{"id":458,"date":"2013-11-25T15:54:32","date_gmt":"2013-11-25T20:54:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/?p=458"},"modified":"2013-11-25T15:54:32","modified_gmt":"2013-11-25T20:54:32","slug":"4-predictions-for-the-2014-f1-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/4-predictions-for-the-2014-f1-season\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Predictions For The 2014 F1 Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

With last Sunday\u2019s race, Formula One wraps up its 2013 season with a fourth consecutive title for Red Bull Racing and Sebastian Vettel.\u00a0 The year was an interesting mix of unpredictability and inevitability, as the winning team and driver marched their way to victory through a mire of tire-related mayhem.\u00a0 With massive changes to regulations and team lineups on the horizon, I though I\u2019d make four predictions for 2014, one for each consecutive Red Bull championship.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1: Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen will run each other off the track at least once.<\/h3>\n

Putting to top-level drivers in the same F1 team has usually taken each of them off the other\u2019s Christmas card list by the end of the season.\u00a0 Prost and Senna at McLaren.\u00a0 Hamilton and Alonso, also at McLaren.\u00a0 Webber and Vettel at Red Bull.\u00a0 The point is, world champions do not work and play well with others, at least when \u201cothers\u201d means \u201cequally fast drivers.\u201d\u00a0 Alonso is already clearly unhappy with Ferrari\u2019s inability to provide him with a decent car, so bringing in Raikkonen can\u2019t have improved is mood.\u00a0 Raikkonen has little tolerance for intra-team politics, yet is headed into a team famous for exactly that.\u00a0 At some point in 2014, someone\u2019s engineer will ask him to let the other guy through, and the response will go viral faster than any of Raikkonen\u2019s radio transmissions from the 2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

\"RAIandALO\"<\/a><\/p>\n

“Yeah, yeah yeah, I’m blocking Fernando all the time. You don’t have to remind me every second.”<\/em><\/p>\n

2: Felipe Massa will excel at Williams and no one will notice.<\/h3>\n

While his racing form has been inconsistent over the last few years, Massa\u2019s performance is actually somewhat predictable.\u00a0 Put him under pressure and he makes mistakes, take it away and he starts driving well again.\u00a0 Stepping into a midfield team without any championship ambitions will take an enormous amount of weight off his shoulders, and we all know that less weight means more speed in a race car.\u00a0 The Williams team will prove to be a good environment for Massa, but his inevitable displays of talent will go unnoticed by the press at large as he spends the season running with the midfield.\u00a0 Small teams mean less pressure, but they also mean less attention.\u00a0 Look for Massa to do well, and listen for the commentators to say nothing about it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

3. Either Caterham or Marussia will score their first championship point.<\/h3>\n

New engines and new rules mean one thing for next season: unreliable cars.\u00a0 As the teams struggle to understand their new equipment, look for an increased number of engines and other parts going, as Steve Matchett<\/a> would say, \u201ckablammo.\u201d\u00a0 With the leaders and midfield teams pulling off track in a cloud of smoke more often, the perennial backmarkers of F1 will have their best chance ever to pick up that elusive first point.\u00a0 My money\u2019s on Marussia\u2019s Max Chilton, who was 19 for 19 in finishing races this season.<\/p>\n

\"webberfire\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I prefer “kablooie” myself, but who am I to contradict the experts?<\/em><\/p>\n

4: Nico Hulkenberg will leave the sport to drive in IndyCar.<\/h3>\n

The tall and talented gentleman from Germany has had a tough time in F1, and has never really had a car in which to display his true skill.\u00a0 With virtually every team in dire financial straits, he\u2019s had difficulty finding a good race seat without the absurd amounts of sponsorship money that certain unnamed drivers can bring to the table.\u00a0 Things will only get worse next year, as many analysts are predicting that a poorly calculated minimum car weight will make life incredibly difficult for taller (and therefore heavier) drivers.\u00a0 Enter IndyCar, where a resurgence of popularity has made sponsors easier to find and the stock Dallara chassis seems to fit drivers of a wide variety of heights.\u00a0 A driver of Hulkenberg\u2019s talent can only be given the short end of the stick so many times before he decides to try his luck elsewhere, and F1 seems to be making it very easy for IndyCar to lure him away at the end of 2014.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pit Box One is written by Paul Jensen. You can follow his thoughts on video games and motor racing on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>.<\/address>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With last Sunday\u2019s race, Formula One wraps up its 2013 season with a fourth consecutive title for Red Bull Racing and Sebastian Vettel.\u00a0 The year was an interesting mix of unpredictability and inevitability, as the winning team and driver marched their way to victory through a mire of tire-related mayhem.\u00a0 With massive changes to regulations [Read more…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":463,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458\/revisions\/463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}