Who have been the top performers in the 2014 F1 season?
Wednesday 3 December 2014 15:57, UK
There can only ever be one ultimate winner at the end of a Formula 1 season – in this case 2014 world champion Lewis Hamilton – but there’s always plenty of driver performances to admire throughout the grid.
So, with 24 men in total having started at least one race this year, here, in final Drivers’ Championship classification, is how they’ve rated...
Championship position – 1st, 384 points; Best result – 1st (x11)
The best man won as a deserved champion.
True, armed with the fastest car and one of the most dominant in the history of F1, Hamilton may have made hard work of it, but then again, that was the reason why his triumph was ultimately so impressive: it was hard work. Hit hard by unreliability, hit harder still by his team-mate in Spa to fall 29 points adrift of the title summit, Lewis’s response, headlined by six victories in the final seven races, was metaphorically and literally just champion. Even Nico had to admit, in the final reckoning, that he had been beaten by the better driver.
Only in qualifying did Hamilton lag behind, suffering defeat to a team-mate on a Saturday for the first time in his F1 career. Yet there was a pertinent mitigation to this loss with Hamilton invariably devoting his efforts in Friday’s practice sessions to honing his race-day set-up. The result, more often than not, was a comprehensive defeat of Rosberg when it counted. The final margin of title victory, 67 points, was perhaps a little harsh on Nico, but, nevertheless, it did not flatter the victor. If his triumph was over adversity and the negativity of unreliability and dubious driving, it was also a positive success story of spellbinding speed and belated maturity. He may have made hard work of it 2014, but he probably wouldn’t have made it all five years ago. PG
2014 rating: 9/10
Championship position – 2nd, 317 points; Best result – 1st (x5)
If the unreliability boot had been on the other foot at Mercedes in Abu Dhabi, it would have been hard to argue that Nico Rosberg was a more deserving World Champion than Lewis Hamilton. The cold, hard facts from the season would have suggested as much: on the 14 occasions both W05s made the finish on race day in 2014, only four times did Rosberg finish as the lead Silver Arrow – and two of those times was when his team-mate had started out of position on the grid. However, on the flip side of that argument, it would also churlish to downplay Nico’s impressive achievements across a season in which he was finally able to definitively prove to doubters that he warrants a place at F1’s top table.
While it brought him no more than a fairly meaningless pole position trophy, Rosberg’s 12-7 defeat of Hamilton in qualifying – despite his own, largely forgotten, Saturday wobbles at the start of the year in addition to his team-mate’s mid-year mechanical problems – was no mean feat and important for his reputation given it’s the Briton who is habitually labelled as the outright fastest man in F1. While gently mocked as ‘Britney’ in his early days by Mark Webber, Rosberg also showed he had the inner steel to go with his flowing blonde locks, notably in his response to Hamilton’s early four-race victory streak, that perfect weekend in Brazil and, yes, even by keeping his nose in to ‘prove a point’ at Spa. The ‘did he or didn’t he’ events of Q3 in Monaco also cast Rosberg in an unexpectedly Machiavellian light in some people’s eyes.
In the end though, it was that superior pace and race craft of Hamilton’s on Sundays which told in the final championship reckoning. The big question heading towards 2015 is whether Rosberg will come again or, rather like Webber’s fall into shadows following Sebastian Vettel’s first title in 2010, his best chance of title glory has already been and gone. JG
2014 rating: 8/10
Championship position – 3rd, 238 points; Best result – 1st (x3)
Without doubt Daniel Ricciardo was the standout performer of 2014 after a remarkable debut season at Red Bull. Don’t be fooled by the smiley exterior, the 25-year-old proved to be a tough competitor on track. He comprehensively outperformed his team-mate and reigning World Champion Sebastian Vettel, winning the qualifying battle 12-7 and the race head-to-head 14-5. Indeed perhaps those performances played a part in Vettel leaving for Ferrari a year before his Red Bull contract expired.
Ricciardo finished the season as the only non-Mercedes driver to win a race and was always seemingly the man on hand to capitalise when Lewis Hamilton or Nico Rosberg hit strife. That ability would help him pick up three victories, including one in Hungary which the Australian feels was a straight fight.
This really was the season that Ricciardo came of age and established himself as a top F1 driver and as a man capable of delivering Australia’s first world title since Alan Jones in 1980. 2015 will represent a different challenge as he becomes de-facto team leader, but there is no reason to think he cannot build on this year and continue to be a front-runner. WE
2014 rating: 9/10
Championship position – 4th, 186 points; Best result – 2nd (x2)
While there’s no doubting Daniel Ricciardo’s status as F1’s breakthrough star in 2014, neither can it be denied that Valtteri Bottas has done anything other than impress greatly. The Finn might not have won races or shown a four-time defending World Champion how to do it, but he still did everything that was asked of him and arguably more besides.
The final standings show Bottas fourth in the standings behind Ricciardo; more important, however, is the fact that he also wound up comfortably ahead of team-mate Felipe Massa. Only those biased beyond reason would compare the Brazilian to Sebastian Vettel but if a team-mate represents the benchmark then Bottas passed with flying colours.
Both were helped, of course, by Williams’ return to form and were it not for his contact with the wall early on in Melbourne, Bottas would have finished on the podium in the very first race. But the summer brought a string of top-three finishes, including second places at Silverstone and Hockenheim, with the British GP arguably Valtteri’s best as he carved his way through from 17th on the grid, seemingly with ease. Moreover, his performances might not have matched Ricciardo’s in terms of their sheer opportunistic chutzpah but one suspects the 25-year-old prefers it that way (and it’s also worth pointing out that Bottas has rather less experience). Mission accomplished. MW
2014 rating: 8/10
Championship position – 5th, 167 points; Best result – 2nd
What was it that Fernando Alonso said of the recently-crowned quadruple World Champion last November? Ahh, yes: “When he will have a car like the others, if he wins, he will have a great recognition and be one of the legends in F1. When one day he has a car like the others and he is fourth, fifth, seventh, these four titles will be bad news for him because people will take these four titles even in a worse manner than they are doing now. So there are interesting times for Sebastian coming."
How resonant those words sound a year later in the wake of Sebastian’s defeat to Daniel Ricciardo, his average finishing position of fifth, and the German’s struggles – bordering on inability – to master the rear-end instability of the RB10. Which isn’t to say that his four titles, in the RB10’s aerodynamically pitch-perfect successors, should be considered hollow triumphs, but there’s no denying that one skill every great sportsman possesses is the ability to adapt. It’s a test which Sebastian ignominiously failed in 2014.
In total, there were just four podium visits, and none at all to the top step where Ricciardo stood on three different occasions. But for the German’s bad luck on a few occasions, it could be termed a thrashing. Still, if you think 2014 has been a bad year for Vettel’s reputation because of Ricciardo’s exploits, spare a thought for what it did for Mark Webber’s and try not to wince. PG
2014 rating: 5/10
Championship position – 6th, 161 points; Best result – 2nd
So, the partnership that was meant to dominate F1 has crumbled, two years early and without a single World Championship title to its name. That Alonso leaves Ferrari with the same status as when he arrived – a ‘mere’ two-time world champion – certainly reflects a case of Ferrari having failed Fernando, rather than Fernando failing Ferrari. Such a reality was never more the case than in 2014, with the team’s hope that a move away from an aerodynamic-dominant formula would present the springboard from which to return to winning ways proving to be as flawed as the F14 T they created to suit the new engine regulations. As a result Fernando graced the podium just twice all season – and not once the top step.
Not that such an unusually low-key run of results harmed Alonso’s standing in the sport – in fact the two podiums he did achieve, particularly his gallant tyre preservation run to second place in Hungary, only served to increase his widespread reputation as the best all-round driver in F1. The fact the Spaniard also turned what had been an eagerly-anticipated intra-team battle with Raikkonen into an effective no-contest in his favour only added further fuel to the feeling that he was still operating at his peak, even if Ferrari quite definitely weren’t. That he’s heading back to McLaren of all places shows how exasperating his time at Maranello became. JG
2014 rating: 8/10
Position – 7th, 134 points; Best result – 2nd
Freed from the restraints of being ‘number two’ at Ferrari, Felipe Massa certainly experienced a highly eventful first season at Williams. His 2014 results card, which lurched from the downright underwhelming to the highly impressive, showed as much. Williams had arguably the second best car in 2014, yet Massa found himself languishing seventh in the Drivers’ Championship and only narrowly ahead of Jenson Button despite the flaws of the McLaren car.
Part of Massa’s problem – particularly early on in the season - was that he regularly found himself involved in contact with other drivers. The most notable occasions came in Germany, where he turned in on Kevin Magnussen at the first corner leading to him rolling his Williams, and Canada when he was involved in a huge race ending shunt with Sergio Perez. Back in Malaysia and there were signs of insubordination too when the Brazilian refused to obey team-orders to let team-mate past
But, for all that, there were some memorable highs too. Massa’s biggest achievement was pole in Austria – the only non-Mercedes pole position all season – although failed to capitalise on it and actually finished behind his team-mate and off the podium. He did turn around his race-day form late in the season, though, with podiums in his homeland of Brazil and Abu Dhabi providing glimpses of the man who challenged for the 2008 world title. With plenty of talented drivers waiting in the GP2 wings, he must produce more of those moments and take the fight back to Bottas in 2015. WE
2014 rating: 6/10
Championship position – 8th, 126 points; Best result – 3rd
Still unsure of his F1 future at the time of writing, Jenson Button has been left dangling by McLaren and their desire to have all their ducks in a row for next season. All 3000 of them, one might think, judging by the endless carry on, although in truth one also wonders why this particular duck hasn’t simply grown tired and quacked off elsewhere by now.
Partnered by Kevin Magnussen this season, the final reckoning shows Button with twice as many points as the youngster, who was labelled ‘lightning quick’ by Martin Whitmarsh. In that case, how to describe Button? After all, he did also outqualify Magnussen over the course of the season, which says something about his supposed weakness – assuming, of course, that the former team boss was right in his assessment of the Dane.
Most of this can be put down to Button’s status as F1’s longest-serving driver and how he’s coped more ably with a car – another – that hasn’t cut the mustard. In this context, it seems particularly unfair that McLaren are making both drivers sweat on their futures while their negotiations with Fernando Alonso meander along, but concepts such as fairness and loyalty don’t seem to carry much weight in this rarefied world. Having said that, Jenson’s experience might – particularly if McLaren’s new partnership with Honda encounters teething troubles. That certainly appeared the case at Abu Dhabi’s post-season test; in the final reckoning, might it help tip the scales in Button’s favour? MW
2014 rating: 7.5/10
Championship position – 9th, 96 points; Best result – 5th (x4)
In a curious twist, it’s the long-established fact that Nico is finally standing still between seasons which serves to support the contention that this was the first year since Nico left Williams when his stock has failed to rise. Having out-driven his Sauber throughout 2013, raising his profile to such an extent that he was widely considered to be a viable candidate for both Ferrari and McLaren, Nico’s name was conspicuously absent 12 months later when a host of vacancies arose amongst the big guns. The announcement that he would be staying on at Force India was issued as early as October and was issued with suitably little fanfare.
While unfortunate in 2013, when his height was considered a tall order, there’s no sense that Hulkenberg ought to be given his big team breakthrough this time around. The Hulk certainly showed up in 2014, scoring 96 points to his team-mate’s 59, but he didn’t exactly star. A podium result – which Sergio Perez registered in only his third race as a Force India driver – still eludes the German.
His foray into Le Mans for Porsche, whilst laudable and impressive, also carried a hint of frustration with a F1 career which has become stuck in the awkward middleground of the grid. 2015 otherwise has all the portents of being another hard slog. If Nico’s breakthrough doesn’t come soon, his shot at the big time may never turn up. PG
2014 rating: 7/10
Championship position – 10th, 59 points; Best result – 3rd
When Sergio Perez’s F1 career hung in the balance for a few weeks after his late-season axing by McLaren in 2013, it appeared that a driver who had burst into the sport in such eye-catching fashion at Sauber was at 23 years old already going to have to contemplate life away from motorsport’s top table. The Mexican’s early potential hadn’t been forgotten everywhere though as Force India came to his rescue and, 12 months, on the team’s faith in Perez’s qualities has by and large been rewarded. While it may have been Nico Hulkenberg who collected more points during the season, Perez played no small role in helping the team take the fight to, of all teams, McLaren and achieve their best-ever season.
His Hulkenberg-beating podium in that unforgettable race of team-mate duels in Bahrain – Force India’s first for five years – was Perez’s undoubted standout performance, but there were other eye-catching drive to solid points too, particularly at Monza when he came out on top in a wheel-to-wheel dice with ex-partner Jenson Button. In fact, while Hulkenberg won their qualifying battle 12-7 and scored 37 more points over the year, it was Perez who headed both categories from the summer break onwards.
There were messy moments too - that scary crash with Massa, which both drivers blamed the other for, in Canada being the most dramatic - but given Perez only turns 25 in January, there are bound to still be some rough edges to iron out. A new multi-year deal with Force India should give him the platform to try and do just that. JG
2014 rating: 6/10
Championship position – 11th, 55 points; Best result – 2nd
What a disappointment Kevin Magnussen was in his debut season. He was labelled ‘lightning quick’ by ex-McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh and his qualifying record in the final rounds of the 2013 Formula Renault 3.5 season suggested as much. Yet he was out-qualified over the season by Jenson Button – who has never been famed for his single-lap pace – and scored less than half the points of the Briton.
Second-place on his debut was seemingly a false dawn as he did little to justify the sacking of Sergio Perez after just a solitary season at McLaren by making the top five on just one other occasion.
On form alone there is no basis to keep the Dane ahead of Button, but the pace he demonstrated in Formula Renault doesn’t disappear overnight. Too often, though, particularly in the second half of the season, the Dane was found out of the points. If he is given a second season he needs to up his game big time or it could be little more than a stay of execution after Stoffel Vandoorne’s impressive debut year in GP2. WE
2014 Rating: 5/10
Championship position – 12th, 55 points; Best result – 4th
There’s no way around it: Kimi Raikkonen’s return to Ferrari was a big disappointment. There we all were pre-season, salivating at the prospect of how the Finn – just by doing his thing, with no conscious moves behind the scenes to ‘win over’ the Scuderia – might get under the skin of Fernando Alonso.
As it turned out, however, there were times when Raikkonen seemed to go missing in action, with the momentum he built during his two seasons at Lotus sadly lost. Not that Kimi ever threw in the towel and heaven help anyone who suggested that the 2007 champion had actually lost interest. No, it was more the case that, in the F14 T, Ferrari had delivered a car that lacked grunt on the straights and, in Raikkonen’s hands at least, struggled to get round the corners.
There were signs during the summer that, in a less literal sense, he might have turned the corner with fourth place at the Belgian GP. However, that was also the race that Ferrari technical director James Allison admitted the problems he’d been having were inherent in the car’s design and that little, therefore, would change. That proved the case and with Raikkonen hinting mid-season that 2015 will be his last, it’ll be interesting to see whether both Sebastian Vettel’s arrival and the prospect of a better car can halt the slide. MW
2014 rating: 4/10
Championship position – 13th, 22 points; Best result – 6th
The problematic crux of Jean-Eric’s season, and the two before it, was encapsulated by the low-key nature of his self-announced exit from the sport in late November: a shame but not quite sad. The Frenchman may never have done much wrong, and he did plenty that was good, but the verdict from Red Bull – that he didn’t show sufficient star quality – is difficult to quibble with.
Three years after his debut, he remains as much a puzzle as he was when he entered the sport. He’s an enigma wrapped up by indifference, more likely to neuter debate than inspire division of opinion. There just wasn’t enough of an impact or a splash in 2014 – or in 2013 or in 2012.
Given that he was only outscored by Daniel Ricciardo by a point, and the Aussie then trumped Sebastian Vettel, and that JEV scored three times as many points as Daniil Kvyat during their year together, there’s no dispute that Vergne is – and was – up to scratch. But it’s telling in itself that JEV will ultimately be remembered in reference to his two Toro Rosso team-mates. There was never a moment during those three years when JEV did enough to break free, to define himself in his own right and sprinkle sufficient stardust over his F1 CV to justify a fourth year in the Red Bull school of hard knocks that is only concerned with graduating the next F1 superstar. PG
2014 rating: 6/10
Championship position – 14th, 8 points; Best result – 8th (x2)
If Lotus’s already-best-left-forgotten season is ultimately to be remembered for anything, then perhaps it’s Romain Grosjean’s catalogue of exasperated-sounding radio messages. “I cannot believe it! Bloody engine! Bloody engine!” was one such cry from Singapore qualifying and the harmony – or lack of it – between the troubled E22 and the Renault power unit proved the depressing story of the once race-winning team’s troubled campaign.
Given Grosjean had come into the season having successfully completed something akin to racing driver rehabilitation by going from ‘first-lap nutcase’ to reliable podium finisher, Lotus’s fall from grace was understandably all the harder to take. Back-to-back eighth-place finishes at the start of the European season were as good as things got for Grosjean. In hindsight, Grosjean's lap in Barcelona qualifying which took the recalcitrant E22 to fifth on the grid may well have been the best of anyone all season.
After a little uncertainty, Grosjean’s stay at Enstone was finally confirmed just before the season was out, the lure of a supply of the class-leading Mercedes engine 2015 certainly an appetising prospect. The good news for Grosjean and his career is that, surely, things couldn’t get much worse. JG
2014 rating: 5.5/10
Championship position –15th, 8 points; Best result – 9th (x3)
Was it too soon to promote Daniil Kvyat after just a single season in GP3 and a handful of laps in an F1 car at a Young Driver Test? Certainly not on the basis of the young Russian’s performances in 2014.
Whilst eight points may seem like a lowly return – particularly in comparison to teammate Jean-Eric Vergne’s 22 – it doesn’t tell the full story of Kvyat’s rookie year. He produced a number of strong drives throughout the campaign that perhaps didn’t reap the rewards they deserved. A number of mechanical retirements also blighted his season.
But there were plenty of positives. The two performances that stand out are the points on his debut in Australia that made Kvyat the youngest points scorer in F1 history and then qualifying a remarkable fifth at his home race in Sochi. The Red Bull bosses were obviously impressed as when Sebastian Vettel departed it was the young Russian picked to fill the shoes of the four-time World Champion – and those are big shoes to fill. WE
2014 rating: 6/10
Championship position – 16th, 2 points; Best result – 9th
The Abu Dhabi GP’s funniest moment – one of the funniest of the season – was the reaction of Lotus’s mechanics when Pastor Maldonado’s car spectacularly went ‘pop’ on lap 26. It was fitting the demise of the recalcitrant, if not downright useless, black E22 should be met by gleeful black humour, with the team clearly delighted to see the back of such a dud.
Yet they’ll still have Maldonado to contend with in 2015. The fact that Lotus announced the Venezuelan’s continued presence as early as July while McLaren have continued to make Jenson Button sweat on his future tells us plenty about the state of the sport right now and how judgement gets thrown out of the window. Should Pastor be in F1? Well he is; and hard as it is to believe, there is a talented driver in there. Somewhere.
When Lotus announced his arrival, they suggested they could knock him into shape as they did his team-mate Romain Grosjean. Of course, the Frenchman has also struggled with such a poor car but in terms of performance, he’s made mincemeat of Maldonado. (In contrast, Lotus confirmed only recently that Grosjean is staying for 2015, although one suspects part of the delay was down to the driver casting a hopeful eye elsewhere.)
In the event, Maldonado scored two points. But in a season that skirted farce, particularly in the early races, he’ll perhaps be best remembered for his visit to the gravel at the pitlane entry during practice in Shanghai – not just for the crash but, again, the response of Lotus’s mechanics. Even then they seemed resigned to their fate. The question now is whether the team, while banking the cheques, can also help F1’s most maligned driver salvage some semblance of a reputation. MW
2014 rating: 3/10
Championship position – 17th, 2 points; Best result – 9th
The tragedy of 2014, a year cast into perpetual darkness by the horror which the Marussia driver, popular and talented in equal measure, endured on October 5.
His accident remains F1’s darkest hour in 20 years, a harrowing reminder of the perils of driving the world’s fastest motor vehicles in a competitive environment, and a gut-wrenching adjournment on a career that promised so much. Marussia’s subsequent decline and disappearance into administration, rendering Bianchi’s previous achievements meaningless, was the insult to grievous injury.
The highlight of Jules’ season, by any objective measurement, had to be his points-scoring effort in May’s Monaco GP, when he navigated his Marussia to ninth in the sport’s showcase event. But it was his efforts on an otherwise instantly-forgettable Wednesday afternoon in July, when he tested for Ferrari at Silverstone and instantly set a time better than the best Kimi Raikkonen had managed the week before around the British GP venue, which resonated even further. Here, surely, was the proof that Jules was destined for a race seat with Ferrari by the close of his career.
And then, on a wet, murky October evening at Suzuka, it all went dark. PG
#ForzaJules
Championship position – 18th, 0 points; Best result – 11th (x2)
If, as seems likely, Adrian Sutil has raced his last race in F1 then the German will have exited stage left with barely a hint of fanfare. And in characteristic fashion some might say given Sutil, while the veteran of seven seasons and 128 starts, had rarely grabbed many headlines on track during a career in which one fourth-place finish five years ago stands as his best result.
Such were Sauber’s travails this year, that even a tenth place would have been something to shout about for the German driver given the Swiss team failed to register a point for the first time in their whole history. The combination of unprecedented budget constraints and an underperforming Ferrari turbo engine meant 2014 was an uphill struggle for both Sutil and Esteban Gutierrez right from the get go, with the C33 and its troublesome brake-by-wire system tripping both men up repeatedly.
Sutil proved to be one of 2014’s most frequent spinners and, to his apparent surprise, his career was then sent into a tailspin at season’s end when Sauber signed up cash-heavy Ericsson and Nasr for 2015 within a matter of days. His farewell from the team in Abu Dhabi – 15th in qualifying and then 16th in the race – summed up a forgettable year. JG
2014 rating: 4/10
Championship position – 19th, 0 points; Best result – 11th
Rookie of the Year is an Americanism and, as such, F1 doesn’t have one. Even if it did, Marcus Ericsson wouldn’t have won; but if ever there was a gong handed out in recognition of a rookie driver’s stoicism in the face of adversity – a medal would, perhaps, be most apt – then he would have earned it hands down. After all, not only was Ericsson saddled with the lamest horse in the field, he also had to contend with a revolving door of owners and trainers. (Swedish accent) “Who are you?” (Insert accent as appropriate) “I’m your new boss, Marcus. Could you write us a cheque?”
As the season progressed and Caterham started toppling into the abyss, Ericsson’s performances actually improved. He ended up top of the bottom of the pile battle ahead of team-mate Kamui Kobayashi and rivals Marussia but after both teams went into administration, the 24-year-old called it a day. As such, his best result remains the 11th he scored in Monaco; as good as anything any other Caterham driver has ever managed, yet eclipsed by the ninth place Jules Bianchi earned for Marussia on the very same day. Typical eh?
Ericsson has now joined Sauber – and already tested for them, in fact, in Abu Dhabi, after a combination of his sponsor’s loot and their empty coffers gained him a 2015 seat. But when one considers where the Swiss team finished this season, he’ll likely be up against it again. MW
2014 rating: 4/10
Championship position – 20th, 0 points; Best result – 12th
If Esteban Gutierrez has left F1 then, to say the least, it’s with a whimper. The Mexican has barely registered this season and ended it more-or-less level pegging with team-mate Adrian Sutil. That in itself says something about the drivers, the team…the Sauber situation in general. There’s been no real hint of genuine promise from the 23-year-old, more a sort of vacuum. Has there been a more anonymous driver on the grid?
Of course, Gutierrez’s cause hasn’t been helped by Sauber’s Ferrari-powered C33, which was overweight and underpowered. It was also grey – slate grey, in fact, and attractive in its way. But really it should have been painted beige. His best result was 12th in Melbourne but that was gained by attrition, just by being there at the end. He hopes to stay in F1 in 2015 and insists there are “several alternatives” – reserve driver roles, presumably. Otherwise, only good hard cash and the survival of either Caterham or Marussia can save him. MW
2014 rating: 4/10
Championship position – 21st, 0 points; Best result – 13th (x2)
Well, he did at least finish above Kamui Kobayashi. Otherwise, this was an instantly forgettable year for the Marussia driver.
While Jules Bianchi took the plaudits for scoring the team’s first points, Max struggled to make his presence felt at the back of the grid, generally slipping from view on a race weekend at the Q1 stage on a Saturday afternoon. Last seen retiring from the Russian GP in October prior to Marussia’s regression into administration, it remains to be seen whether Max’s race in F1 is run too. PG
2014 rating: 4/10
Championship position – 22nd, 0 points; Best result – 13th (x2)
Poor Kamui Kobayashi appeared to be in a regular state of bewilderment the longer 2014 went on as the various fun and games at Caterham played out around him. After being ‘benched’ mid-season for Spa, only to return to his seat two weeks later at Monza, the Japanese when asked what was going on at the team bluntly replied “I have the same question for the boss”. The bizarre events of Sochi, when Kobayashi implied he had been told to retire a healthy car, only served to heighten the confusion.
Back at the start of the year and the Japanese’s widely-welcomed return to the sport after a year away appeared to be part of then-owner Tony Fernandes’ last throw of the dice at F1, the Malaysian hoping for a repeat of the swashbuckling performances that made Kobayashi such a cult hero while at Sauber. The rather gaping flaw in that plan was that the Japanese wasn’t given the car to perform any underdog miracles although, for his part, he did trounce team-mate Marcus Ericsson and regularly take the fight to Marussia. But, given he gave up a role with Ferrari in the WEC to come back to F1, Kobayashi could be forgiven for wondering why he bothered. JG
2014 rating: 5/10
Championship position – 23rd, 0 points; Best result – 17th
It is hard to cast a critical eye over Will Stevens given he contested just one race this season after getting the dubious honour of driving for Caterham in the Abu Dhabi finale.
The Briton produced a solid weekend, kept the car out of the barriers and picked up his pace as the sessions progressed, gradually closing the gap to Kamui Kobayashi. In the race he got the car to the finish without incident and proved he was more than capable of competing on an F1 track – even if Fernando Alonso may disagree! WE
2014 rating: N/A
Championship position – 24th, 0 points; Best result – DNF
The three-time Le Mans winner made a brief appearance for Caterham at the Belgian Grand Prix and remarkably was immediately quicker than Marcus Ericsson.
Despite his lack of experience in the car, the German carried that pace into qualifying and was nearly a second quicker than Ericsson who had a vast number more test and race miles clocked up in the CT05. WE
2014 rating: N/A
