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Analysing the F1 pre-season

It's sad, but not heartbreaking, for F1 to farewell Malaysia. (Source: Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool)
Roar Guru
2nd March, 2015
4

With the Formula One pre-season having wrapped up, our attention shifts to the first race of the season.

In just over a week’s time the cars will be rolling out in Melbourne, without the veil that kept latent some of the pre-season performances.

The first test in Jerez saw Ferrari and their Ferrari-powered counterparts Sauber emerge with fast and reliable packages.

Barcelona the first time-round was a mixed bag, with Lotus having the pace but Mercedes AMG and Williams showing good reliability.

The final Barcelona test concluded over the weekend, and it is clear that Mercedes AMG have both the pace and the reliability in their W06 chassis. The two blistering laps set by Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg on the soft tyres (compared to the super-softs that everyone else were running), shows that the reigning world champions have ominous pace yet again.

However Hamilton had issues on the third day with his setup, and Rosberg was unhappy with the response he was getting from the rear of the car.

Williams appear to be behind the Silver Arrows, as they were at the back end of last season. Also with Mercedes-Benz power, Williams have been cautiously content through the pre-season, demonstrating strong reliability and looking fairly on-pace.

Valtteri Bottas, who scored six podiums for the team in 2014, vindicated the speed potential of the car by setting the fastest lap at end of the final day of testing.

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Ferrari’s pace is yet to be clarified, however it appears that the Scuderia are not too far behind Williams. The team overall have enjoyed a positive off-season and pre-season. Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen are both pleased with the SF15-T from their statements thus far, and the overall atmosphere inside the Ferrari camp appears less toxic than 12 months ago.

Credit for that is already being given to the new principal Maurizio Arrivabene, who has firmly set his sights on achieving a minimum of two race wins this season.

Force India and Lotus should see themselves slot into the mid-field, with both expecting consistent points finishes.

Lotus have made gains with the addition of the Mercedes-Benz power unit, smoothly integrating it with their E23 chassis. The team have optimistically set their sights on reaching Q3 in Melbourne, so that will be a story to keep an eye on.

With their late debut, Force India won’t be very competitive off the bat, and expect to show their true strength come the start of the European season.

Sauber appear to have benefitted from the upgraded Ferrari power-unit, as well as a much better handling package, which both Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson are enjoying. Overall speed is still a question which needs to be addressed.

The rookie duo of Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz Jr will both be interesting to watch come the first race, as Toro Rosso’s pre-season was very difficult to decipher. Their lap counter on most days over the 12 day testing period was impressive, however the STR10’s pace remains to be seen.

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There will definitely be pressure on the 17-year-old Verstappen, who will make his debut as the youngest driver in Formula One history.

Meanwhile, there are big fat question marks over where Red Bull and McLaren sit in this 2015 puzzle.

Much like their camouflage livery, Red Bull have had a low-key testing period. They are still suffering from a horsepower deficiency compared to the rest of their top competitors, but a strong package penned for the final time by Adrian Newey may see the RB11 with an aero advantage.

Their reliability is much better than 12 months ago, which Daniel Ricciardo was optimistic about.

For McLaren, the question mark is even greater as they were only able to complete a total of 380 laps across the entire pre-season. As expected, they ran into myriad technical issues with their new Honda power-unit. With testing now over, any more of these problems will be experienced over race weekends. They’ve already put their hands up and admitted that they might not be problem-free until the start of the European season.

Having driven last year’s MP4-29 and the new MP4-30, Jenson Button believes that his 2015 ride has already rectified the handling issues of its predecessor. Now it seems that it’s all down to successfully integrating the Honda power into the slim ‘size zero’ body of the McLaren.

The cars will take to the track next at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix for the first Friday practice session on March 13.

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