The Australian Grand Prix 2014 was the 1st round of the 2014 F1 season, and took place at the Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit in Melbourne, Australia, on March 16th.
Nico Rosberg won the race after starting in the 3rd position, followed by Kevin Magnussen, and Jenson Button completing the podium.
Lewis Hamilton started from the pole position, but didn't manage to cross the finish line, as he suffered an engine malfunction, and had to retire on lap 2nd.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 34 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 10-12: 11 stops
- Laps 32-33: 4 stops
- Laps 35-38: 9 stops
The fastest pit stop was Romain Grosjean's, stopping the clock at 17.255 seconds during his pit stop on lap 1, while the slowest one was was Valtteri Bottas's, who stopped the clock at 34.921 seconds, 17.666 seconds slower than Grosjean, during his pit stop on lap 10.
These times include the time the driver spent going through the pit lane, as well as the actual time he stopped for the mechanics to work on his car.
Strategy
We saw a variety of options in terms of pit stop strategies during this race, however most drivers chose a 2 stops. Only 3 drivers tried a 1 stop, and 1 driver tried a 3 stops.
The race winner, Nico Rosberg, was on a 2 stops strategy.
1 stop
-
2Marcus Ericsson
-
5Pastor Maldonado
-
2Adrian Sutil
2 stops
-
7Romain Grosjean
-
8Esteban Gutiérrez
-
10Valtteri Bottas
-
7Jenson Button
-
2Nico Rosberg
-
20Daniel Ricciardo
-
2Kevin Magnussen
-
1Nico Hülkenberg
-
1Fernando Alonso
-
4Kimi Räikkönen
-
2Jean-Éric Vergne
-
1Daniil Kvyat
-
4Jules Bianchi
-
4Max Chilton
3 stops
-
6Sergio Pérez
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy gained 2 positions on average, the ones on a 2 stops strategy gained 3.27 positions on average, while those on a 3 stops strategy gained 6 positions on average.
Despite of the average possitons gained or lost, and considering a deeper analysis of the performance of each strategy, we consider the 2 stops strategy as the optimal for this race.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit, as the conditions might change from year to year, in terms of wheel degradation, accidents, safety cars, etc.
Incidents
The reace did not end without incidents... 9 drivers out of the original 22 who started did not managed to cross the finish line.
These included, Romain Grosjean, and Pastor Maldonado, both experienced an ERS failure, Marcus Ericsson, who suffered a loss in oil pressure on lap 27, Sebastian Vettel, and Lewis Hamilton, both suffered an engine malfunction, and Felipe Massa, and Kamui Kobayashi, both retired dure to damage caused by a collision with other cars.
ERS
-
Romain GrosjeanLap 43
-
Pastor MaldonadoLap 29
Oil pressure
-
Marcus EricssonLap 27
Engine
-
Sebastian VettelLap 3
-
Lewis HamiltonLap 2
Collision
-
Felipe MassaLap 0
-
Kamui KobayashiLap 0
There was also action outise of the track itself, and the stwearts decided to disqualify Daniel Ricciardo at the end of the race.
Disqualified
-
Daniel RicciardoLap 57
Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton managed to get the pole position by 0.317 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:44.231. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was Daniel Ricciardo.
Track evolution
The conditions of the track worsened from Q1 to Q2, and none of the drivers were able to improve their Q1 times.
The Q3 is the time were all the remaining drivers put all their cards on the table, even those with a superior car who might have been managing their times in Q1 and Q2 push their cars to the limit in Q3. However, the conditions of the track worsened from Q2 to Q3, and none of the drivers were able to improve their Q2 times.