The Main Contenders
Well one thing is certain...Mercedes are clearly still the team to beat, with Nico Rosberg's time of 1m22.792s on soft tyres on the Friday of the final test showed that the team is well ahead of the chasing pack. We could be set then for round two of 'Hamilton vs Rosberg'. But who knows? Maybe the opposition is closer than we think, but who will be leading the chase?
Well, as they were at the end of 2014, it would appear that Williams are leading the chase. The FW37 finally showed some of its pace in the final week of testing and topped two of the days and put in some respectable lap times. The car looked effortless to drive on track and neither Valtteri Bottas, Felipe Massa or test driver Susie Wolff, appeared to struggle to make the car work. The car piled in the mileage and only broke down once over the whole of testing, and even then the team got the car back out pretty quickly.
It looked sharp on track and would appear to be a positive step forward from the FW36. Both Bottas and Massa seemed very happy with the car and the team even packed up early three days in a row in the final week after finishing there program. The team managed to keep up in the development race with the bigger teams last year, and if they can do that this year as well, don't be surprised to see them close the gap to Mercedes as the season goes on.
Ferrari appear to have solid progress over the winter. The Scuderia enjoyed three very successful tests and both Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen said the car felt very good, Kimi described it as being from 'another world' compared to the F14T from last year. The engine sounded a lot better out on track, more refined and with a nicer note to it and the car looked good on track, not looking a handful to drive like last years car and very responsive. Renault have improved in reliability with there power unit but maybe not in performance. Ferrari I would say, have improved there power unit in both areas. There were the usual niggly problems but the car ran reliably for most of the testing and the same can be said for the Ferrari powered Sauber C34. During the final week, Ferrari did the long runs and race simulations we had been waiting for and the car again looked good, and its fastest lap time on the super softs , set my Raikkonen was just 0.014s slower than what the Williams of Massa could manage. It looks like Ferrari could well be F1's third best team right now, but where does that leave Red Bull?
Red Bull stole the show with its stunning dazzle camouflage livery, but it didn't have the smoothest of winters. It was much better than last years, and the RB11 certainly looked strong on track, Red Bull once again designing and building a very good car which aerodynamically is right up there. However, what is again letting the team down is the Renault power unit. It is much more reliable than the 2014 unit, but it is still lacking in performance, which is why the team could well be behind Ferrari.
The RB11 chassis may be stronger than the SF-15T, but with the Ferrari power unit looking stronger (and the chassis being much better than the F14T), then Ferrari may well have leapfrogged the Bulls. Renault however, will be pushing incredibly hard to extract more performance from its engine and are aiming to halve the gap to Mercedes. If they can do that, then they could well leapfrog Ferrari again and be right up there with Williams. Daniel Ricciardo and Red Bull new boy Danill Kvyat both feel the car is good and its race simulations back that up. Do not count Red Bull out. Once Renault have sorted there issues, they will be right up there once again. However, Renault weren't the only engine manufacturer to be having issues this week...
McLaren this year are reviving there partnership with Honda, the partnership that won eight world titles from 1988 to 1992. However, things have not been plain sailing. The team has been blighted with reliability issues since day one in Jerez and have been trying to fix them ever since. Jerez yielded just 69 laps for the MP4-30 and the first test in Barcelona continued that theme, although on the third day, they did manage 59 laps and finished the day with no issues, and even managed to do an afternoons worth of aero work. However, at the end of that week Fernando Alonso crashed was hospitalized for three days with concussion and amnesia after a nasty hit against the wall in turn three, caused by the bad winds moving the car across the track.This meant thought that Fernando missed the last test and Kevin Magnussen took over on day three in that week.
The day before McLaren had appeared to make a breakthrough, with 101 laps on the board with Jenson Button at the wheel. Things were looking up. but the final day of the test produced less than forty laps. Reliability then is still a concern for the team.
Now, despite all this, I have still put McLaren in the contenders section. Why? Because once they have sussed the reliability out, I genuinely believe that this car, will be quick. Aerodynamically and aesthetically, it is a thing of beauty, mainly down to the arrival of Peter Prodromou from Red Bull. On track, when running at a decent speed the car looked like the real deal and all three drivers said it felt good straight away. This is good news for McLaren. Honda will sort the issues out, they haven't returned to be second best. They want to win. Laugh at them now if you must, but McLaren - Honda will get it sorted and when they do, Mercedes had best be looking over there shoulder...
The rest of the grid
As for the rest of the field, pretty much all of them will be wishing for a better year than they had in 2014. Sauber scored no points last season and will be hoping that, with a much better power unit and car, they can put that right this year. Both Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson are happy with how the cars running and it proved to be very reliable. However, it didn't look incredible on track, suggesting it will be battling for minor points placings. But the team and drivers are confident, so fingers crossed for them that 2015 brings better results
Force India's new VJM08 only ran during the last three days of winter testing but it was reliable straight out of the box and the team had no issues at all, and both Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenburg seemed pretty happy with how it was going despite the late start. Where they are in the pecking order will only be revealed when we get to Melbourne, but once they recover there lost ground, expect Force India to be right in the thick of the midfield fight.
Lotus had a much better Winter than they did in 2014. Thanks to there new Mercedes power, the E23 Hybrid ran smoothly for most of the Winter and Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean said it was a much better car to drive than the E22. Easier to set up and much more predictable. The team are aiming for regular Q3 appearances and if all goes well, expect them to be challenging for solid top ten results in the races and who knows? Maybe even the occasional podium!
Toro Rosso are running two rookies this year in Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz Jr and it could come back to bite them. Two young hot shots in what appears to be quite a tidy car might not be the greatest idea from the powers that be at Red Bull, but both these guys are incredibly talented an have looked very impressive in testing, particularly Verstappen. Whatever you think about Red Bull's decision to give him the Toro Rosso drive, he looks like the real deal. Look out for these guys, they could be a surprise! The STR10 looks like a well designed car, so look out for Toro Rosso bringing in some decent results throughout the season.
And whilst they may not have announced that they WILL be in Australia (though it looks like they actually could be!) and have not revealed there interim car, let alone the 2015 car, I thought I should mention Manor Marussia. The team have singed Will Stevens, with rumor being that Roberto Mehri may well get the second seat, and are aiming to be at the season opener with a modified MR03. They will be at the back of the grid for a few races no doubt, but who knows, maybe the 2015 car will be a points scorer? Whatever, it is good to see that Manor may make it to the grid, a remarkable comeback against the odds and no doubt what the majority of fans would like to see. Here's hoping the new car isn't quite the back marker we are expecting it to be...
So the first race in Melbourne, Australia, is just around a week and a half away and fingers crossed, we will find out who really is leading the charge against Mercedes, and whether or not the team will have to watch its back. A full preview of the first race will be uploaded next week. Ten days to go folks...lets go racing!
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