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5 Races and 150 points up for grabs is what the equation reads for the 2014 Formula One Championship to be decided. While primarily it is a Mercedes battle for the silverware, there are other drivers in the hunt who cannot be ruled out, all be it mathematically. As the season enters the final leg, here’s a look at the contenders for the crown.
1 Lewis Hamilton
With back-to-back race wins in Monza and Singapore, the British driver is back in the title battle as he leads his team-mate by 3 points. While the Singapore win was aided by the misfortune of Rosberg’s retirement due to a technical glitch on the steering wheel, the win at the Italian GP was a well-earned victory after forcing the German driver into a mistake. The flamboyant Hamilton remains the favourite to win his second-World Championship even though at this point the title is delicately poised. Hamilton has had his bit of luck running out at quite a few occasions. The Briton had a bad start to the year with an early retirement in Australia after starting from pole in turn handing Rosberg to take the first win of the turbo-charged v6 era.
With some catching-up to do, Hamilton had four consecutive wins from Malaysia, Bahrain, China and Spain, which included triumphant wheel-to-wheel battles with Rosberg in Bahrain and Barcelona.
While in Monaco he was denied pole controversially by his team-mate and had to settle for second, in Canada he had to retire with ERS issues. Despite starting in the middle of the grid in Austria, Hamilton was able to finish second in Austria as his team-mate won at the Red-Bull owned circuit. At Silverstone, Hamilton bounced back to win his home race and pull back some advantage that had drifted towards the German. Germany proved unlucky for Hamilton in qualifying, but he made up during the race by finishing third.
Another reliability issue (fuel leak) with the Mercedes meant the British driver was struggling in Hungary, but was able to gain some ground (and ignoring team orders for letting his team-mate to pass) finishing third in the race as Rosberg finished a close fourth.
Since then, all is not hunky-dory in the Mercedes paddock and in Belgium the relationship between two karting buddies took a new low. Rosberg took out Hamilton cutting across the racing line and ending the race for his British team-mate who was unable to recover from the contact to the front wing and floor.
Since then it has been Hamilton all the way. Monza and Singapore helped swing the advantage back into Hamilton’s favor. As far as winning Championships go, Hamilton has some experience in that department when he won the 2008 Championship with Mclaren. The British driver would be hoping to make full use of this opportunity to once again be crowned as the number one driver all be it he has to overcome his old friend turned team-mate turned competitor. Going by records, Hamilton hasn’t won in Suzuka and Brazil, while he has a win apiece in Austin and the double pointer at Abu Dhabi. Russian GP remains a blind-spot for all the drivers it being the first Formula One race at Sochi.
| | Lewis Hamilton | Nico Rosberg |
| Race Wins | 7 | 4 |
| Pole Positions | 6 | 7 |
| Retirements | 3 | 2 |
2 Nico Rosberg
Rosberg is less flamboyant of the two Mercedes drivers when it comes to driving, had been consistent finishing on the podium and in the points. While the initial battle between him and Hamilton seemed a healthy one, quite evidently their relationship turned awry on and off-track as the season progressed. Controversy soon caught-up with the German driver in Monaco during qualifying despite some healthy wheel-to-wheel racing with Hamilton in Bahrain and Barcelona. From then on things got murkier and the Belgium manoeuvre had a lot of criticism being thrown at him. That to an extent affected his driving as evident from Monza and an unreliability issue at Singapore denting a blow to his Championship dreams.
What probably Rosberg needs is some tips from someone like his father to calm his nerves down and focus on winning the crown. A three-point deficit seems negligible at this stage and it’s all to play for in the races to follow. The German driver is bound to be nervous given that this his best chance of winning the title and the first in his career.Will he be able to handle pressure better is what needs to be seen. Another important factor is the reliability of the Silver Arrows that could define the fate of either of the two drivers.
3 Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel
Quite clearly Daniel Ricciardo has been the dark-horse of the 2014 season overshadowing the thunder created by his 4 time World Champion in previous seasons. While Vettel has only an outside chance of retaining his title(i.e if he wins all the races and Mercedes finishes badly in all the remaining races), Ricciardo has a more realistic chance even though he is 60 and 57 points adrift of Hamilton and Rosberg. That's is quite a number, but given that the last race is a double-pointer anything is possible.
A couple of race wins for the Aussie can get him close to the Mercedes drivers. But even if they don’t get close enough to the two Mercedes, both the Red-Bull drivers could play an important role in deciding the title. For the young Ricciardo, a second or a more realistic third in the Championship would be ideal, winning the title seems a long-shot.
4 Fernando Alonso
The never-say-die attitude of the Spaniard has earned him much respect as a driver, but the Ferrari stalwart doesn’t look a threat to the front running Mercedes. Alonso has been pushing the Ferrari to the limits which is evident from the difference between him and Kimi Raikkonen in terms of driving and points. Raikkonen hasn’t been at his best while Alonso has been trying to take out every bit of pace from the under-powered Ferrari engine. Alonso can definitely look at consolidating his position among the top 5 given that Vettel and Valtteri Bottas in the Williams are breathing down his neck and he may already be looking ahead to the 2015 season.
All said and done, the last couple of months of the 2014 season promise to be an edge-of-the-seat one. The unpredictability in Formula One comes into picture, but it will be more about having nerves of steel. After all, in Formula One nothing can be said until you cross the Chequered Flag.
