The 2014 Formula Acceleration 1 season was a

formula racing Formula racing (known as open-wheel racing in North America) is any of several forms of open-wheeled single-seater motorsport. The origin of the term lies in the nomenclature that was adopted by the FIA for all of its post-World War II single ...

series that started over 25–27 April in Portimao,

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, In recognized minority languages of Portugal: :* mwl, República Pertuesa is a country located on the Iberian Peninsula, in Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Macaronesian ...

and ended over 17–19 October at the

TT Circuit Assen The TT Circuit Assen is a motorsport race track built in 1955 and located in Assen, Netherlands. Host of the Dutch TT, it is popularly referred to as "The Cathedral" of motorcycling by the fans of the sport. The venue has the distinction of h ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. 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 A1 Grand Prix (A1GP) was a "single-make" open-wheel auto racing series that ran from 2005 until 2009. It was unique in its field in that competitors solely represented their nation as opposed to themselves or a team, the usual format in most fo ...

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 The GP2 Series was a form of open wheel motor racing introduced in 2005 following the discontinuation of the long-term Formula One feeder series, Formula 3000. The GP2 format was conceived by Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore, while Eccl ...

car in Abu Dhabi. Formula Acceleration 1 (FA1) was the most prominent part of

Acceleration 2014 Acceleration 2014 was a multi-day festival combining top class Formula racing, car and Motorcycle racing, bike racing with live music and other entertainment. The festival was organised by the International Sport Racing Association (ISRA), based ...

, a series of festivals combining top class car and bike racing with music and entertainment. Next to FA1, there was the MW-V6 Pickup Series, based on the former Dutch racing series

BRL V6 The Benelux Racing League V6, better known as BRL V6, was a touring car racing series held in The Netherlands and Belgium between 2004 and 2009. It is the heavier variant on the BRL Light. For 2010, BRL cars were allowed into the Dutch Supercar Ch ...

, the

Legend SuperCup The 2014 Legend SuperCup season was a legends car racing series that started over 25–27 April in Portimão, Portugal and ended over 17–19 October at the TT Circuit Assen, Netherlands. Legend SuperCup (LSC) was a part of Acceleration 2014, ...

, based on

legends car racing Legends car racing is a style of auto racing designed primarily to promote exciting racing and to keep costs down. The race car bodyshells are 5/8-scale replicas of American automobiles from the 1930s and 1940s, powered by Yamaha XJ1250, FJ1200 ...

, and the European Stock 600 and 1000 Series, which featured

motorcycle racing Motorcycle racing (also called moto racing and motorbike racing) is the motorcycle sport of racing motorcycles. Major varieties include motorcycle road racing and off-road racing, both either on circuits or open courses, and track racing. ...

for 15- and 16-year-olds. As for the music, on Friday evenings,

David Hasselhoff David Michael Hasselhoff (born July 17, 1952), nicknamed "The Hoff", is an American actor, singer, and television personality. He has set a Guinness World Record as the most watched man on TV. Hasselhoff first gained recognition on ''The You ...

hosted "Celebrate the 80's and the 90's with The Hoff", a dance party featuring

2 Unlimited 2 Unlimited are a Belgian/Dutch dance music act, founded by Belgian producers/songwriters Jean-Paul De Coster and Phil Wilde in 1991 in Antwerp, Belgium. From 1991 to 1996, Dutch rapper Ray Slijngaard and Dutch vocalist Anita Doth fronted the ...

Haddaway Nestor Alexander Haddaway (born 9 January 1965) is a Trinidadian-born German singer best known for his 1993 hit single " What Is Love", which reached number 1 in 13 countries. Early life Nestor Alexander Haddaway was born in Trinidad and Tobago ...

Kim Wilde Kim Wilde (born Kim Smith, 18 November 1960) is an English pop singer, DJ and television presenter. She first saw success in 1981 with her debut single " Kids in America", which peaked at No. 2 in the UK. In 1983, she received the Brit Award ...

, and others. Saturday evenings saw performances from international DJs. The championship was dominated by

Nigel Melker Nigel Melker (born 25 January 1991) is a Dutch racing driver. Career Karting Melker was born in Rotterdam. He began his motorsport career in karting in 2001, winning in the Dutch Mini Junior Cup. In 2005, he won the German Junior championship ...

and

Mirko Bortolotti Mirko Bortolotti (born 10 January 1990) is an Italian racing driver from Trento. He has won the Italian Formula 3 Championship in 2008, the FIA Formula 2 Championship in 2011, the Eurocup Megane Trophy in 2013 and the Blancpain GT Series Enduran ...

, 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 Richard Gonda (born 14 March 1994, in Banská Bystrica) is a professional racing driver from Slovakia. Career Karting Gonda began karting in 2003 and raced primarily in his native Slovakia for the majority of his career, working his way up fro ...

, 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 Felix Rosenqvist (born 7 November 1991) is a Swedish professional racing driver who currently drives the No. 6 Chevrolet for Arrow McLaren SP in the NTT IndyCar Series. He was named Rookie of the Year for the IndyCar Series in 2019. Racing ca ...

, who completed a double at

Monza Monza (, ; lmo, label= Lombard, Monça, locally ; lat, Modoetia) is a city and ''comune'' on the River Lambro, a tributary of the Po in the Lombardy region of Italy, about north-northeast of Milan. It is the capital of the Province of M ...

; 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 Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship ...

test.

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 and Acceleration at Hungaroring was cancelled on 20 August 2014.

Race format

Entrants

;Notes * Portimao: Picho Toledano was entered for the inaugural weekend but withdrew due to technical problems without competing in a session. * Navarra:

Nathanaël Berthon Nathanaël Berthon (born 1 July 1989 in Romagnat) is a professional racing driver from France. Career Karting Berthon began his international karting career in 2006, with the highlights being a third-place finish in the Copa Campeones Trophy I ...

replaced Sergio Campana at Acceleration Team France. Campana replaced

Armando Parente Armando Parente (born 29 March 1989) is a Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portugue ...

and drove for

, while Parente joined the Chinese team. Oliver Campos-Hull therefore moved to Team Spain, replacing Victor Garcia. Finally, the Danish-born Dennis Lind took

's seat at the Swedish team. * Nürburgring:

Alessio Picariello Clemente Alessio Picariello (born 27 August 1993) is a Belgian racing driver. His father is Italian. In 2001, he participated in his first race. In 2002, Alessio participate in all championship races but given the quality of his material, his f ...

replaced

at Acceleration Team France.

Jimmy Eriksson Jimmy Eriksson (born 14 March 1991 in Tomelilla) is a Swedish race car driver who drove in the GP2 Series for Arden International in the 2016 GP2 Series Career Karting Eriksson made his karting debut in 2005, at the age of fourteen. In 2008 h ...

replaced Dennis Lind at the Swedish team. Lind moved to

Acceleration Team Venezuela In mechanics, acceleration is the rate of change of the velocity of an object with respect to time. Accelerations are vector quantities (in that they have magnitude and direction). The orientation of an object's acceleration is given by ...

, replacing

Rodolfo González Rodolfo González (born 14 May 1986 in Caracas) is a retired Venezuelan racing driver. Career Formula Renault After previously competing in karting, González raced in the 2003 Formula Renault 2.0 UK Winter Series, before racing in the main ...

. * Monza:

Marco Barba Marco Antonio Barba López (born 10 November 1985 in Seville) is a Spanish racing driver and brother to Álvaro Barba. Career Formula Junior 1600 Barba began his racing career in 2003 in the Spanish Formula Junior 1600 series, taking a single ...

replaced Oliver Campos-Hull at Acceleration Team Spain.

came back to the Swedish team, taking over from

Steijn Schothorst Steijn Schothorst (born 14 October 1994) is a Dutch racing driver. His father Jeroen, his brother Pieter and his nephew Bas Schothorst are also active in Dutch motorsport. Karting and production car racing In 2009, Steijn Schothorst finished s ...

made his debut for Acceleration Team China, run by the Venezuelan

Team Lazarus Team Lazarus is an Italian auto racing team, based in Padova, which is currently competing in the International GT Open and Blancpain GT Endurance Series formerly starting in GP2 Series and Auto GP. Background Team Lazarus were founded i ...

, which also employed Dennis Lind for the race. * Assen:

drove for China.

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

entered two cars, for

Gian Maria Gabbiani Gian is a masculine Italian given name. It is a variant of Gianni and is likewise used as a diminutive of Giovanni, the Italian form of John. In Italian, any name including Giovanni can be contracted to Gian, particularly in combination with othe ...

and Sergio Campana, who was replaced by Dutchman Jeroen Mul at Acceleration Team Portugal. The Swede Kevin Kleveros took over from Picho Toledano and

Craig Dolby Craig Dolby (born 31 March 1988 in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, England) is a British racing driver. He has raced in Formula Renault series around the world for most of his career, winning the Formula Renault 1.6 Belgium championship in 20 ...

drove for Sweden instead of

. Acceleration Team Netherlands also entered a second car for Bas Schouten, who previously entered MW-V6. Finally,

Acceleration Team United Kingdom In mechanics, acceleration is the rate of change of the velocity of an object with respect to time. Accelerations are vector quantities (in that they have magnitude and direction). The orientation of an object's acceleration is given by ...

entered this race with

Dani Clos Daniel Clos Álvarez (born 23 October 1988) is a Spanish professional racecar driver who was, in 2012, the test driver for the now defunct HRT Formula One team. Career Karting Born in Barcelona, Clos was a fairly successful karter at the ...

at the wheel.

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 Lola B05/52 is an open-wheel single-seater sports car developed by the British company Lola Racing Cars in 2005 and currently still in production. History The car was conceived as the only car admitted to the newly created A1 Grand Prix series. ...

, used in

between

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris (dwarf planet), Er ...

and

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing ...

. *

Engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ...

: 3.4 L V8

Zytek Gibson Technology is an automotive and motorsport company based at Repton, Derbyshire, England. It was founded by Bill Gibson as "Zytek Engineering" in 1981. In 1981 Gibson founded the "Zytech Group" with two main divisions: Zytek Automotive, ...

ZA1348 *

Horsepower Horsepower (hp) is a unit of measurement of power, or the rate at which work is done, usually in reference to the output of engines or motors. There are many different standards and types of horsepower. Two common definitions used today are th ...

: 550 hp *

Chassis A chassis (, ; plural ''chassis'' from French châssis ) is the load-bearing framework of an artificial object, which structurally supports the object in its construction and function. An example of a chassis is a vehicle frame, the underpa ...

carbon fibre Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (American English), carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers (Commonwealth English The use of the English language in current and former member countries of the Commonwealth of Nations was largely inherited fro ...

and

aluminium Aluminium (aluminum in AmE, American and CanE, Canadian English) is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately o ...

honeycomb A honeycomb is a mass of hexagonal prismatic wax cells built by honey bees in their nests to contain their larvae and stores of honey and pollen. Beekeepers may remove the entire honeycomb to harvest honey. Honey bees consume about of honey t ...

Wheelbase In both road and rail vehicles, the wheelbase is the horizontal distance between the centers of the front and rear wheels. For road vehicles with more than two axles (e.g. some trucks), the wheelbase is the distance between the steering (front ...

: 3,000 mm (118.1 in) *

Weight In science and engineering, the weight of an object is the force acting on the object due to gravity. Some standard textbooks define weight as a vector quantity, the gravitational force acting on the object. Others define weight as a scalar q ...

: 698 kg (driver included) *

Suspension Suspension or suspended may refer to: Science and engineering * Suspension (topology), in mathematics * Suspension (dynamical systems), in mathematics * Suspension of a ring, in mathematics * Suspension (chemistry), small solid particles suspen ...

double wishbone suspension A double wishbone suspension is an independent suspension design for automobiles using two (occasionally parallel) wishbone-shaped arms to locate the wheel. Each wishbone or arm has two mounting points to the chassis and one joint at the knuck ...

with

push-rod An overhead valve (OHV) engine, sometimes called a ''pushrod engine'', is a piston engine whose valves are located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier flathead engines, where the valves were located be ...

* Dampers:

Öhlins Öhlins or Öhlins Racing AB, is a Swedish company that develops suspension systems for the automotive, motorcycle, mountain bike and motorsport industries. Approximately 97% of all production is exported and Öhlins has distribution in over 50 ...

TT44 3-Way, adjustable *

Gearbox Propulsion transmission is the mode of transmitting and controlling propulsion power of a machine. The term ''transmission'' properly refers to the whole drivetrain, including clutch, gearbox, prop shaft (for rear-wheel drive vehicles), diffe ...

Xtrac Xtrac Limited, also known as Xtrac Transmission Technology, is a British engineering company founded in 1984 by the former Hewland engineer Mike Endean to make 4WD systems and gearboxes for rallycross and later rally and racing cars. Endean, tog ...

, electronic, six

gears A gear is a rotating circular machine part having cut teeth or, in the case of a cogwheel or gearwheel, inserted teeth (called ''cogs''), which mesh with another (compatible) toothed part to transmit (convert) torque and speed. The basic ...

Brakes A brake is a mechanical device that inhibits motion by absorbing energy from a moving system. It is used for slowing or stopping a moving vehicle, wheel, axle, or to prevent its motion, most often accomplished by means of friction. Backgroun ...

: AP calipers with four pistons, steel discs *

Tyres A tire (American English) or tyre (British English) is a ring-shaped component that surrounds a wheel's rim to transfer a vehicle's load from the axle through the wheel to the ground and to provide traction on the surface over which t ...

Michelin Michelin (; ; full name: ) is a French multinational tyre manufacturing company based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes '' région'' of France. It is the second largest tyre manufacturer in the world behind Bridgestone and ...

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). ;Sprint race points ;Feature race points

Drivers' championship

Teams' championship

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Formula Acceleration 1 Acceleration 2014 2014 in European sport Acceleration 1