Monday, November 18, 2013

Formula 1 2013 and 2014

So Sebastian Vettel with Red Bull has wrapped up his 4th F1 championship, joining Alain Prost and surpassing Jack Brabham, Niki Lauda, Nelson Piquet, Sir Jackie Stewart and Aryton Senna who all won 3.
The 26 year old, shall he win a 5th, will tie Juan Manuel Fangio and will be two short of all time champion Michael Schumacher who blitzed to 7 championships over his 20 year career in F1.

Red Bull has quite the team. They have mastermind designer Adrian Newey, who seems to have the Midas touch when it comes to creating a winning car, youngest championship winning team boss Christian Horner and of course the access to the all important funds to make the team go. Red Bull Racing had income of $285.4 million and expenses of $284.4 million in 2011. The revenue came from prize money ($88.8 million), sponsors ($59.7 million), and the remainder from Red Bull. Expenses included $112.8 million in research and development and $82.7 million in salaries for 605 employees.

Vettel's current team mate Australian Mark Webber is retiring at the end of the year to go racing Porsche's. His replacement is fellow Ozzie Daniel Ricciardo who is being promoted from Red Bull's feeder team Torro Rosso.

For 2014 the engines in the pinnacle of motorsport are going from the current 2.4 liter naturally aspirated v8's to a 1.6 liter turbocharged v6 which should shake the field up and make 2014 a very exciting year.

Rumor is the Mercedes has the engine to beat....Time will tell.

Kimi Raikkonen is leaving Lotus and retuning to Ferrari for 2014 to replace Felipe Massa who is going to Williams. It was rumored earlier in the year that Nico Hulkenburg who is a great driver was off to Ferrari, but Kimi who won his championship with Ferrari in 2007 beat him to the seat. Nick Hulkenburg is tipped to be favorite to replace Kimi at Lotus, if the team can get their budget together.

Full run down of the 2014 season and who goes where is here.

We have the final race of 2013 this coming weekend in Brazil....... I wonder if Sebastian can make it nine wins in a row, of if Mark Webber will retire with a win?


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