Formula One 2014

[SteveB]

Drivers Championship
Lewis Hamilton has equalled Nigel Mansell’s British record of 31 Grand Prix wins with his ninth victory of the season, and also stretched his winning streak to four races. Only twice before in F1 history has a driver had two separate streaks of four race wins in a row in one season (Michael Schumacher in 2004 and Sebastian Vettel in 2013), and on both previous occasions the driver concerned won the title.

Hamilton, who is now guaranteed to finish the season with the most wins, has a 17-point advantage over Nico Rosberg in the drivers’ standings with a maximum of 100 points left to be won. The drivers championship is a straight fight now between the two Mercedes drivers. Nico Rosberg has never beaten Lewis Hamilton in a wheel-to-wheel battle, and unless Lewis Hamilton has a mechanical failure, I cannot see Nico Rosberg beating him. However, outside of Nico Rosberg having a mechanical failure, the championship looks like going down to a nervy last race of the season.
In theory, mathematically, the only other driver who could win the drivers championship is Daniel Ricciardo.
The only way Daniel Ricciardo could win, is if Lewis Hamilton scores less than eight points in the remaining three races (100 points left) and Daniel Ricciardo wins all three remaining races. Not only can he not realistically overtake Lewis Hamilton, he cannot realistically overtake Nico Rosberg either.
Valtteri Bottas, meanwhile, has moved ahead of Sebastian Vettel to move into fourth behind Daniel Ricciardo. The last Williams driver to finish in the top four in the drivers’ championship was Juan Pablo Montoya in 2003.

Valtteri Bottas is on 145, Fifth is Sebastian Vettel on 143 and Fernando Alonso is sixth on 141. Not much difference here, could be a lot of changes, and all of them could realistically overtake Daniel Ricciardo. However, the way Daniel Ricciardo has driven all season, it is likely he will retain third place.

[SteveB]

Constructor’s Championship

Mercedes now have 565 points from 16 races - just 31 fewer than last year’s constructors’ champions Red Bull achieved over the whole of the 2013 season.

Mercedes powered cars have taken 35 podiums out of a possible 48.

Ferrari have not yet won a race this year. The last time they went a full season without a victory was in 1993.

Sauber’s bad streak continues. They have now gone 16 races without scoring a point. Only Caterham, who joined the grid in 2010, and haven’t scored a single point, have a worse record.

There are three races left.
1. United States Grand Prix, Austin, 31 Oct-2 Nov.
2. Brazilian Grand Prix, Sao Paulo, 7-9 November.
3. Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Yas Marina, 21-23 November. There are double points for the last race at Yas Marina.
For the teams, two races where first and second would net 25 points plus 18 points and one race were first and second would give them 50 points and 36 points. So 172 constructors points left.

Mercedes have won the Constructor’s Championship,, of course, with three races left.

Red Bull are 126 points ahead of Williams. First and second points are likely to be taken by Mercedes so third and fourth constructors points seem more realistic for the other teams. That would be 15 and 12 for two races and 30 and 24 for Yas Marina. This gives 108.

So, realistically, Red Bull are almost guaranteed to hold on to second place.

Ferrari are only 28 points behind Williams.
McLaren are only 45 points behind Ferrari.
Force India are 20 points behind McLaren. There could be a lot of swapping about here.

[SteveB]

The Caterham F1 team, which was previously known as Lotus Racing, has appointed administrators.
They have gone five years without a single point.
Talks are underway to find a buyer for the team.

[SteveB]

Team Caterham will be allowed by Bernie Ecclestone to miss US and Brazil GPs to focus on finding a buyer.
Normally a team would suffer penalties for missing a race.
Bernie Ecclestone and Caterham's administrator plan that the team will be able to compete at the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi in November.

[ocred]

Team Caterham will be allowed by Bernie Ecclestone to miss US and Brazil GPs to focus on finding a buyer.
Normally a team would suffer penalties for missing a race.
Bernie Ecclestone and Caterham's administrator plan that the team will be able to compete at the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi in November.

Can't see them being on the grid next year

[SteveB]

Marussia will not be at the US Grand Prix.
Another Team in difficulties.....

[SteveB]

The air transport for all the F1 teams, both cars and freight, for Brazil, is organised from Texas. The races are only one week apart. They fly from the US to Brazil, and then return to Europe.

That means that Marussia will likely miss Brazil as well.......

[SteveB]

The Marussia F1 team are now in administration. That makes two Formula One teams in administration(Marussia and Caterham)

[SteveB]

Max Mosley has said high costs could see Formula 1 lose more teams

"The big problem is that the big teams have so much more money.

The likes of Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes spend more than £200m a year on their F1 programmes, whereas outfits such as Marussia and Caterham, who have been at the back of the grid since they entered the sport in 2010, exist on a third of that.

"From a sporting point of view, the sport should split the money equally and then let the teams get as much sponsorship as they can," added Mosley.

"A team like Ferrari will always get more sponsorship than Marussia, but if they all get the same basic money, then they all start on a level-playing field, particularly if you have a cost cap where you limit the amount of money each team is allowed to spend."

This season has seen the introduction of new environmentally-friendly engines, which have more relevance to the road car industry but are double the cost of the previous units.

[rebelscouse]

The big teams have a monopoly on the revenue coming in and as was seen during the week catheram and maurussia just haven't the backers to help them on to the next level or stay out of administration