F1 2014 season kicks off.

[john B]

Just seen Daniel Ricardo has been disqualified from sundays race due to fuel flow irregularities. ...Red Bull are going to appeal. .....
Interesting times ahead this year I think

[jap.slapper]

Well Bahrain was a fookin' good 'en!!

That's what's been missing for a long long time....

[pablo]

I'll be watching the highlights later so looking forward to it now.

[maff]

Awesome race... DeMoanyZemalo must be pissed the racing was brilliant nothing to compalin about but his crap car

[pablo]

There was more actual racing in that one race than the whole of last season

[jap.slapper]

There was more actual racing in that one race than the whole of last season

Exactly that and the fact that the racing action wasn't just limited to the two Mercs' at the front but actually saw team mate scrapping with team mate throughout the field made it a real pleasure to watch

Unlike 2013 where Vettel used to just fook' off into the distance after turn 1 of lap 1 this actually proved to be a pucker racing classic from start to finish and was an insight (hopefully) into what we can expect for the rest of the 2014 season.....bring on China!!!

[jap.slapper]

I see Vettel's Red Bull has just conked out in Practice 1, he's struggling this season and I don't know why but I'm starting to feel for him.

4 times World Champion and I dare say would have been a certain 5 times World Champion had it not been for this seasons major changes. Don't get me wrong I'm still in no way a Vettel fan but he's starting to look like an also ran even at this early stage of the season.

Is it demonstrating that throughout the last few seasons his perceived skill level has in fact been embellished by his driving a vastly superior car or is it that this season he just doesn't have the car full stop?

[jap.slapper]

I didn't realise this:

Marussia sporting director Graeme Lowdon feels fans have every right to question a sport that has ended up manufacturing cars slower than the level below.

Max Chilton will start 18th in Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix ahead of team-mate Jules Bianchi, with Caterham duo Marcus Ericsson and Kamui Kobayashi 20th and 21st following qualifying at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya.

Given the lap times of all four drivers, however, the quartet would have finished outside the top three in qualifying for the GP2 Series that serves as one of F1's undercard events.


Something is clearly not right if that ^^^^ is the case, but as I see it that's more a case of the lower echelons of F1 not meeting the minimum level expected at the top flight rather than a sweeping generalisation of F1 team/car/driver performance overall

[russ979]

I didn't realise this:

Marussia sporting director Graeme Lowdon feels fans have every right to question a sport that has ended up manufacturing cars slower than the level below.

Max Chilton will start 18th in Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix ahead of team-mate Jules Bianchi, with Caterham duo Marcus Ericsson and Kamui Kobayashi 20th and 21st following qualifying at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya.

Given the lap times of all four drivers, however, the quartet would have finished outside the top three in qualifying for the GP2 Series that serves as one of F1's undercard events.


Something is clearly not right if that ^^^^ is the case, but as I see it that's more a case of the lower echelons of F1 not meeting the minimum level expected at the top flight rather than a sweeping generalisation of F1 team/car/driver performance overall

I didn`t know that either.
I am getting a little worried now as i bet Harry that Marussia would actually pick up some points this season. I know its only race 5 and max has had 2 13th place finishes but i was hoping with all the changes this year the divide between top and bottom runners wouldn`t be so great. It would have made up for the lack of noise and ugly looks, I guess i was expecting far too much from the F1 circus!

[maff]

And the GP2 cars sound better too.... But its early days, things will sort themselves out. So glad Merc are letting their 2 race, makes me think we really could have enjoyed the Shumi at Ferrari years if management there had some balls.