We are behind the pace car…about to go green….

I hope you have all had a great festive period and start to the new year. It is time I get writing again and no better time to do it but on the eve of the new racing seasons. 2014 is shaping up to provide a great year of racing in F1, Nascar and Indycar and I will be previewing all three, as well as making some very hard and bold predictions for the year ahead.

F1 – 2014 Season starts March 16th – The Australian GP in Melbourne

Let’s start with F1 which has seen a raft of major changes through the off season, with new engines, car designs and a number of major changes in the driver market. The last time we saw such dramatic changes in the rules within F1 was back in 2009 which saw two small-ish midfield teams shoot up the order and become a class of their own and be major title contenders – Red Bull and Brawn (now Mercedes). This was due to some out of the box thinking in relation to car designs and created some exciting competition. Could the same thing happen this year following such a drastic change in the rules and allow some of the midfield a chance to compete for wins or even the title? Absolutely! Although I firmly believe that the top teams will remain fast this season, it has all the ingredients to see one or two of the midfield pack to challenge for wins and possibly title contenders by the end of the season. Personally I think the teams to watch will be Williams, Force India and also Toro Roso as I feel they all have strong experienced drivers for the most part and have the ability to spring a surprise or two. Who knows we may even see them end Vettel’s total dominance of the last few years.

It would be fantastic to see a number of fresh names reach the top step of the podium such as Romain Grosjean, Nico Hulkenberg, Sergio Perez and Daniel Ricciardo. For me if their teams can produce a half decent cars then their is no reason that these guys cannot challenge for regular podiums, and these types of rule changes are a leveler for all drivers and teams. They certainly have the right skillsets to take full advantage.

What F1 needs more than anything else this year is excitement. Too often in the last decade or two we have seen one man or car utterly dominate either a race or even whole seasons. If this were to happen again considering all the off season changes we have seen then I fear for the overall future of F1.

Drivers Champion – I have a very strong feeling that Alonso may come good this year

Rookie of the Year – Kevin Magnussen should be fun to watch but keep an eye on Daniel Ricciardo in what could be a fast Red Bull

Team of the Year – With the driver lineup they have put together I am looking forward to watching Force India this year

Nascar Sprint Cup Series – 2014 Season starts February 15th – Sprint Unlimited at Daytona, 8 days before the Daytona 500

Next up is Nascar, who haven’t implemented any major changes, however it does appear as if the chase is about to undergo a renovation as well as a raft of minor tweeks to the rules. What we will see however is a large rookie group in the field this year. Nascar, as always, should provide close races and an even closer Championship with a number of drivers seemingly needing to prove themselves for a variety of reasons.

Jeff Gordon has to show the world he still has what it takes to be a contender after a few tough years. Danica Patrick has to show she is improving and growing from her stock car experiences. Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch have to show they are good enough following their high profile moves to the Stewart-Haas organisation. Brad Keselowski needs to show us why he was the 2012 Sprint Cup champion. Dale jr has to start winning for the sake of the Earnhardt legacy. And the masses of rookies need to show us all they are deserving to be in the main event.

Speaking of the rookies, as mentioned previously this year sees a large number of young drivers being drafted into the Sprint Cup Series. These include Austin Dillon who has an incredible amount of pressure as he is replacing Harvick as well as the added pressure of bringing the famous ‘3’ car back. There is also young phenomenon Kyle Larson who is stepping in to replace the veteran Juan Pablo Montoya. Plus this year sees 6 other rookies coming in as full timers. This will mean we will see 8 exciting young drivers all fighting hard for Rookie of the Year honours, the most since the early 90’s. As a result it means the battle for the best rookie could very well be just as close and exciting as the battle for the championship. Whoever does walk away with this honour will certainly have earned it and as a result may even secure a Chase spot or even a title challenge by the end of the year.

Drivers Champion – Jimmie Johnson, Brad Keselowski and at least one other will be the main contenders

Rookie of the Year – Austin Dillon, who I think may have a great chance of finishing in the Top 6

Team of the Year – With such a volatile lineup it is hard to look past Stewart-Haas.

Indycar Series – 2014 Season starts March 30th – The Grand Prix of St Petersburg

Last but not least we have the Indycar Series. Now the series will remain mostly unchanged since last year apart from some interesting driver changes and a condensed schedule. As a result I strongly anticipate the powerhouse trio of Ganassi, Penske and Andretti, mostly because out of what looks set to be a 24 car field these three teams will have 11 drivers in total combined. As of this writing there are a number of seats still to be confirmed. Looking at the potential full lineup for next year it is incredibly tough to look beyond these 11 drivers in regards to a serious title challenge. The talent pool from these three teams is frankly frightening with each of them having their own different profiles which will remain unique to Indycar alone.

Penske have put together a lineup similar to that of Stewart-Haas given the nature of all three drivers. Will Power and Helio Castroneves are both desperately seeking that elusive first title and alongside them this year we will see Montoya step back into open wheel racing again. Each driver brings a wealth of experience with him but also a personality unlike any other in the Indycar field. You look at this team and can only consider them real contenders once again.

Ganassi have seen an off-season of change due mostly to the loss of Indycar legend Dario Franchitti to retirement as a result of the serious injuries sustained at the Houston GP. This has not slowed them down since they have put together a formidable four driver team. Scott Dixon comes in as defending champion and I’m sure the momentum is likely to carry over. Tony Kanaan who is fresh off a great Indy 500 win last year after so many attempts. He is going to want to build on that success and have a strong year this time around. Ryan Briscoe brings a wealth of experience and talent to the team. The fourth driver is the young gun Charlie Kimball who had a breakout year last year and has a real chance to continue that development and become a major player.

Andretti on the other hand have put together a very interesting four car lineup. Former champion Ryan Hunter-Reay will be looking to put 2013 behind him as he struggled to defend his title. Meanwhile Marco Andretti and James Hinchcliffe showed us all last year they have great pace and just need to put together a string of results and get some lucky breaks if they are to totally reach the potential they without a doubt have. The most interesting move is that of bringing in rookie Carlos Munoz to a full time drive. He drove on a number of occasions last year and didn’t fail to impress. On debut. At the Indy 500 he drove a unique line and passed aggressively. He pushed eventual winner Kanaan all the way to the end. Then the final race at homestead he pushed the limits of the car on a tough track and was a serious contender to win until he had a hard crash. Many see him as one to watch in the future but I have a feeling he may be tough to beat this season.

Outside of these powerhouse teams there are a number of drivers whom may give the big teams some serious headaches over the course of a season. The two standout drivers from 2013 Justin Wilson and Simon Pagenaud should hopefully carry there momentum from last year into this and with consistency will be genuine contenders each weekend. Two more I am looking forward to seeing are Graham Rahal who had a very poor year last time around and needs to bounce back. Another is Josef Newgarden who had a strong year and is continuing to grow and develop into a quality driver.

Drivers Champion – I see this being a year of shocks and see Montoya, Kimball and Hinchcliffe being in the hunt

Rookie of the Year – Munoz will be a contender on the ovals for sure

Team of the Year – Andretti just looking at the team they have assembled.

I will leave it here for now. Cannot wait to kick the season off and attempt to fill the gap with as much racing as possible on youtube. Need my regular racing fix.

Please leave feedback and comments. If you have any racing subject you want to to talk about in the future I am open to ideas. Thanks for reading.

Globalization of Motorsport

Hot off the heels of a dramatic and thrilling end to a dramatic and thrilling Indycar season alongside a close battle over in NASCAR’s premier series I ask the questions of why these two powerhouses in the motorsport world cannot match the dominance on a global scale that Formula One currently has. Indycar this year has seen a titanic battle between Scott Dixon and Helio Castroneves going all the way to the final quarter of the final race. A finale which was full of drama and a heart pulsating final 40 odd laps which saw the title and the race picture swing one way, then another. Over on the other side of the fence see’s two NASCAR legends battling it out for the Sprint Cup title. Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth are two of the fastest drivers in the world right now with the tools they have and undoubtedly the title will be going all the way down to the wire.

Now across the street (so to speak) we have F1 which is seeing Sebastian Vettel dominating for what looks certain to be a fourth straight drivers championship alongside Red Bull winning the constructors title in a year where Vettel has been commanding. This has made F1 look dull and predictable as it was under the Michael Schumacher days.

However F1 commands such a force all around the world despite all of this and I have to ask why. Now for me there are two key reasons, Where they race, and also the video game market.

These last few weeks have seen all three series release their 2014 race schedules and there were no major surprises, although the two American based series provided a few disappointments. Indycar has now become a North American only series with all races, bar one, taking place is the United States after Brazil has been dropped. NASCAR however kept the schedule as it was with a full season all based in the United States.

Indycar likes to use the term World Championships for the season finale however not sure if there is any point in using that term if they are unable to actually break into some of the other markets. The driver lineup in Indycar is full of international talent and has a growing fan base here in the UK as well as Europe however Indycar stays away. Now they raced over in Japan a number of times and held a exhibition race at Surfers Paradise I Australia but again for some some reason (most likely financially) they retreated back into their own territory disappointing Indycar fans worldwide.

NASCAR provides the most disappointing in terms of the race schedule. After holding a number of events up in Canada in the Nationwide series in Montreal I personally felt it was time for a race over the boarder and give Canadian fans something to cheer. However that never materialized and frankly don’t think it ever will at this moment in time.

F1 in comparison continues to grow its name with races next year taking part in Russia and another race in America. F1 now holds races on almost every continent and covers such a huge portion of the world that its fanbase can only continue to grow and develop.

Now I have been fairly vocal about my displeasure of the video game market for both Indycar and NASCAR. F1 continues to have a globally recognized game released year on year which helps showcase just what being a driver can be like n some of the best racetracks in the world. In comparison Indycar is stuck with being nothing more than just an add-on on a street-racing/arcade style game and as for NASCAR well I have my own issues with the treatment of British racing fans of this series and the lack of a console game. Until both of these giants actually start treating their international fans with the same amount of respect as our American counterparts they will lose a ton of potential fans. Indycar is a big enough series now to surely command a standalone video game, especially with the 100^th edition of the Indy 500 not too far away and such a competitive and diverse driver lineup. NASCAR equally can hold its own in the video game market and even if the game developers are too worried that it may flop in the shops surely a digital release on XBOX Live etc would prove there is still a market here, just needs to be handled with more respect and who knows how well it could do.

Until both the American series actually start taking strides away from their own boarders sadly they will always be second behind the F1 circus, even if the racing is closer and more thrilling than what F1 is currently offering us. I will leave it here for now but there are a number of other points I could raise such as TV coverage and promotions such as what NFL and the NBA are doing to expand their current fanbase.

Until next time, adios.

Testing Times in F1 – My views on Tyre-Gate

The last few weeks in the world of F1 have been pretty messy. I am a huge F1 fan (as I will discuss in a future blog) and I have nothing against Mercedes F1 team, in fact I am a fan of both Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton. That being said I think the FIA have made a total mess of the whole tyregate issue.

Just to provide a little background to the situation, Mercedes performed what they are calling a 1000km ‘tyre test’ at the request of Pirelli. However they used the current spec car and failed to follow correct procedures by getting official permission from the FIA. This resulted a number of rival teams to lodge a protest. Mercedes didn’t help their cause by being incredibly fast, winning a number of pole positions and the Monaco Grand Prix. But was there pace helped by this test? To be honest there is no way to ever know for sure but the timing of this sudden burst of pace does strike me as odd but then again Mercedes have been threatening great pace for a long time so maybe it is just a coincidence. However it isn’t the test which has frustrated me but more the FIA’s reaction and eventual ‘punishment’.

When the story first broke it was clear something was amiss. Why were Mercedes asked to test when noone else was? Why did they use the current season car? And for me the biggest bit of confusion was the story that the drivers wore plain helmets to avoid the fans pestering them. Why would a major team mind if their driver helped raise the popularity of the team, is it all possible they were concerned that the drivers may get talked about on social media which would spark major question marks over the test session. These are questions I will never know the answer to.

For me, maybe a simple but idiotic solution to this mess would have been pirelli and the FIA to instantly allow any team in F1 the chance to do a similar test at some point in the season. It would have levelled the playing field slightly but also enabled pirelli to work on the tyres to create better compounds for next season to improve racing, which sadly has been poor this season. It is jot like testing hasn’t been on the agenda this season, with the recent ill timed press release that 2014 will see the return of in season testing. Whether or not this was something brought to the table by Mercedes public indiscretion or just a poor sense of timing for the announcement will likely remain a mystery.

Then their is the final ‘punishment’ that the FIA dished out. They had a fantastic chance to settle this issue once and for all by being strict or relaxed with the judgement. However they handed out middle of the road penalties.

For starter lets get the pirelli reprimand out of the way. I do agree in part with this verdict although how an organisation which the Formula One world needs in order to race can be heavily punished after the reprimand is beyond me.

Anyway now lets move onto the Mercedes penalty which was two-fold, a reprimand and being banned for the end of season young driver test. the reprimand was expected however this ban frustrated me. Firstly how does this actually punish a team like Mercedes? Simply put, it won’t. The young drivers test is a good way to asses the qualities of the next generation of potential F1 drivers. The teams can use it to groom their future drivers and give them valuable experience, however for a team like Mercedes it is unlikely the driver in this test will get a race seat at the team in the coming years. If it were a smaller team, such as Marrusia and Catherham then it may prove troublesome. So to me it seems that the only person being punished is the Mercedes reserve driver, talented young Brit, Sam Bird who has been touted for a future race seat in F1. Now why has he been punished? He didn’t take part in the tyre test, as far as we are aware, and yet he will now likely be denied a chance to get his hands on a F1 car in a no pressure situation such as the young drivers test. That being said he may still find himself in the end of season test. A team like Mercedes which wields a major power within the world of F1 they may find Bird another ride within the young drivers test. This would mean another team gives up its opportunity to asses their own young talent, but their may be positives to take from that arrangement such as a cash incentive and/or the chance to be the first team to give Bird the chance to live his dream in F1.

I will wrap things up here as I’m sure I have taken up much of your time already. Thank you for reading and any feedback you can give would be fantastic. What are your thoughts on this saga?