Over the last two months roughly, since the IndyCar season ended in Fontana, Calif., we’ve had a look back at the racing seasons here on MotorSportsTalk. But in case you missed any of it, here are some brief recaps of the open-wheel and sports car seasons:
Formula One
Sebastian Vettel won his fourth straight World Championship, and Red Bull its fourth straight Constructor’s Championship, after the pair’s most dominant season yet. Vettel won a record-tying 13 wins in the 19 races, including the last nine in a row.
Elsewhere Mark Webber departed for the FIA World Endurance Championship at year’s end, Fernando Alonso overachieved at Ferrari, Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton raised Mercedes’ profile, Kimi Raikkonen bailed early from Lotus after allegedly not being paid, Nico Hulkenberg led the midfield contingent, Pirelli’s tires were in the headlines way too frequently and the manufacturer eventually changed its construction midseason, a raft of regulation changes were announced for 2014, and Max Chilton finished all 19 races for Marussia.
What was far from a classic season on track took a worse turn just yesterday with the news Michael Schumacher has been injured in a skiing accident, and is in critical condition. Frankly, his recovery is the most important story and item going forward for F1, if not for the racing world in its entirety.
IndyCar
Scott Dixon completed a comeback from more than 90 points back at the midseason point of the 2013 IndyCar season, with four second half race wins to clinch his third championship. All have come in periods of five years (2003, 2008, 2013), and this one left Helio Castroneves still waiting for his elusive first title. The Brazilian did well but a disastrous Houston weekend and a lack of “big” results proved his ultimate undoing.
It was a very competitive season as a whole with 10 different race winners, including four first-timers, and 20 different podium finishers in the 19 races. Tony Kanaan won his elusive first Indianapolis 500, easily the moment of the year, while James Hinchcliffe and Takuma Sato engaged in a thrilling battle for the Brazil win. Doubleheader weekends proved popular to fans if not great for the crews.
Off-track, “Turbo’s” release brought the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the IndyCar Series into the mainstream, public sphere for the first time in years, generated more than $250 million worldwide and spawned a Netflix cartoon, which can’t be a bad thing. Hulman & Co. CEO Mark Miles made his first moves in the organizational structure, and the paddock mostly seems pleased with Derrick Walker now in the role of leading competition and operations.
Sports Cars
The GRAND-AM Rolex Series and American Le Mans Series concluded their last years as independent entities before merging into the unified TUDOR United SportsCar Championship for 2014. There’s still a number of rules and regulations that need to shake out from the combination, but the merged series does have a decent schedule on tap and a good car count, north of 60 cars projected for next year.
Elsewhere the Pirelli World Challenge and Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge continued to put on great shows for their races; PWC operates in a sprint-race format while Continental runs two-plus hour events.
The FIA World Endurance Championship’s second year produced a similarly strong car count and a few standout performances.
Further recaps of each of the five series’ seasons are below:
