2014 Formula Acceleration 1 season

The 2014 Formula Acceleration 1 season was a formula racing series that started over 25–27 April in Portimao, Portugal and ended over 17–19 October at the TT Circuit Assen, Netherlands.[1] The series featured 12 teams that represented the nations in which they were founded. Their drivers did not have that nationality per sé, but the car represented the flag. This concept was similar to the one used in the former A1 Grand Prix series, whose vehicles were used in FA1. To attract young, yet serious, racing drivers, the 2014 winning driver/team was promised the full budget for the 2015 FA1 season and a test day in a GP2 Series car in Abu Dhabi.[2]

Formula Acceleration 1 (FA1) was the most prominent part of Acceleration 2014, a series of festivals combining top class car and bike racing with music and entertainment.[3] Next to FA1, there was the MW-V6 Pickup Series, based on the former Dutch racing series BRL V6, the Legend SuperCup, based on legends car racing, and the European Stock 600 and 1000 Series, which featured motorcycle racing for 15- and 16-year-olds. As for the music, on Friday evenings, David Hasselhoff hosted "Celebrate the 80's and the 90's with The Hoff", a dance party featuring 2 Unlimited, Haddaway, Kim Wilde, and others. Saturday evenings saw performances from international DJs.[4]

The championship was dominated by Nigel Melker and Mirko Bortolotti, taking eight of the ten race victories between them. Melker clinched the championship title after Bortolotti skipped the final round at Assen. Third place in the championship went to Richard Gonda, who achieved a trio of podium finishes but without victory. Indeed, the only other driver to take a race victory besides Melker and Bortolotti was Felix Rosenqvist, who completed a double at Monza; he finished the season in fifth place, three points behind Sebastian Balthasar. Netherlands won the nations' championship by 10.5 points ahead of Italy.

On 22 December 2014, it was announced that the series would be merged with Auto GP in 2015, to ensure that at least 18 cars will participate in each race. It was also announced that the 2015 champion will be granted a Formula One test.[5][6]

Calendar

The 2014 calendar consisted of five race weekends. Originally, nine were planned. However, Acceleration in Zolder, Acceleration at Paul Ricard, and Acceleration at Grobnik were cancelled on 27 June 2014[7] and Acceleration at Hungaroring was cancelled on 20 August 2014.[8]

Date Event Circuit City
29–30 Nov 2013 Testing Circuito de Navarra Navarra, Spain
26–27 Mar 2014 Circuit Ricardo Tormo Valencia, Spain
22–23 Apr 2014 Autódromo Internacional do Algarve Portimão, Portugal
25–27 Apr 2014 Acceleration at Portimão
2–4 May 2014 Acceleration at Navarra Circuito de Navarra Navarra, Spain
23–25 May 2014 Acceleration at Nürburgring Nürburgring Nürburg, Germany
6–8 Jun 2014 Acceleration in Monza Autodromo Nazionale Monza Monza, Italy
17–19 Oct 2014 Acceleration in Assen TT Circuit Assen Assen, Netherlands

Race format

Day Duration Event
Friday 30 min Free practice 1
30 min Free practice 2
30 min Qualifying for race 1 (1 point for pole position)
Saturday 30 min Qualifying for race 2 (1 point for pole position)
30 min Race 1 (1 mandatory pit stop)
Sunday 45 min Race 2 (2 mandatory pit stops)

Entrants

Entrant (Team) No. Driver Rounds
China China
Moma Motorsport
Team Lazarus
8 Netherlands Steijn Schothorst 4
29 Spain Oliver Campos-Hull 1
Portugal Armando Parente 2–3
32 France Nathanaël Berthon 5
France France
Azerti Motorsport
17 Belgium Alessio Picariello 3–5
32 Italy Sergio Campana 1
France Nathanaël Berthon 2
Germany Germany
Performance Racing
MP Motorsport
4 Germany Sebastian Balthasar All
Italy Italy
Team Ghinzani
Team Lazarus
16 Italy Mirko Bortolotti 1–4
18 Italy Gian Maria Gabbiani 5
42 Italy Sergio Campana 5
Mexico Mexico
RC Motorsport
NBC Motorsport
MP Motorsport
Kraan Motorsport
22 Sweden Kevin Kleveros 5
38 Mexico Luis Michael Dörrbecker All
39 Mexico Picho Toledano 1–4
Netherlands Netherlands
Azerti Motorsport
MP Motorsport
6 Netherlands Bas Schouten 5
7 Netherlands Nigel Melker All
Portugal Portugal
Team Ghinzani
21 Netherlands Jeroen Mul 5
42 Portugal Armando Parente 1
Italy Sergio Campana 2–4
Slovakia Slovakia
Team Ghinzani
64 Slovakia Richard Gonda All
Spain Spain
Moma Motorsport
10 Spain Victor Garcia 1
Spain Oliver Campos-Hull 2–3
11 Spain Marco Barba 4–5
Sweden Sweden
Performance Racing
19 United Kingdom Craig Dolby 5
23 Sweden Felix Rosenqvist 1, 4
24 Sweden Jimmy Eriksson 3
45 Denmark Dennis Lind 2
United Kingdom United Kingdom
Moma Motorsport
69 Spain Dani Clos 5
Venezuela Venezuela
RC Motorsport
Team Lazarus
20 Venezuela Rodolfo González 1–2
45 Denmark Dennis Lind 3–4

[9][10][11][12][13][14][15]

Notes

Technical specifications

All cars were mechanically identical and were built with reducing costs in mind, which led to an approximate price for the whole season of €450,000. FA1 used the Lola B05/52, used in A1 Grand Prix between 2005 and 2008.[2]

Championship standings

Scoring system

Points were awarded to the top 10 drivers in both races, regardless of whether the driver finished or not. The pole-sitter for each race received one point, and one point was also given to the driver who set the fastest lap in each race. At the end of the season, the FA1 Drivers' title was awarded to the driver with the highest number of points. There was also a Nations' championship, which grouped the represented nations by totalling the average of the points scored by the drivers of the same nationality (e.g.: with 5 Dutch drivers competing in a race, the Netherlands scored in that race the addition of the points scored by each driver divided by 5).[2][17]

Sprint race points
Position  1st   2nd   3rd   4th   5th   6th   7th   8th   9th   10th   Pole   FL 
Points 20 15 12 10 8 6 4 3 2 1 1 1
Feature race points
Position  1st   2nd   3rd   4th   5th   6th   7th   8th   9th   10th   Pole   FL 
Points 25 18 15 12 10 8 6 4 2 1 1 1

Drivers' championship

Pos. Driver No. Team Races Points
ALG
Portugal
NAV
Spain
NÜR
Germany
MNZ
Italy
ASS
Netherlands
1 Netherlands Nigel Melker 7 Netherlands Netherlands 2 2 1 1 1 DNS 2 2 1 1 183
2 Italy Mirko Bortolotti 16 Italy Italy 1 1 2 2 2 1 3 11 135
3 Slovakia Richard Gonda 64 Slovakia Slovakia 5 9 3 11 4 2 4 4 3 6 94
4 Germany Sebastian Balthasar 4 Germany Germany 3 4 7 3 12 5 9 3 7 9 76
5 Sweden Felix Rosenqvist 23 Sweden Sweden 4 3 1 1 73
6 Italy Sergio Campana 32 France France 8 7 72
42 Portugal Portugal 6 12 11 3 5 9
Italy Italy 2 3
7 Portugal Armando Parente 42 Portugal Portugal 6 5 40
29 China China 9 4 5 9
8 Belgium Alessio Picariello 17 France France 4 4 8 6 12 14 34
9 Mexico Luis Michael Dörrbecker 38 Mexico Mexico 9 10 8 5 6 8 10 7 11 12 33
10 Spain Dani Clos 69 United Kingdom United Kingdom 5 2 28
11 Denmark Dennis Lind 45 Sweden Sweden 4 7 24
Venezuela Venezuela 9 10 7 10
12 France Nathanaël Berthon 32 France France 10 10 22
China China 4 5
13 Spain Oliver Campos-Hull 29 China China 7 6 20
10 Spain Spain 11 8 7 11
14 Mexico Picho Toledano 39 Mexico Mexico WD WD 12 6 10 7 12 8 19
15 United Kingdom Craig Dolby 19 Sweden Sweden 14 4 12
16 Sweden Jimmy Eriksson 24 Sweden Sweden 8 6 11
17 Venezuela Rodolfo González 20 Venezuela Venezuela 11 11 5 9 10
18 Netherlands Steijn Schothorst 8 China China 11 5 10
19 Spain Marco Barba 11 Spain Spain 6 12 13 8 10
20 Sweden Kevin Kleveros 22 Mexico Mexico 8 7 9
21 Netherlands Jeroen Mul 21 Portugal Portugal 6 13 6
22 Spain Victor Garcia 10 Spain Spain 10 8 5
23 Netherlands Bas Schouten 6 Netherlands Netherlands 9 10 3
24 Italy Gian Maria Gabbiani 18 Italy Italy 10 11 1
Pos. Driver No. Team ALG
Portugal
NAV
Spain
NÜR
Germany
MNZ
Italy
ASS
Netherlands
Points
Races
Colour Result
Gold Winner
Silver Second place
Bronze Third place
Green Points finish
Blue Non-points finish
Non-classified finish (NC)
Purple Retired (Ret)
Red Did not qualify (DNQ)
Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ)
Black Disqualified (DSQ)
White Did not start (DNS)
Withdrew (WD)
Race cancelled (C)
Blank Did not practice (DNP)
Did not arrive (DNA)
Excluded (EX)

Bold – Pole
Italics – Fastest Lap

Teams' championship

Pos. Team No. Races Points
ALG
Portugal
NAV
Spain
NÜR
Germany
MNZ
Italy
ASS
Netherlands
1 Netherlands Netherlands 6 9 10 161
7 2 2 1 1 1 DNS 2 2 1 1
2 Italy Italy 16 1 1 2 2 2 1 3 11 150.5
18 10 11
42 2 3
3 Sweden Sweden 19 14 4 112
23 4 3 1 1
24 8 6
45 4 7
4 Slovakia Slovakia 64 5 9 3 11 4 2 4 4 3 6 94
5 Germany Germany 4 3 4 7 3 12 5 9 3 7 9 76
6 China China 8 11 5 66
29 7 6 9 4 5 9
32 4 5
7 Portugal Portugal 21 6 13 55
42 6 5 6 12 11 3 5 9
8 France France 17 4 4 8 6 12 14 45
32 8 7 10 10
9 Mexico Mexico 22 8 7 32
38 9 10 8 5 6 8 10 7 11 12
39 WD WD 12 6 10 7 12 8
10 United Kingdom United Kingdom 69 5 2 28
11 Spain Spain 10 10 8 11 8 7 11 23
11 6 12 13 8
12 Venezuela Venezuela 20 11 11 5 9 18
45 9 10 7 10
Pos. Driver No. ALG
Portugal
NAV
Spain
NÜR
Germany
MNZ
Italy
ASS
Netherlands
Points
Races
Colour Result
Gold Winner
Silver Second place
Bronze Third place
Green Points finish
Blue Non-points finish
Non-classified finish (NC)
Purple Retired (Ret)
Red Did not qualify (DNQ)
Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ)
Black Disqualified (DSQ)
White Did not start (DNS)
Withdrew (WD)
Race cancelled (C)
Blank Did not practice (DNP)
Did not arrive (DNA)
Excluded (EX)

Bold – Pole
Italics – Fastest Lap

References

  1. ^ "Acceleration Events Europe Motor Race Auto GP MW V6 Trophy 600 and 1000 family event Resources and Information". Archived from the original on 9 April 2014. Retrieved 9 April 2014.
  2. ^ a b c "FA1 Driver Information" (PDF). Acceleration14.com.
  3. ^ "Acceleration Events Europe Motor Race Auto GP MW V6 Trophy 600 and 1000 family event Resources and Information". acceleration14.com. Archived from the original on 17 May 2014. Retrieved 9 April 2014.
  4. ^ "Acceleration Events Europe Motor Race Auto GP MW V6 Trophy 600 and 1000 family event Resources and Information". acceleration14.com. Archived from the original on 8 April 2014. Retrieved 9 April 2014.
  5. ^ Kaligis, Bas (22 December 2014). "Auto GP en FA1 bundelen krachten in nieuw kampioenschap" [Auto GP and FA1 join forces in new championship] (in Dutch). RaceXpress. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
  6. ^ "Auto GP set for Formula Acceleration merger in bid to boost grids". Autosport. 22 December 2014. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
  7. ^ "Seven events for Acceleration 2014". Acceleration14.com. 27 June 2014. Retrieved 28 June 2014.
  8. ^ "Race programmed cancelled for Acceleration Hungary". Acceleration14.com. 21 August 2014. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  9. ^ "Entry List Portugal". Acceleration14.com.
  10. ^ "Entry List Spain". Acceleration14.com.
  11. ^ "Entry List Germany". Acceleration14.com.
  12. ^ "Entry List Italy". Acceleration14.com.
  13. ^ "Results Acceleration 2014". Raceresults.nu.
  14. ^ "Entry List Netherlands" (PDF). Acceleration14.com.
  15. ^ "Finale Races Assen 2014 - FA1 - Race 2" (PDF). getraceresults.com. 19 October 2014.
  16. ^ "Instagram post by Picho Toledano". Picho Toledano. 26 April 2014. Archived from the original on 25 December 2021.
  17. ^ "FA1 Technical Regulations" (PDF). Acceleration14.com.