2014 Formula One Rejects Microprose Grand Prix Series season

The fourth season of the Formula One Rejects Microprose Grand Prix Series was held in 2014, on fifteen of the circuits of the 1994 Formula One season, plus Mexico in place of what was then known as TI Aida. The net result in this series is the replacement of the race at Phoenix by one at Jerez. The schedule was optimised for maximum travel efficiency - races in the Americas first, then the European season, followed by the final races flying east to Japan and Australia.

This season also saw the introduction of refuelling, even in the newly-created Women's European Cup which used 2013-spec cars which needed retro-fitting with filling valves.

The reigning Drivers' Champion was Chris Dagnall, who returned to defend his title, and the reigning Constructors' Champions were Viking Racing.

Calendar
Pre-season testing was held at Circuit Ricardo Tormo, Valencia, Spain on 12/14/16 February 2014.

Entrants
The field consisted of 19 teams, all entering two cars.

Team and engine changes

 * Team America F1, Osella Squadra Corse, Mastercard Lola and Life Racing Engines left the series after the end of the 2013 season.
 * As a consequence, the Life 3.5-litre W12 was withdrawn from the series. Dodge, Alfa Romeo and Volkswagen also left the series after the end of the 2013 season - although the Volkswagen engine was not a factory effort.
 * Allez Les Bleus! Prost Formule Un and Driot-Arnoux Motorsport merged to form Société Prost-Arnoux Motorsport (SPAM). They were not put off this idea by the unfortunate new acronym. Former Renault F1 team-mates Alain Prost and René Arnoux were in charge of the new F1RMGP team, with Jean-Paul Driot returning to run the DAMS squad that competes in the GP2 Series.
 * Dome Engineering Design, Spyker Squadron, Suzuki Works Team and (somewhat inexplicably) David Price Racing joined the series as new teams.
 * Three new engine suppliers joined the series for the 2014 season. The first was the Mecachrome-backed Propulsion Universelle et Recuperation d'Energie (PURE) unveiled their 1.6-litre inline-4 engine, signing a contract with Formula One Rejects Motorsport, to the ire of Proton, whose tie-up with Mecachrome to produce a triple-turbo W9 for Fondmetal Team Malaysia had been an abject failure. Proton decided to supply the Malaysian team with their own answer to the PURE engine - the same capacity and layout.
 * The second significant new engine manufacturer was Audi, whose entry had been in response to Peugeot's decision to switch from their standard V10 Formula One engine (as previously supplied to Prost) to the twin turbo diesel V6 from the 908 Le Mans Prototype. SPAM were the recipients of the Peugeot diesel; seeking a German team, Audi had no choice but to team up with the failing ATS Rial Racing team, increasing funding from the team massively and supplying their equivalent single turbo diesel V6 from the R18, thus ousting the non-works Volkswagen VR6 from the series.
 * The third new engine supplier was Suzuki, who developed a 2.7 litre twin turbo V6 engine from the Pikes Peak Hillclimb Escudo, rumoured to develop 1000 bhp but found to be detuned to rather less than that. Having consulted almost the entire grid (F1RM were a prime target when their supply of Life engines was abruptly halted), there was no interest from the existing teams, and Suzuki formed their own works team to go it alone. Leyton House were revealed as the title sponsor when the 2014 cars were unveiled.
 * The Honda 2.4 litre V8 was replaced by a 3.0 litre V10, developed by Mugen Motorsports and supplied to both Super Aguri and the new Dome team.
 * The Neotech V12 engine was supplied to the new Spyker team as well as their previous customers, EuroBrun.
 * The spare supply of Renault engines no longer required by DAMS after their incorporation into SPAM were given to David Price Racing, rebadged as Dacia due to the team's Romanian connections via André Herck.
 * The long and boring feud between Tony Fernandes and Dany Bahar that had done so much to drag the name of Team Lotus through the mud finally came to a head as both men were ordered to run the same team; Fondmetal Team Malaysia and Genii Capital from Bahar's F1 team were forcibly merged into Genii Team Malaysia.

Driver changes

 * Marco Apicella moved from Super Aguri to Dome, who he had driven for in Japanese Formula 3000, the new boys seeing fit to poach one of their former drivers from the rival Japanese team.
 * Olivier Grouillard found himself surplus to requirements after the Prost/DAMS merger and moved to Monteverdi.
 * Alex Yoong left Fondmetal Team Malaysia in disgust, before its merger with Genii, and moved back to Minardi.
 * Plamen Kralev was left high and dry after the withdrawal of Mastercard Lola but signed for David Price.
 * Fellow Lola refugee Ricardo Teixeira took the second seat at Genii Team Malaysia.
 * Joachim Winkelhock moved from AGS to ATS Rial, due to Audi's demand for an all-German line-up.
 * Forced out of the new regime at ATS Rial for not being German, Pierre-Henri Raphanel moved to Winkelhock's old seat at AGS.
 * As Suzuki used an old Life chassis to test their engine in, Bruno Giacomelli was signed as an official test driver, being promoted to the race drive when the team's entry was finally confirmed.
 * Scott Speed, Jimmie Johnson, Taki Inoue, Piercarlo Ghinzani, Andrea Chiesa, Pierluigi Martini, Gary Brabham and Vincenzo Sospiri all left the series. Sospiri signed as a test driver with Arrows Grand Prix International as they attempted to claim a place on the 2014 F1RMGP grid, but their application was unsuccessful.
 * Emanuele Naspetti returned to the series, having previously driven for Forti in the 2011 season. He signed for Dome, having driven for them in Japanese Formula 3000.
 * Marko Asmer (Simtek), Olivier Beretta (Spyker), Shinji Nakano (Super Aguri) and Hideki Noda (Leyton House-Suzuki) all joined the series - as, and nobody can quite figure out why, did Christophe Hurni, though as he signed for David Price, that's no surprise. Shinji Nakano was the winner of a seven-driver shootout held by Super Aguri to find their second driver after the shock departure of Marco Apicella; Noda was second, and was signed by Leyton House-Suzuki shortly afterwards.

Entry List
Note: "All" in the "Rounds" column refers to all the rounds that have taken place in the championship so far. Driver changes mid-season are, however, unlikely.

Gallery
Simtek were caught napping by someone who appeared to be Rrrrrmmmnn Grrrrjjjjnnn creeping around in their garage, fiddling with their computers. It was later discovered to be Row-Man Gross-Gene, a F1 Rejects forum user who is adept at computer hacking and production of motor racing themed colouring-in books. Row-Man was busy downloading the virtual-reality CFD-only blueprints from Nick Wirth's computer for the Virgin VR-01 - which, to nobody's surprise, has been altered to meet F1RMGP regulations and all the chassis for this season have ended up based on a "C" spec version of this car, the "B" version having been rejected for having sidepods that were even more impractical than the original. The teams are said to be absolutely delighted with the CFD-only approach that means none of them have to waste money on expensive wind tunnels - not that any of them need such a thing because all the cars over all four seasons have been stolen from some existing team, usually a massive reject job. Simtek, paying tribute to the car that was such an abysmal failure in 2010, have left the Virgin livery pattern intact and painted it in bark blue, thus unifying Nick Wirth's two reject teams separated by a decade and a half.