Seventh and eighth on the grid suggested that the same problems over one lap were still there. But Raikkonen had said that he was happy with the car and that reliability wasn’t a concern. He was right.
A seventh place starting position only slightly delayed the prodigious progress Kimi Raikkonen would make throughout the race. He first dispatched Lewis Hamilton around the outside of turn 13 and set off after the two Ferrari’s and leader Vettel. Nevertheless, the first round of pitstops cropped up before the Finn could advance any further. However, it was the 23 lap stint on the medium tyres where the Finn came alive.
Raikkonen delivered a sublime stint of driving and was able to stretch the performance of the tyres while simultaneously keeping up the pace. By the time he made his second and final stop of the race, Raikkonen had built up a fifteen second gap over now second placed Fernando Alonso. The first few laps after Alonso’s pitstops were substantially quicker than Raikkonen’s but the Lotus driver, seemingly always in control, had the capacity to up his pace whenever he pleased. And just to ensure a straightforward run to the flag the Iceman put in the fastest lap of the race and extended his gap to twelve seconds.
Sebastian Vettel, unable to replicate his qualifying pace, managed the third step of the podium. The triple world champion was still happy to finish in the top three and believes that there is no need to worry about the pace of their rivals.
Felipe Massa secured fourth place ahead of a struggling Lewis Hamilton. The Brit initially planned on a two-stopper but the tyre hungry Mercedes forced the team to opt for plan B and a three-stop strategy. Another difficult day on his home track relegated Webber to sixth as the Aussie struggled with a KERS issue throughout the race. Adrian Sutil’s return could scarcely have gone better with a solid seventh ahead of teammate di Resta and Jenson Button. Romain Grosjean rounded out the top ten some one minute and twenty-two seconds adrift of his race winning teammate.
If Raikkonen’s performance appeared effortless from the outside it’s because it was; Raikkonen called it one of the easiest victories of his career. Coincidentally, six of the last ten Australian GP race winners have gone on to win the world championship.
After four tedious months of waiting the Malaysian GP follows immediately on the back of Oz. The Sepang circuit will be a bigger test of car design and will provide more opportunity for DRS passes with its two long straights. The weather in these parts tend to vary quite a bit too; from monsoon levels of rain to boiling hot temperatures in the region of 40 degrees.