New Formula 1 Season

Formula 1 in 2014

Yesterday, the Formula 1 season kicked off in the usual place, Melbourne Australia. Before the race began we were promised miles of overtaking and an unusual looking podium line up and the race did not fail to deliver.

It has been all change in Formula 1 and many have branded the changes as being the new Formula 1. Drivers and teams remain familiar whilst a number of changes within teams seemed to have freshened up the pack. Ferrari have replaced driver Felipe Massa with Kimi Raikonnen. Kimi who returns to the Ferrari team with something to prove after being replaced with now team mate, Fernando Alonso back in 2009.

Felipe Massa made the switch from Ferrari to BMW Williams. The Williams team look stronger this year than they have done in the past decade. McLaren have promoted rookie driver Kevin Magnussen to the drivers seat with the hope of a repeat performance in terms of replicating the success of Lewis Hamilton.

Lewis Hamilton is of course at Mercedes with team mate Nico Rosberg and showed in pre-season testing that they are the ones to watch. Mark Webber retired from the Red Bull team at the end of last season and was replaced by fellow Australian Daniel Ricciardo.

Along with the driver transfers, new tracks and new rules and regulations promised the fans more from this season than any other season gone before it.

In qualifying on Saturday, it came as no surprise that the Mercedes team dominated proceedings as Lewis Hamilton took pole position. However, the race was a different story for Lewis Hamilton and a bittersweet result for Mercedes.

Nico Rosberg stormed to victory with Lewis Hamilton being forced to retire after just three laps. A similar story to that of 4 time world champion, Sebastian Vettel. Vettel radioed the team reporting a loss of drive and power and was forced to retire after just 5 laps. Lotus Renault continued the poor run of form after qualifying at the back of the grid.