Today, the second test session at Barcelona’s Mont Melo circuit ends. This was the second one before the last test session in the coming days before the teams leave for Australia to start the 2015 F1 season on March 15 in Melbourne.
The inaugural race always promises to be exciting. All F1 fans will want closer races than the dominance Mercedes AMG Petronas enjoyed in 2014.
The locals will hope local hero Daniel Riccardo once more excel at his home GP. Both Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg engaged in a thrilling duel, and not being given team orders made it more exciting.
What can we expect this year? It is evident that the German champion race car makers have gone for evolution rather than revolution. The reasoning was that the 2014 car was at the limit allowed by rules.
The fact that the German team was dominant over the others proved it was more viable to extend modifications to the existing car than to start from scratch. The team’s reliability factor was100 per cent; most teams had a solid and flawless performance, but testing is completely different from racing.
Winning his second world title projected Hamilton with the greats of F1 and it looks like his tenure at Mercedes will be possibly extended. Rosberg is definitely determined to try to take the fight to his teammate, but where are the rest of the field?
McLaren are trying to get their Honda power unit to merge well with their chassis. Optimism is high, and after getting rid of initial gremlins the team will go for power, but unfortunately at the moment this seems to be lacking. Team CEO Ron Dennis is blaming it on the team, saying that their knowledge of Japanese is limited, but the problem lies elsewhere for sure.
The grid is reduced after the departure of both Marussia and Caterham. The remaining teams tried to bring back both teams; but it was inconceivable for them to try racing with their 2014 car.
Interestingly, this year we will see a time difference in the race departure at some GPs. This follows the report concerning the accident of Jules Bianchi, the French driver of Marussia who had a dramatic accident at the Japanese GP. Unfortunately there is no news about Bianchi’s progress except for sparse information that the young and very promising F1 driver may have to endure his injuries which have left him in a rather bad state.
Back to the drivers. After having bid farewell to Red Bull, four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel seems to be getting used to wearing red since he joined Ferrari. Vettel had a disastrous 2014, being overshadowed by former teammate Daniel Riccardo, who is now leading the Milton Keynes team.
At Ferrari, everyone has read or heard about the massive tsunami that hit the Italian F1 manufacturer, with people coming and others leaving hastily. Best of all was Ferrari top American sales guru Matteo Mattiaci being at the helm of Ferrari F1 team for just eight months before he too was sacked. Ferrari did not win anything in 2014, but they broke the record for the shortest term of office of the team principal meant to regain Ferrari’s glory.
Kimi Raikkonen, who recently becoming a father, was retained at Ferrari with a one-year contract when Alonso left Maranello. But he seemed to endorse his dedication to the team and ironically he was the one who held office. He is the last world champon Ferrari had in 2007.
What will happen this year? Ferrari seems to have a good car, the first to be completely designed by James Allison, but the power unit will need updates to come up close to the front-runners.
A loophole in regulations and a concession from the FIA might give the ailing engine manufactures the opportunity to catch up with Mercedes. Williams, with their remaining pair of Massa and Bottas, seem to have the will and the power to retain their charging momentum.
Renault-powered teams with Red Bull and Toro Rosso will look for better results, though Italian-based Toro Rosso might be on a steep learning curve with two novice drivers, Carlos Sainz Jr and Max Verstappen, both sons of former rally and F1 drivers, but their track experience and car development might be an issue.
Lotus and Sahara Force India seem to be delayed with their car development; both have missed or limited their driving.
Sauber seem to have turned a page. Their colour scheme is impressive, as is their driver line-up with former Williams reserve driver Felippe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson from Caterham. But what about their car? Sauber may face financial problems, so good results are the only way to retain their place on the grid in 2015.
A novelty this year is the Virtual Safety Car (VSC). This will be used to neutralise a race. It will be used when double yellow flags are waved and competitors or officials may be in danger, but the circumstances do not warrant the use of the safety car itself.
Once the car has been called, all electronic marshal panels around the track will display ‘VSC’, and teams will be notified via the official messaging system. Drivers will not be allowed to enter the pits, unless changing tyres, and must stay above the minimum time set by the FIA at least once in each marshalling sector.
Cars may not be driven “unnecessarily slowly, erratically or in a manner deemed potentially dangerous”. Those who fail to stay above the minimum time will be sanctioned. When the clerk of the course is satisfied it is safe to resume racing, teams will be notified via the official messaging system. Then, “any time between 10 and 15 seconds later, the ‘VSC’ on the FIA light panels will change to green and drivers may continue racing immediately”. After 30 seconds, the green lights will be extinguished.
This additional feature will step up safety in the race much faster than having to wait for the safety car to align itself before the race leader.
Looking forward to Melbourne on March 15.