Formula 1 2015 - pre season testing.

Looking back at the previous season(s).

Since 2010 we have seen Red Bull-Renault dominating and winning both the drivers as well as the constructors championship four times in a row.
But last year, it was Mercedes who dominated the field while Red Bull and other teams powered by Renault engines had a difficult start and were plagued with reliability problems throughout the 2014 championship season.
The new 1.6L V6 turbo engine which was introduced had been criticized by many, and surely at the start of the season there were many complaints about the sound this engine produces.
But on the other hand, they are more powerful than the V8 which means higher straight line speed.
Ricciardo clocked the fastest speed at Monza 2014 with 362 km per hour whereas with the V8 they managed to reach a speed of 325 km per hour.
Naturally it does not say much, Renault was certainly not the most powerful engine last season, lower downforce means the car will go faster in a strait line, but a lot slower through the corners.

The biggest announcement came early September when it was announced that a 16 year old boy was contracted by Toro Rosso as a race driver for 2015, Max Verstappen, the son of Jos the Boss.

A horrific accident at Susuka shocked many, Jules Bianchi lost control of his car and slammed into the backside of a shovel which was there to remove the car of Adrian Suttil who spun at the same corner in the previous lap.

Two teams did not finish the 2014 championship because of financial problems, Marussia took part with only one car in the Russian grand prix, Caterham did not take part for a few races but through crowdfunding, they managed to take part in the last race of 2014.

During winter it became apparent that a gap in the regulations allowed the manufacturers to work on and improve their engines, which they did of course.
Who has done its homework best, will it be Mercedes again, or perhaps Honda who returns to f1 as the engine manufacturer for McLaren, Renault and Ferrari both had much work to do to close the gap to Mercedes.

The 2015 championship season.

Teams.

Mercedes.
Last year they were dominating the field, they were capable to win every race with ease if they were not struck by mechanical failures or made a mistake which would cost them the victory.
It is rumoured that they found another 50 to 60 pk, so their engine will be even stronger than last year.
The race drivers are Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

Red Bull Renault.
After the terrible start last year and problems with their engine package, Renault has been working hard to make the engine more reliable and powerful.
Sebastian Vettel has left Red Bull and secured a seat at Ferrari, Daniil Kvyat is the new race driver alongside Daniel Ricciardo.

Ferrari.
While they are certainly capable of producing a fast car, the car last year again was not a winner, especially because their engine lacked power and the drivability was not good.
Ferrari just like Renault has been working hard on their engine, also at management level people have been replaced.
Fernando Alonso has left Ferrari for McLaren, Sebastian Vettel who joined the team and Kimi Raikkonen are the race drivers this year.

Williams Mercedes.
It will be quite interesting how the performance will be this year compared to last year when they were the best of the rest behind Mercedes.
The mercedes engine as the powersource of their f1car is certainly a plus.
the same race drivers as last year, Filipé Massa and Valtteri Bottas.

McLaren Honda.
Since Lewis Hamilton left the team at the end of 2012 McLaren has not been as competitive as they would have wanted.
But this year the McLaren is fitted with a new engine and Fernando Alonso has replaced Kevin Magnussen as the race driver alongside Jenson Button.

Force India Mercedes.
There are not much changes compared to last year, With Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez they certainly have two good race drivers, let's see if the car is an improvement compared to last year.

Toro Rosso Renault.
Last years car was certainly not bad, but like their brother Red Bull they had problems with the reliability of the Renault engine and lack of engine power compared to Ferrari and Mercedes.
Daniil Kvyat left Toro Rosso for Red Bull, Jean Eric Vergne did not get a renewed contract.
The new drivers are Carlos Sainz Jr (winner of 2014 Formula Renault 3.5 Championship) and Max Verstappen.

Lotus Mercedes.
Last year was quite dramatic, not only did they suffer the same problems as Red Bull and Toro Rosso during pre season testing because of the Renault engine, they were also well behind in terms of pace because the car handling was not good.
The Renault engine has been swapped for a Mercedes engine and with their new car they are quite certain that they have improved the whole package compared to last year, so a far better result is expected.
Like last year the drivers are Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado.

Sauber Ferrari.
Like Lotus, Sauber had a dramatic year, driving at the back of the field and not scoring a single point in last years championship.
It will be interesting to see how they will perform this year, with Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr they have two young race drivers.

Formula 1 has lost its appeal for many, me included.

Mercedes, Renault and Ferrari has engines in at least 2 or more teams and that just leaves Honda as the other engine provider.

There are only three teams that can realistically challenge and that reduces to two in no time and then turns to one, where the team mates are battling each other. There's always one driver that's favoured, regardless of what they try to tell us and this just adds to the tediousness.

Sure I appreciate the majority of motoring advances have come through Formula 1, but as a spectacle it has become extremely boring.

S&F for the thread though.

i hope alonso gets a car he deserves this year.
jenson whinging about not finding any grip.
and of coarse to lewis beating nico.

cant wait.

a reply to: Cobaltic1978

I agree fully agree that changes are needed, build the cars in a way that they can use the slipstream to overtake instead of the DRS.
They took a wrong direction in my opinion as to what F1 should be.
The sound of the V10 was so overwhelming beautiful to experience, the grip of the car back in 2000/2001/2002 was much better than it is now because of many changes in regulation concerning the downforce of the car.
I hope they will return to that concept and stop changing the regulations every year.

It would be great to see BMW or Ford back in F1, McLaren is exclusively backed by Honda, that might give McLaren an edge over other teams or not, i'm really curious how the engine will perform.

If one team is so far ahead as Mercedes was, it is indeed quite boring, especially if it is a strait forward race without rain.
I have a feeling that the gap between teams might be closer than last year but all in all, it is realistic to say that 3 teams will battle for the championship while the rest battle for the remaining points.
For Max it is realistic to say he did good if he finishes p8, i do not see Toro Rosso in front of Williams/Red Bull/Ferrari/Mercedes, and if McLaren has a good car (which i think they have) it will be difficult to score points for him.

a reply to: earthling42

You know, everyone is saying that Mercedes' dominance is solely due to their engines - but if that was really true why is Red Bull 2nd and Ferrari 4th when FOUR teams drove with the Mercedes engine?

Mercedes drove the pants off of McLaren, Force India and Williams .. and of Red Bull and Ferrari.


They deserve more credit than they get imho.

originally posted by: Cobaltic1978
There are only three teams that can realistically challenge and that reduces to two in no time and then turns to one, where the team mates are battling each other.
S&F for the thread though.

True, but you have to agree that it was one heck of en inter-team battle we had (and have had, in previous seasons)!

I really loved this season!

a reply to: Rikku

I have a feeling he does have a good car, Jenson is a good race driver but Fernando or Lewis have that extra which allows them to extract everything out of the car.
Since Lewis has left Mclaren, the results were not that good and i do think that Fernando is going to change that this year if Honda has given them a good powersource.

a reply to: DupontDeux

True, they also managed to prolong the tire life while driving on the edge, so they undoubtly had a very good shassis

live.autosport.com...

a reply to: earthling42

I am really excited to see how the Honda engine turns out to be and if they have solved their problems on the earodynamics side. I would like to see Jenson get a better-than-decent car. He is just so likable! And Alonsso has been so amazing the last few years that I do not think I can really fathom what he will be able to do in a top car.


It is, however, hard for me to root for the team itself. The way MacLaren treated both Jenson and Magnussenwas, and left them hanging, disgusted me. Still, for the drivers sake, I hope McLaren nails it this year.

a reply to: earthling42

Nice summary, S&F.

Formula 1 may have lost it's appeal for some, but world viewership is way up with races added recently in China, Russia, United States, Korea, Malaysia and now, Mexico!

After MANY decades, the appeal of the premier formula is undiminished for me.

As an early adopter of electric propulsion and hybrid technology I love the way the cars are evolving and the new sound is music to my ears.

The restrictions on fuel mileage, the durability standards imposed on the engines and transmissions and the motivation to create the most efficient batteries, motor/generators and turbochargers in the world continues to make F1 the leading edge of rolling technology.

Downsizing of the internal combustion component of the power unit and increased demand for electric horses is playing directly back into Honda's court and it is so exciting to see their return to the sport. We'll need to give them a few races to get up to speed, but I am certain by mid season they will have exceeded Ferrari's record from 2014 and won at least one race.

One of the biggest stories from 2014 has got to be the phenomenal performance of young Australian, Daniel Ricciardo who bested his teammate, reigning 4 time champ, Sebastien Vettel, time after time. Not only has he outdriven the best in the world, but done so in the classiest of good manners. I really enjoy seeing such a deserving young person doing so well.

Ferrari is an enigma, again this year, with two of the top hired guns to ever pilot F1 cars together for the first time. As adversaries the 'Iceman' (Raikkonen) and 'Finger Boy' (Vettel) were two of a kind and would be seen chatterin' together in the post race press conferences like they were frat brothers. Now that they're actually on the same side it will be interesting to see how they sort out their team hierarchy. In 2014 Kimi was clearly Alonso's beeatch and rarely did he press his more popular latin teammate until it became obvious that Fernando wasn't ever going to find the pace he needed for a win. This year, with Kimi being the senior man, he won't be giving his partner any 'after you's'.

I can't wait until March 15th!

a reply to: Psynic

Ricciardo was truly amazing, outshining Vettel race after race, but to be fair, Vettel is hardly the best in the world. Ricciardo himself for one is a better driver. And so is Alonso, Hamilton, and, I think Rosberg.

I think Ricciardo's performance once and for all proved that the last four years has been dominated by Red Bull and not Sebastian Vettel.

originally posted by: DupontDeux
a reply to: Psynic

Ricciardo was truly amazing, outshining Vettel race after race, but to be fair, Vettel is hardly the best in the world. Ricciardo himself for one is a better driver. And so is Alonso, Hamilton, and, I think Rosberg.

I think Ricciardo's performance once and for all proved that the last four years has been dominated by Red Bull and not Sebastian Vettel.

World Champion four years in a row and 'nonce' for David Coulthard is a fairly strong indication of driving skill.

I'd put Raikkonen, Vettel, Hamilton, Ricciardo and Bottas, in that order, into the 'Group A' of drivers and Alonso, Button, Massa, Maldonado and Hulkenberg together into a 'Group B'. I just can't see the spark in Alonso anymore. Raikkonen finally was green lighted to 'go for it' at Spa and he left the Spaniard in the dust, showing what he could have done from the beginning if he was allowed to be anything other than a 'support' to the team. Nobody else, currently driving in F1 has shown us the MAGIC like the Iceman. The question is, can Ferrari become competitive again after falling behind these last few years with Alonso at the helm.

If they give Kimi a car capable of winning A race, he is capable of winning it all, again.

a reply to: DupontDeux

Ricciardo himself for one is a better driver. And so is Alonso, Hamilton, and, I think Rosberg.

Rosberg is a great qualifier (maybe his set up is too much been set up for qualifying), but his race pace isn`t just there, not only last season but before that also.

I still think Alonso is the fastest driver in the field, but Ferrari hasn`t been more the last few years as in the time whith Berger and Alesi...they start behind the top in the beginning of the season and try to play catch up when the top also moves ahead.

I`m interested to see what Honda is going to do, in MotoGP they sure know how to build good engines and in earlier days they were also able to deliver in F1.

For me being Dutch I`m thrilled to watch Max Verstappen. I agree with the new rules about coming a F1 driver because I suspect Max might to do well, which would open the gates for other young drivers too much.

Having followed him somewhat, he seems to be an exceptional talent. Will he make rookie mistakes because of inexperience, sure, but they will be balanced because of his great car control which will offset mistakes other rookies are going to make.

His first Friday training in Japan wasn`t bad last year knowing it was the first time ever for him in that car. In America, his second Friday training, he had some troubles with his tires. And for Brazil they changed his suspension to suite him more, he drove with only 1/3 hybrid power his fastest lap and would have beaten Kvyat who drove with 3/3 with full hybrid power, so it would have been 3th or 4th place over all, and that`s not bad.

He is also really good in the rain, outpacing the much more experienced F3 drives last season with ease. His ability to adapt to changes and the quickness which he learns makes him going to do well.

Most probably are looking at this (first time in that car) and think, well that`s a lot of little corrections...


But this is from about the same time with a car he`s familiar with, and this is what you can expect him to do with in a F1 car also very soon when he`s used to it a bit more (and with him that won`t take that long)...


A lot of "experts/drivers" are only comparing the age (experience) thing to themselves in the past and think it`s to early, but I think Carlos Sainz is going to have some serious trouble with the speed of his teammate. Not all races it will go well of course, you still will have bad weekends also, but a lot will be surprised by Max this season.

Holy crap Mercedes is fast right away.

Last years best time for day 1 testing 1m27.104s.

Rosberg after only a couple of lapse is already doing 1m23.1s.

a reply to: BornAgainAlien

Even faster than the best time overall last year at Jerez, Sebastian has gone faster now and is on top with a 1.22.9

a reply to: Cobaltic1978

I lost interest in Formula 1 at least 15 years ago, maybe more... It just wasn't as exciting as it used to be and it got boring watching guys drive a car round a track for said amount of time and getting paid for it vast amounts of cash!!

I havn't watched any FE (Formula Electric) but I think that's more entertaining and its also environment friendly.

Those guys in Formula One have known how bad those cars are with pollution for ages yet they continued on....

a reply to: earthling42

The cars are a lot faster this year.

Good to see Ferrari also has the pace already.

a reply to: TruthxIsxInxThexMist

F1 pollution is such a small drop in the overall picture.

I have been watching it for 30 years +, from the time when Niki Lauda was driving and Alain Prost made his debut and even early 90s it was already starting to be difficult to overtake, but at least they went to the max with not having to spare tires as they now need to do...to me they should change that back, if they go more to the max you will see also more crashes and it has gotten bit boring with not enough of them anymore.

Sauber seems to have good pace too, while premature, it looks like the Ferrari engine is delivering.