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A look at how the 2014 F1 season is shaping up

2014 Renault Sport F1 V6 engine

As you are probably aware the 2014 Formula 1 season is shaping up as one of the most open we’ve seen in recent years. The reason for this is the new regulations which will take the sport forward in the quest for more energy efficient engines.

With all teams starting from scratch it is likely to be the team who best adapts to the new regs and has the most reliable “power unit” who is able to break away from the others. And with only five engines (it’s just easier to call them that) per driver per year reliability is going to be a huge concern.

The engines will be 1.6 litre turbocharged V6 in configuration with a 15000rpm limit. Power will be down from around 750hp to 600hp. To compensate for that loss, the Energy Recovery System will be enhanced to provide double the power it has in the past, now up to 160hp. Also, instead of having the ability to use ERS for around six seconds per lap, drivers will have access to ERS for around 33 seconds each lap.

Cosworth will no longer supply engines to Marussia in 2014, which leaves Ferrari, Mercedes and Renault as the three manufacturers to support Formula 1 this year.

Last year a car could carry a total of 160kg of fuel at the start of a race, in 2014 that limit will be just 100kg. Further, in anticipation of heavier ERS components, the overall minimum weight of the car (including driver, but not fuel) increases from 624kg to 690kg.

Bodywork changes will alter the look of the cars. To start with the height of the front nose has changed dramatically, with a limit of 185mm, down from the 550mm we saw in 2013. There will be no more exhaust blowing at all, only a single exit exhaust at the rear of the car will be permitted. The front wing will be narrower and the rear wing will be shallower, as well.

In addition to the FIA’s new technical regulations, some rather radical changes have been introduced for the sporting regulations as well. Most notably these include: double points for the final race in Abu Dhabi, a pole position trophy and permanent numbers for the drivers.

The season begins in earnest in mid-March at the Australian Grand Prix, but pre-season testing kicks off in late January. Lotus has already announced it will be missing the first test as the rush to prepare these new cars hits home.

Almost all teams have locked away their drivers for 2014; Marussia and Caterham still have vacancies. After the break you can see the most recent list of teams and drivers, the full 2014 calendar, as well as a brief video from Sky Sports F1.

UPDATE 24 January: New video added explaining how the 2014 power units will work.

2014 F1 teams and drivers

TeamPower unitDriverDriver
Infiniti Red Bull RacingRenault Energy F1 2014Sebastian VettelDaniel Ricciardo
Mercedes AMG PetronasMercedesNico RosbergLewis Hamilton
Scuderia FerrariFerrari 059/3Fernando AlonsoKimi Raikkonen
Lotus F1 TeamRenault Energy F1 2014Romain GrosjeanPastor Maldonado
McLaren MercedesMercedesJenson ButtonKevin Magnussen
Sahara Force IndiaMercedesNico HulkenbergSergio Perez
Sauber F1 TeamFerrari 059/3Esteban GutiérrezAdrian Sutil
Scuderia Toro RossoRenault Energy F1 2014Jean-Eric VergneDaniil Kvyat
Williams F1 TeamMercedesValtteri BottasFelipe Massa
Marussia F1 TeamFerrari 059/3Jules BianchiMax Chilton
Caterham F1 TeamRenault Energy F1 2014Kamui KobayashiMarcus Ericsson

2014 F1 pre-season testing calendar

LocationDates
Circuito de Jerez28–31 January
Bahrain International Circuit19–22 February
Bahrain International Circuit28 February–2 March

2014 F1 calendar

RoundDateGrand Prix
116 MarchAUSTRALIA (Melbourne)
230 MarchMALAYSIA (Sepang)
36 AprilBAHRAIN (Sakhir)
420 AprilCHINA (Shanghai)
511 MaySPAIN (Barcelona)
625 MayMONACO (Monaco)
78 JuneCANADA (Montreal)
822 JuneAUSTRIA (Red Bull Ring)
96 JulyBRITAIN (Silverstone)
1020 JulyGERMANY (Hockenheim)
1127 JulyHUNGARY (Budapest)
1224 AugustBELGIUM (Spa)
137 SeptemberITALY (Monza)
1421 SeptemberSINGAPORE (Marina Bay)
155 OctoberRUSSIA (Sochi)
1612 OctoberJAPAN (Suzuka)
172 NovemberUSA (Austin)
189 NovemberBRAZIL (Interlagos)
1923 NovemberABU DHABI (Yas Marina)

8 replies on “A look at how the 2014 F1 season is shaping up”

No blown exhausts. Yay! Hundreds of millions spent on this but something only the hard core boffins would give a crap about. It’s something you can’t even easily see on the cars, so very hard to appreciate. Will help to (hopefully) reign in the gap between the few big spending teams and the other teams.

Why would anyone want F1 cars, the pinnacle of motorsport to be anything like road cars. In Australia we have so many rules that make driving a chore rather than a pleasure much of the time. Do we really want F1 to become ad benign as driving down to the supermarket to get that bottle of milk you’re missing in the fridge?

The middle east is way over represented in the F1 calendar. If Bernie wasn’t such a greedy money hungry twit he should of axed BAHRAIN off the calendar and reintroduced a GP back to into France. ABU DHABI displacing Brazil and earning double points for that race goes to show if you pay enough like the Arabs do you can have anything you damn want no matter how ridiculous it may seem. If the teams weren’t also bribed secretly they would never have accepted such BS either as a double points last race.

Thanks!

I’m looking forward to testing to see how they all cope with the new regs. 5 engines per year is going to be very tough.

Max Chilton, Kamui Kobayashi and Marcus Ericsson have been added to the table of drivers and that completes the roster for 2014.

Good luck to all!

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