F1 SEASON PRIMER
Getting up to speed
The 2015 FIA Formula One World Championship kicks off this weekend with the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. F1 writer Walter Buchignani steers you through five key talking points to get you up to speed.
1. MERCEDES
The Silver Arrows were miles ahead of the competition last season, accounting for 16 wins in 19 races. In the end, Lewis Hamilton beat teammate Nico Rosberg to the drivers’ championship by winning six of the last seven races.
It’s fun to win under any circumstance, but even Hamilton is on record as saying F1 is “more exciting” when the title fight pits drivers from different teams. As he put it, “it’s two for the price of one” when you beat both your teammate and your rivals in cars that are just as fast as yours.
How likely are we to see stiffer competition in 2015? Alas, not very. For one thing, the rules of the game and technical specifications of the cars have changed little from last season, giving Mercedes a leg up. Hence, Hamilton and Rosberg were alarmingly quick in the last series of winter tests, over a second per lap faster than the best of the rest.
So look for the Silver Arrows to continue their dominance, at least in the initial races. Ironically, progress is agonizingly slow in a sport that goes 300 km/h. If another team manages to close the gap, chances are it will happen later rather than sooner.
The Prancing Horse has been on the limp for several years now, with no drivers’ title since 2007 and no wins and only two podiums in 2014. Fans around the world — the tifosi — are desperate for a return to glory for the most storied franchise in F1.
The good news is Ferrari is looking better than last year. The bad is it could hardly look worse.
At the very least, there is reason for optimism. During the winter tests, Ferrari emerged as the most improved team since last year, though still a step or more behind Mercedes and maybe even the likes of Williams and Red Bull. But at least the revamped red cars now seem to be pointing in the right direction.
What’s certain is Ferrari has undergone a top-to-bottom shakeup in its attempt to kickstart a turnaround, with the arrival of a new chairman (Canadian-raised Sergio Marchionne), a new team boss (Maurizio Arrivabene) and new star driver — four-time champion Sebastian Vettel, who will partner incumbent Kimi Raikkonen, author of
that distant 2007 title.
If nothing else, the Prancing Horse has been given a swift kick in the behind. The tifosi are eager to see how it responds.
3. FERNANDO ALONSO
You knew Ferrari was in deep trouble when rumours began to circulate suggesting the unthinkable: Alonso wanted out.
This was a match made in racing heaven, after all — the fiery Spaniard with the Latin temperament and two titles under his belt fulfilling his lifelong dream of driving for the hallowed scuderia.
What went wrong? What caused him to ditch his coveted seat at the end of last season, two years before the end of his contract? Why would he go when no vacancy awaited him at Mercedes, his first choice, or Red Bull, his second?
There could be only one answer: From his privileged vantage point within Ferrari, where he’d already invested five years, Alonso could not bear the extent of the disarray and the prospect of ending his career without a legitimate shot at another championship.
Instead, he chose McLaren and the uncertainty of that team’s new engine partnership with Honda, with fingers crossed the move wouldn’t backfire.
We’ll see. But early indications are disheartening. If Ferrari took a step forward in the off-season, McLaren went in the opposite direction with its new car, which proved slow and unreliable out of the box.
Making matters worse, Alonso suffered a concussion in a crash during testing and must sit out the season opener in Melbourne. Reservist Kevin Magnussen will take his place alongside Jenson Button in the sister McLaren.
4. DANIEL RICCIARDO
Mercedes stumbled three times last season, and all three times Red Bull was there to inherit the victory. No surprise there. Red Bull was the dominant force in F1 for four years before Mercedes clipped its wings.
The surprise: The winning driver at those three races was not Sebastian Vettel, the quadruple world champion. Instead, Red Bull newcomer Ricciardo stood atop the podium each time — including at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve — flashing his cartoon grin, the widest in F1 and maybe all of sports.
No doubt Vettel chose to leave Red Bull, the team that brought him so much glory, because he felt he needed a new challenge. He was lured by Ferrari’s prestige (albeit now diminished) and its deep pockets (his contract is worth a reported $80 million a year). But he might also have been trying to escape the man who’s been described as Red Bull’s new “smiling assassin” — a nickname previously reserved for Vettel.
As things stand, Red Bull does not represent a serious threat to the dominance of Mercedes. The team remains compromised by the inability of engine partner Renault to come up to speed with its contribution to the overall performance of the car. But should Mercedes falter — through mechanical failure or driver error — Ricciardo will be ready to pounce, again.
This weekend, the native of Perth, Australia, arrives with extra motivation as he embarks on the new season with a push from his home crowd. A word of caution to his rivals and to new teammate Daniil Kvyat of Russia: Don’t let the smile fool you.
5. VALTTERI BOTTAS
The Finn finished fourth in the drivers’ standings last year, behind Ricciardo and the Mercedes pair, thanks to a strong second half of the campaign that saw him rattle off six podiums, including two straight second places, in Germany and Britain.
In doing so, the 25-year-old outperformed his much more experienced teammate, Felipe Massa, who finished down in seventh, and helped push the Williams squad to third place in the constructors’ standings, behind Mercedes and Red Bull.
At the season finale in Abu Dhabi, both Williams drivers ended up on the podium, standing on either side of the winner Hamilton. That image underscored a clear message: Slowly but surely, albeit belatedly, Williams was closing in.
The question now is whether the team can pick up from where it left off.
Evidence from winter testing suggests the answer is yes. The combined stats from the last round of tests, in Barcelona, show the two Mercedes drivers at the top of the time sheets, followed by the two from Williams — with Bottas ahead of Massa.
When it comes to storylines, few are as memorable in F1 than when a young driver wins his first Grand Prix. For Bottas, maybe, this will be the year. On the Tube: Live coverage of the Australian Grand Prix airs Saturday at 12:55 a.m. on TSN and RDS. Check listings for repeat broadcasts.