Double points for F1 season finale!


F1 News
Date: 9/December/2014

The F1 World Championship is to award double points for the final race of the season, it has been announced.

The change, one of number of rule amendments announced on Monday by the FIA, is designed to “maximise focus on the Championship until the end of the campaign.”

It means that the winner of the next year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will receive 50 points instead of 25, with all other points positions (down to tenth place) also doubled.

The change applies to both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships and means there is a far higher chance of titles going down to the wire.

Other amendments for 2014 onwards include the use of permanent driver numbers.

“Drivers will be asked to choose their race number, between 2 and 99, for the duration of their career in the FIA Formula One World Championship,” said the FIA statement. “Number 1 will be reserved for the current World Champion, should he choose to use it.”

The “principle of a global cost cap” was also agreed, along with a new five-second penalty for “minor infringements”.

Three events dropped from ‘final’ 2014 F1 calendar


F1 News
Date: 4/December/2013

After listing an ambitious 22 rounds on the initial version of the 2014 F1 calendar, a slimmed-down final version has now been released by the FIA.

It reveals that all three events listed as provisional on the September list - Korea, plus new events at New Jersey (USA) and Mexico - have been dropped.

That means the season will remain at 19 events, Austria and Russia joining while India and Korea depart.

The 2014 season will start in Australia on March 16 and conclude one week earlier than predicted on November 23.

The venue for the season finale has also changed, with Abu Dhabi replacing Brazil.

The ‘confirmed’ 2014 calendar is confirmed as follows:

16 March                     Grand Prix of Australia
30 March                    Grand Prix of Malaysia
06 April                       Grand Prix of Bahrain
20 April                      Grand Prix of China
11 May                       Grand Prix of Spain
25 May                        Grand Prix of Monaco
08 June                        Grand Prix of Canada
22 June                       Grand Prix of Austria
06 July                         Grand Prix of Great Britain
20 July                        Grand Prix of Germany
27 July                        Grand Prix of Hungary
24 August                  Grand Prix of Belgium
07 September              Grand Prix of Italy
21 September              Grand Prix of Singapore
05 October                 Grand Prix of Japan
12 October                  Grand Prix of Russia
02 November              Grand Prix of USA (Austin)
09 November             Grand Prix of Brazil
23 November             Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi

Vettel signs off with record win, Webber bows out in style


F1 News
Date: 25/November/2013

Sebastian Vettel drove to a record ninth victory in succession and 13th of the season in Sunday’s Brazilian F1 finale.

Pole sitter Vettel briefly lost out to Nico Rosberg at the start but held a ten second lead for much of the race.

The German needed that advantage when fears of a safety car following an incident between Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) and Valtteri Bottas (Williams) saw a last minute pit stop call by the Red Bull team.

Rain was also a constant threat, but never materialised into anything substantial and Vettel crossed the line 10.8s head of team-mate Mark Webber, with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso in third.

“We didn’t have any dry running before the race so it was quite exciting when we started: bit of an adventure to find braking points etc,” said four time World Champion Vettel.

“My start was obviously quite bad. I had lots of wheel-slip, lost the position to Nico [Rosberg, Mercedes] but saved some KERS for the end of the lap which worked well.

“I managed to get back in the lead and was basically benefitting from Nico being a little bit slower than the cars behind - Fernando and Mark - so I could open a gap and control that for more or less the rest of the race.

“That was until we came in for the second stop, which was a last minute call. I think we were afraid of a safety car. I came in, hoping everybody was ready. I think I had three wheels on the car but I was waiting for the front right tyre to arrive.

“I saw that obviously Mark was queuing behind me and there was a bit of chaos but it was fine in the end and I still had a bit of a gap.

“That gap was really helpful to get through traffic and with the rain coming and going - you could really see it from the car. You didn’t know how strong the rain was.

“In the end it was fine to stay on dry tyres but a little more rain and it could have been a different story, so lucky to get away with that.”

Vettel has now tied countryman Michael Schumacher’s record for most wins in a single season, but stands alone in scoring nine in a year.

Alberto Ascari is credited with nine successive wins spread over two seasons in the 1950s, although there is some debate about whether the Indianapolis 500 should counted, in which case it was only seven in a row.

Regardless, Vettel feels Ascari’s achievement in an era of longer races and poor reliability will always be special.

“I think in terms of a record with Alberto Ascari you can’t really compare it, it’s at a completely different time,” said Vettel. “If you consider the fact that in the ‘50s the races were much longer and there were a lot of cars were breaking down. So I think his record still stands out a lot.

“At the end of the day it’s just a number, but hopefully one day, when I’ve got less hair and chubby, then it’ll be something nice to look back to.”

Brazil was also the last race of the V8 engine era - V6 turbo engines with enhanced energy recovery systems will debut in 2014 - and the last in Formula One for Webber.

Webber, 37, made some impressive overtakes and set the fastest lap of the race on his way to an eighth podium of the year and 42nd of his career.

The result also allowed the Australian to snatch third in the final World Championship standings from Hamilton, who was handed a drive-through penalty for the Bottas incident.

“It was a very good finish to my career, a good fight with all the guys I’ve enjoyed fighting with for most of my career: Seb, Fernando, Lewis, Nico, all the guys who have been in the window for the last five or six years.

“I’m very proud to have raced with these guys at the end. I mean I raced pretty much all four or five of them at some stage in the race today - apart from Seb, obviously who was a little bit down the road - but it was a good battle for all of us.

“It’s a real pleasure for me to finish on the podium with arguable the two best guys of the current generation. I hold them in very high esteem.

“I’m happy with the finish and I’m also happy to go and do something different now. It was a special day for me, all the people that helped me get here. Australia. And the team, of course. Renault as well - a one-two for them, last time with the V8s.

“Lots of things which are special, so thank you very much.”

Webber, who made his F1 debut in 2002, removed his helmet for the slowdown lap as he waved to marshals and fans.

“In this sport it’s not always easy to show the person that’s behind the wheel so it was nice to drive back with the helmet off,” said Webber, a winner of nine F1 races who is switching to sports car competition with Porsche. “It was a nice moment, a little bit of a different touch to bring the car back for the final time.”

Alonso had already been confirmed as title runner-up in the Drivers’ Championship but Ferrari missed out on second place in the Constructors’ Championship, behind Red Bull, by just six points to Mercedes.

The points lost by Mercedes through Hamilton’s penalty were effectively negated by an identical sanction for Felipe Massa, who was judged to have crossed the pit lane demarcation line with all four wheels.

That decision left the furious home star to finish seventh in his final race for Ferrari.