Start your engines… it’s time for F1 season
TWO of Formula One’s top drivers have made lucrative moves to new teams in 2015, so fans might think there will be a shake-up to last season’s established order. They would be wrong.
The evidence of pre-season testing suggests the fight for this year’s championship will again be a case of Mercedes versus the rest.
“We want to be better this year. We want to dominate even more,” champion Lewis Hamilton said ahead of the seasonopening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne next Sunday.
The switch of four-time F1 champion Sebastian Vettel from Red Bull to Ferrari, and Fernando Alonso from Ferrari back to McLaren, will provide interesting sub-plots, but the main narrative again looms as Hamilton versus Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg.
Hamilton got the upper hand last season, winning six of the last seven races to hold off the stern challenge from Rosberg and secure his second championship. When his confidence is up and his car per- forming, Hamilton is tough to beat, but Rosberg is taking motivation from the close margins that separated them in 2014. “The difficult times have made me stronger. I need to find small steps to beat him. I am going for it,” Rosberg said.
Mercedes became the dominant force last year as F1 introduced V6 hybrid engines. As one of only two teams to design the engine and the accompanying chassis and aerodynamics – Ferrari is the other – Mercedes enjoyed an advantage.
With this year’s regulations being incrementally different to last year, have the other teams been able to catch up?
Ferrari and Renault-powered Red Bull are the top candidates given their spending power, but the evidence from testing was not convincing.
Honda returns to F1 as engine supplier to McLaren – a combination that saw the team dominate the sport from the late 1980s, in the era of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost. It is Honda’s third entry into F1.
McLaren’s teething problems were evident in a succession of technical issues through testing. Unless those
(All SA times) March 15: Melbourne, 7am March 29: Malaysia, 9am April 12: China, 8am April 19: Bahrain, 5pm May 10: Spain, 2pm May 24: Monaco, 2pm June 07: Canada, 8pm June 21: Austria, 2pm July 05: Britain 4pm July 19: Germany, tbc July 26: Hungary, 2pm August 23: Belgium, 2pm September 06: Italy, 2pm September 20: Singapore, 2pm September 27: Japan, 7am October 11: Russia, 1pm October 25: United States, 9pm November 01: Mexico, 9pm November 15: Brazil, 6pm November 29: Abu Dhabi, 3pm. glitches are resolved, it looks like a season that will test the patience of experienced Alonso and Jenson Button.
Alonso returns to McLaren in different circumstances to his unhappy season with the team in 2007. Back then, he was coming off two successive drivers’ championships and felt entitled to the backing of the team. Instead, Alonso had to battle then-rookie teammate Hamilton throughout the season, and at year’s end he returned to Renault.
Alonso will miss the opening race after suffering a concussion in pre-season tests, but is expected to be fit for the second Grand Prix in Malaysia.
Ferrari hopes Vettel, who won four successive drivers’ titles with Red Bull from 20102013, can invigorate the team the same way his German compatriot, Michael Schumacher, did when he arrived as a world champion a few decades ago.
Vettel also arrives at Ferrari with something to prove after a chastening 2014 when he was outperformed by younger teammate Daniel Ricciardo.
The Australian won three races – the only non-Mercedes driver to take the chequered flag. It was a significant vote of confidence in Ricciardo that the team chose not to pursue another big-name driver for this season, instead hiring young Russian Daniil Kvyat from feeder team Toro Rosso.
Red Bull and Toro Rosso will be the only teams using the Renault engines this year, as Lotus switched to Mercedes power after a horrendous 2014.
Lotus have retained the driver pairing of Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado.