Assessing Likelihood of an F1 Midfield Team Breaking Through in 2014

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: February 4, 2014

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The recent first pre-season test of the 2014 season at Jerez in Spain went a long way to proving that the radical new engine and aero regulations could shake up the grid as never before.



With previous seasons, teams knew more or less what was going to happen with the engine regulations staying the same and only minor tweaks to aerodynamic regulations and tyre compounds.

It was therefore easier to predict the status quo, with teams preparing evolutions of their previous incarnations. Only McLaren chose to tear up the rule book with a complete redesign of their car last season with disastrous consequences.

But the switch from 2.4-litre V8 engines to 1.6-litre V6 turbo power plants now represents a step into the unknown for every team on the grid and should lead to a more even playing field.

Before the Jerez test, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner predicted in an interview with Bloomberg TV (via Autosport) that as many as half of the field could retire in the season opener.

I think you could see a very high retirement rate, maybe even 50 percent in the first race. Petrol is a challenge this year because we are limited to 100 kg of fuel to start the grand prix with, but more reliability issues in the early races will be a key factor. And of course we only have five engines for the whole year.



His words may well come back to haunt him, with Red Bull struggling drastically with cooling issues and battery problems related to the new ERS system and managing a paltry 21 laps over four days of testing.

Such a scenario of high rates of retirement over the opening races could play into the hands of the midfield teams, who may opt to place a bigger onus on reliability than out-and-out race pace.

Of the so called “midfield teams” that impressed in the opening test, Williams racked up 175 laps, Sauber 163 and Force India...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Formula 1

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