2014 FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX RACE SEASON
Season calendar
The following nineteen Grands Prix are currently scheduled to take place in 2014.[5][63][64]
2014 Formula One season
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The 2014 Formula One season will be the 65th season of the Formula One World Championship, a motor racing championship for Formula One cars which is recognised by the sport's governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), as the highest class of competition for open-wheel racing cars. Eleven teams and twenty-two drivers will compete in nineteen Grands Prix for the World Drivers' and World Constructors' Championships.
In 2014, the championship will see the introduction of a revised engine formula, in which the 2.4 litre V8 engine configuration—previously used between 2006 and 2013—will be replaced with a new formula specifying a 1.6 litre turbocharged V6 engine that incorporates an energy recovery system into its build. The 2014 calendar will feature substantial revisions from the 2013 season. The Russian Grand Prix will be held for the first time at the Sochi International Street Circuit in Sochi, and the Austrian Grand Prix will be revived, with the race to be held at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg. The Indian Grand Prix will be discontinued for one year ahead of a move to an early-season date in 2015, whilst the Korean Grand Prix has been removed from the schedule entirely.
Sebastian Vettel will start the season as the defending Drivers' Champion after securing his fourth consecutive title at the 2013 Indian Grand Prix. His team, Red Bull Racing, will start the season as the defending Constructors' Champions, having also won their fourth consecutive championship in India.
Signed teams and drivers
The following teams and drivers are scheduled to take part in the 2014 season. However, their participation depends on the teams agreeing to continue competing in the sport under the terms of a new Concorde Agreement.[7]
On 10 January 2014, the FIA published a provisional entry list for the 2014 season.[8][9]
(*) Vettel has chosen the driver number 5, but will use his right to the number 1 as the current World Champion driver.
Team changes
- In 2011, former British American Racing team principal Craig Pollock announced the formation of Propulsion Universelle et Recuperation d'Energie (commonly known by its acronym, PURE), and signalled his intentions to enter the sport in 2014 as a customer engine supplier, with the full support of the FIA.[50] However, the engine programme was eventually suspended in July 2012 due to problems regarding funding,[51] and was ultimately unable to secure any clients.[23]
- Cosworth elected not to build an engine to fit the 2014 generation of regulations.[52] This decision prompted Marussia, the only team using Cosworth engines during the 2013 season, to seek out a new engine supplier.[53] They later joined Ferrari's customer programme with Ferrari providing the team with both engine and powertrain for 2014 and beyond.[26]
- Scuderia Toro Rosso secured an agreement with Renault for engines in 2014, ending their seven-year arrangement with Ferrari.[38]
- Williams will part ways with Renault after two seasons, switching to Mercedes power in what the team described as a "long-term deal".[48] The deal came after Renault publicised their intentions to reduce their engine supply to three teams in 2014,[54] before the French manufacturer ultimately settled on supplying four.[23]
Driver changes
- Felipe Massa will leave Ferrari at the end of the 2013 season after eight years racing for the team.[55] He will move to Williams, alongside Valtteri Bottas.[49] Pastor Maldonado, having been replaced at Williams by Massa, will move to Lotus, taking the seat vacated by 2007 World Champion Kimi Räikkönen.[24] Räikkönen will return to Ferrari, the team he raced for from 2007 to 2009.[15] The partnership of Räikkönen and Fernando Alonso will mark the first time since 1954 that Ferrari have contested a season with two World Drivers' Champions in the team.
- Mark Webber will leave Formula One after twelve seasons, the last seven with Red Bull Racing. He will move to the FIA World Endurance Championship, driving for Porsche AG in their brand-new Le Mans Prototype, the Porsche 919 Hybrid.[56] Daniel Ricciardo will leave Scuderia Toro Rosso to fill his seat,[40] becoming the second driver to graduate from the team's young driver programme to their premier racing team.[57] Scuderia Toro Rosso chose 2013 GP3 Series champion Daniil Kvyat as Ricciardo's replacement.[58]
- Sergio Pérez will leave McLaren after a single season with the team.[59] He will be replaced by 2013 Formula Renault 3.5 Series champion and McLaren Young Driver Progamme member Kevin Magnussen.[32] Pérez will move to Force India,[20] where he will be joined by Nico Hülkenberg, who will return to the team after one year with Sauber.[21] As a result of the Hülkenberg and Pérez deals, Paul di Resta and Adrian Sutil lost their seats with the team. Sutil went on to secure a seat with Sauber,[44] while di Resta left Formula One entirely, returning to the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters series.[60]
- Kamui Kobayashi will return to Formula One with Caterham, after spending the 2013 season competing in the World Endurance Championship.[12] He will be partnered with GP2 Series regular Marcus Ericsson, who will become the first Swedish driver in Formula One since Stefan Johansson retired in 1991.[12] The decision left both Giedo van der Garde and Charles Pic without a drive; van der Garde joined Sauber as a reserve driver,[61] while Pic's future remained unresolved at the time of the announcement.[62]