2014 FIA Formula One World Championship® Race Calendar
01 AUSTRALIA (Melbourne) 14 - 16 Mar
02 MALAYSIA (Kuala Lumpur) 28 - 30 Mar
03 BAHRAIN (Sakhir) 04 - 06 Apr
04 CHINA (Shanghai) 18 - 20 Apr
05 SPAIN (Catalunya) 09 - 11 May
06 MONACO (Monte Carlo) 22 - 25 May
07 CANADA (Montréal) 06 - 08 Jun
08 AUSTRIA (Spielberg) 20 - 22 Jun
09 GREAT BRITAIN (Silverstone) 04 - 06 Jul
10 GERMANY (Hockenheim) 18 - 20 Jul
11 HUNGARY (Budapest) 25 - 27 Jul
12 BELGIUM (Spa-Francorchamps) 22 - 24 Aug
13 ITALY (Monza) 05 - 07 Sep
14 SINGAPORE (Singapore) 19 - 21 Sep
15 JAPAN (Suzuka) 03 - 05 Oct
16 RUSSIA (Sochi) 10 - 12 Oct
17 USA (Austin) 31 Oct - 02 Nov
18 BRAZIL (Sćo Paulo) 07 - 09 Nov
19 ABU DHABI (Yas Marina) 21 - 23 Nov
Driver Changes
OUT
Mark Webber (Red Bull)
Paul Di Resta (Force India)
Charles Pic (Caterham)
Giedo van der Garde (Caterham)
IN
Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso)
Kevin Magnussen (McLaren)
Marcus Ericsson (Caterham)
Kamui Kobayashi (Caterham)
MOVED
Felipe Massa (from Ferrari to Williams)
Pastor Maldonado (from Williams to Lotus)
Kimi Räikkönen (from Lotus to Ferrari)
Daniel Ricciardo (from Toro Rosso to Red Bull Racing)
Sergio Perez (from McLaren to Force India)
Nico Hulkenberg (from Sauber to Force India)
Adrian Sutil (from Force India to Sauber)
Technical Regulation Changes
- Turbo charged engines are back for the first time since 1988. The new engines will be a 1.6 litre V6 format with an 8-speed semi automatic gearbox. They have a 15,000rpm limit and must last for 4000km (2500 miles).
- KERS, introduced in 2009, has been renamed to ERS-K. It will recover heat from the exhaust and store it as electrical energy to be released through the ERS-K unit. It will give drivers an additional 161 bhp (120 kW) for thirty-three seconds per lap, compared to the KERS units used prior to 2014, which gave drivers 80 bhp (60 kW) for six seconds per lap.
- Teams will be permitted to use electronic braking devices to manage the braking of the rear wheels.
- The 8 gears must be selected before the first race of the season and then those same ratios must be used at every track on the calendar. For this year only teams are allowed to change the ratios once (in case they get their gearing wildly wrong), but after that any changes will incur penalties.
- The 2014 regulations require the use of lower noses than in previous years, in the interests of safety. The tip of the nose will have to be no more than 185mm above the ground, in comparison to the 550mm allowed in 2012. A variety of other regulation changes on bodywork, to reduce downforce, have been implemented including a reduction in front wing width from 1,800mm to 1,650mm. The rear wing lower plane is no longer allowed and the upper planes must be shallower.
- In order to promote fuel efficiency, fuel will be flow restricted to 100 kg/h above 10,500rpm; below 10,500rpm a formula for the maximum flow must be applied based on the rpm in use.
- You must only use a maximum of 100kg of fuel in the race. Any car using more will be excluded.
- The position of the exhaust outlet will change so that it is now angled upwards toward the rear wing instead of downwards to face the rear diffuser so as to make the practice of using exhaust blown diffusers extremely difficult to achieve.
- The minimum weight of the cars will increase from 642 kg (1,420 lb) to 690 kg (1,500 lb).
- The use of false camera mountings will be banned. To avid teams using them for an aerodynamic advantage , the new regulations only allow camera mountings to be used for cameras.
Sporting Regulation Changes
- Drivers are allowed to "perform an act of celebration" after crossing the finish line.
- Mid-season testing will return in 2014. Two day tests will occur on the Tuesday and Wednesday after the races at Bahrain, Barcelona, Silverstone and Abu Dhabi. Cars will also be classified as "current", "previous" and "historic", with the FIA introducing limits on which cars may be used and the conditions under which they are tested. The end-of-season Young Driver Tests, which were held to give teams the opportunity to assess rookie drivers, will be discontinued.
- The penalty system will be overhauled in 2014 so as to improve driving standards, with the introduction of a "penalty points" system for driving offences. Under the system, driving offences will carry a pre-determined points value based on their severity. These points will be tallied up over the course of a season, with a driver receiving a race ban after accumulating twelve penalty points. Any driver who received a race ban would also receive an additional five penalty points upon their return, as a form of probation to discourage further driving offences. Penalty points will remain on a driver's licence for twelve months, at which point they will be removed.
- Stewards will have the power to hand out five-second penalties in addition to the existing range of penalties within their power. The five-second penalties were introduced for situations where a penalty was justified, but the existing penalties, such as a drive-through or a stop/go penalty, were considered too severe, or where such a penalty would radically alter the outcome of a race if applied retroactively, with penalised drivers facing the loss of championship points for otherwise minor violations of the rules. The penalty can be served during a pit stop, where the team are not allowed to touch the car for the first 5 seconds, or it can be added to the race time.
- Drivers involved in an unsafe pit release will be given a grid penalty for the next race. This also applies to practice and qualifying.
- Drivers will only be able to use five engines over the course of a season in 2014, down from eight in 2013. Drivers who use a sixth engine will start the race from pit lane, as opposed to the ten-place grid penalty handed down for going over the engine quota in previous season. The engine unit will be further divided up into individual elements, including the turbocharger, ERS unit or KERS battery, with drivers allocated five of each component. Should a driver go over this quota for any individual element, they will incur a ten-place grid penalty. They will receive a further five-place penalty for going over the five-unit allocation of any other element after the original ten-place penalty is applied in a bid to stop teams changing multiple elements of the engine unit after receiving a grid penalty.
- In the event that such a penalty relegates a driver past the back row of the grid, the remaining penalty will carry over to the next race. For example, if a driver qualifies in 19th position and receives a five-place grid penalty, they will drop to 22nd and last place for that race, and then receive an additional two-place penalty in the next Grand Prix. These penalties can only be carried over to the next race, rather than accumulate.
- Drivers gaining a place from leaving the track will now only have to give it back if there is a ‘lasting advantage’ to the manoeuvre.
- The pit lane speed limit will be reduced from 100 km/h (62 mph) to 80 km/h (50 mph).
- The first Free Practice session of the race weekend will be extended by thirty minutes to be two hours in length, with the teams encouraged to field rookie drivers during this time as an alternative to the Young Driver Tests. Teams will also receive an additional set of tyres for the first practice session at each Grand Prix. The extra set of tyres will only be available for the first thirty minutes of the session, to encourage more running during free practice.
- Drivers will be assigned permanent numbers for the duration of their careers, with the championship adopting a system similar to the one used in MotoGP. The number 1 will be put in reserve as the champion's right, with drivers free to choose any number from 2 to 99; the champion's "regular" number will be put into reserve while they are using the number 1, so as to prevent another driver from taking it. The regulations further stipulate that a driver's number must be clear visible, both on their car and on their helmet.
- Drivers who do not take part in a qualifying period will be assigned grid positions based on the qualifying bracket they were in at the time and their Free Practice 3 lap times. For example, if two drivers qualify for but do not take part in Q3, they will start the race from ninth and tenth places, with the positions they take decided by their FP3 times.
- The FIA will introduce the "Pole Trophy", a non-championship award presented to the driver who qualifies on pole for the most races.
- The final race of the season will offer double points to drivers in a bid to keep the championship fight alive for longer.
Changes summarised by Ted Kravitz
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