F1 Season 2014
The F1 season is fast approaching and with just five days to go until the first GP in Melbourne, the eventful two weeks of testing has now finished. It’s clear from the testing that one team has come out on top of everyone else, however, from what we’ve seen before, we know that teams can be very secretive and devious with how much they like us or their rivals to know before the season begins. It’s been said that there is no question that most teams have been running higher fuel loads and instructing drivers to drive slowly to construct their test times. For some, it’s been a disappointing testing period as we have seen that some teams just aren’t up to scratch, Torro Rosso for one.
We’ve seen a horrible set of tests for Red Bull who have been dragged down by the reliability of their cars and technical faults that have stopped them from clocking up significant miles but most fans still remain hopeful that they will bring a package worthy of the top spot in Melbourne. We have seen a similar problem extend over to Lotus who missed the first test and have managed to clock up the least amount of mileage from all of the F1 teams and now they no longer have their star driver, Kimi Raikkonen to rely on. Mercedes on the other hand are sitting on top of the tree and clearly have the fastest car and the most reliable engine. This means that above everything, Ferrari and Mercedes have the guarantee that they will be able to finish the Australian GP, something of which Renault hasn’t got. We will start to see the performance gaps after the first races are underway and we are likely to see mechanical differences where one package may outperform the other due to increased development. For now though, the past is the past and for many teams the first goal will be to get through Melbourne with some reasonable results.