With the dust near settled in the aftermath of the 2014 season – indeed, McLaren was testing a prototype of Honda’s 2015 engine only last week – now seems an appropriate time to reflect on the year that has so quickly passed us by.
And in acknowledgement of Formula One’s unprecedented push to engage younger demographics, all reflections will take the form of a list, which I shall hereby tentatively entitle ‘The 10 moments that defined the Formula One season and will change your life’. (No, seriously, they will totally change your life.)
Over the next two weeks we’ll consider the year’s 10 most significant events. Some were the result of hard work and determination, others simply befell the sport, and not all of them were positive; but all helped to shape 2014 into a significant year of the sport’s modern era.
10. Susie Wolff tests at Silverstone
Though her session was truncated by an engine problem, Susie Wolff made history as the first woman in 22 years to compete in an official Formula One session when she drove for Williams during free practice one at the British Grand Prix.
Wolff has been Formula One’s most promising female prospect for some time, and her promotion from development driver to test driver earlier this week means she has sufficiently convinced her bosses that she’s good enough to step in for either lead driver should they be unable to race.
Though her results prior to her Formula One work aren’t stellar, she has used her continuing high-profile presence in the sport to encourage more women to take up a career in motorsport.
9. Sebastian Vettel blows open the driver market
An uncharacteristically sedate silly season during the midyear break allowed the driver market to fall into a complacent lull as the sport moved from Europe and back into Asia.
The silence was shattered with a short but explosive press release from Red Bull Racing early on Saturday morning announcing it would be parting ways with the four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel.
It was implicit confirmation (which soon became explicit when RBR team principal Christian Horner admitted as much) that Vettel had been snapped up by Ferrari to fill the gaping hole left by the imminent departure of Fernando Alonso.
Red Bull moved fast to confirm another of its junior drivers, Daniil Kvyat, would replace Vettel as Daniel Ricciardo’s partner, but that’s where the news stopped. Neither Ferrari or Fernando would confirm their split until late November, and McLaren (as of last night, at the time of writing) is yet to confirm the Spaniard’s anticipated signing and the unseating of either Kevin Magnussen or Jenson Button.
8. Stefano Domenicali precipitates management collapse
Like Mercedes, Ferrari builds both its car and engine as one and was ideally placed to capitalise on the 2014 regulation revolution, but it simply blew it.
It’s been six years since it last won a constructors title, and it’s won just one in the last decade, if you discount the championship it inherited in 2007 after McLaren’s exclusion.
Such statistics were always going to spell doom for any man unfortunate enough to preside over such a baron period in the world’s most famous car brand’s history, and the axe fell on Stefano Domenicali after the Bahrain Grand Prix.
His stepping down was but the first of Ferrari’s managerial shifts, with chairman Luca Montezemolo replaced by Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne and Domenicali’s replacement Marco Mattiacci himself replaced by cigarette salesman Maurizio Arrivabene.
Ferrari’s long road to recovery starts here…
7. Nico Rosberg’s qualifying antics in Monaco
The question was when, not if, the rivalry between Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton was going to boil over. Hamilton had won four races in a row up to Monaco, but Rosberg felt he’d been unfairly shut down on track by the Briton’s unsportsmanlike driving and unauthorised use of higher engine settings.
The German, then, had every reason to use any means available to him to turn break the momentum. But did he cheat?
Rosberg held provisional pole at Monaco as he and Hamilton left the pits, in that order, on their final fast laps. Rosberg, though, missed his braking point at Mirabeau and stopped in the run off area, bringing out yellow flags that neutralised Lewis’ lap.
Deliberate or accidental? It divided paddock opinion, but Hamilton was left in doubt: his teammate, once friend, had cheated him out of pole. The gloves were off.
6. Williams lockout Austrian front row
If Ferrari is doing it tough, the once great Williams team has been doing a whole lot worse. Without a title since 1997 and with a decade of uncompetitiveness under its belt, the Williams situation was becoming dire.
But behind the scenes it was making moves to rejuvenate the squad. Patrick Symonds and Rob Smedley were hired. Claire Williams was appointed deputy team principal. It parted ways with Pastor Maldonado and concreted an aggressive driver line up in Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas.
It was Massa and Bottas who confirmed all those pieces had been placed correctly by snatching pole and P2 from under the nose of Nico Rosberg and Mercedes.
Though they were unable to capitalise and came home third and fourth, it was the moment the team came back to life. It went on to score eight more podium places on its way to a supremely confident third place in the constructors title standings.
Next Friday: places five to one. What were your stand out moments from the 2014 season?
Follow Michael, in Formula One’s new key demographic, on Twitter: @MichaelLamoanto.
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