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Lewis Hamilton has picked up where he left off in November 2014 at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with a dominant win in Australia – from where he has since led the 2015 world championship.
We are now ten races through the 2015 campaign and indeed halfway through proceedings.
Here is then a mid-term review of the efforts thus far, in order of the current constructors’ standings.
Mercedes AMG – (Hamilton 1st 202pts, Rosberg 2nd 181pts)
As eluded too earlier, the Silver Arrows have continued their winning ways in 2015, courtesy mostly of Hamilton. On all but two occasions, have the team triumphed – with Hamilton claiming five wins to Rosberg’s three.
Both drivers too have not been off the podium but for the recent Hungarian Grand Prix, where they became victims of poor starts. If there’s any point of concern for the team going ahead, it’s the starts. The last two races have been both cars concede places, with victory in Hungary ultimately going to Ferrari as a result.
In terms of driver comparison, Hamilton has bested Rosberg in all facets this season. Whilst qualifying was the German’s upper-hand in 2014, the Briton has made him work this season – out-qualifying Rosberg 9 to 1.
The championship is still theirs to lose, with Hamilton favourite to retain the crown.
Ferrari – (Vettel 3rd 160pts, Räikkönen 5th 76pts)
The story of the season so far has been the revolution that has occurred inside Maranello. From being nowhere in 2014 with an un-drivable chassis and no wins,
Ferrari has hit back this season and has already claimed two victories.
The resurgence can be put down to the team behind the power-unit, as well as James Allison and his design boffins. Maurizio Arrivabene as team principal has set a clear example at the helm, while the arrival of Sebastian Vettel has injected new life into the team.
In the teammate battle, Vettel has had the better of Kimi Räikkönen, whose future remains unclear with the team. The 2007 world champion’s sole podium in Bahrain pales in comparison to Vettel’s five, plus two wins.
Whilst there are many ruminations that Vettel could be an outside chance for challenging Hamilton for the title, Ferrari’s sole focus is still on developing the car, as their goal of two victories has been attained. In terms of the rest of the season, another win could come their way.
Williams – (Bottas 4th 77pts, Massa 6th 74pts)
Much criticism was thrown the way of Williams at the start of the season, when they conceded that crucial ‘best of the rest’ tag over to Ferrari. However with a customer Mercedes-Benz engine and limited budget compared to the Italians, it would be difficult to maintain the status quo.
Nevertheless, they stand third in the standings with Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa having both acquired a podium each in Canada and Austria. Silverstone, arguably presented an opportunity for the team to win – however a bottled up Bottas and introduction of rain negated that.
Much has been made too of Bottas’ future, with a Ferrari drive instead of Räikkönen being on the cards. Nevertheless, both Williams drivers have been nip and tuck with each other, hence the three point deficit in the standings.
2014 saw this team claim much of its success in the second part of the season, so if the development continues in Grove, a chance could be had to catch the red team. Especially with circuits like Spa-Francorchamps and Monza suiting the FW37’s strengths.
Red Bull Racing – (Ricciardo 7th 51pts, Kvyat 8th 45pts)
Looking at the season that Red Bull Racing have had so far, it’s difficult to fathom that this squad won eight titles back-to-back across four years.
The performance has been curtailed by the lack of power and reliability of the Renault power-unit, which was the subject of much scrutiny from those inside and out of Red Bull organisation.
Despite the many hardships, the team were rewarded in Hungary with a double-podium finish. Daniil Kvyat, who was under the pump from the Red Bull hierarchy, delivered his first podium in the sport. A relieved Daniel Ricciardo claimed third.
Immediate performance may not be in the near future for the Milton Keynes outfit, but achieving reliability will be the target for the rest of the season, as well as retaining fourth in the constructors’ standings.
Force India – (Hulkenberg 9th 24pts, Perez 13th 15pts)
After a delayed start to the season, the B-spec VJM08 made its belated debut at the British Grand Prix. Nevertheless it’s been a difficult season so far for the Force India team, with not many points scored in comparison to the ailing Red Bull.
Nico Hulkenberg has naturally had the upper hand over Sergio Perez, but both have had their share of poor luck on occasions. Hungary was no excuse in terms of the bad luck, with Perez being tagged by Pastor Maldonado and Hulkenberg suffering a dramatic front-wing failure.
With superior pace to be had in the B-spec car, the expectation for the team in the second half of the season would be to run consistently in the points.
Lotus – (Grosjean 10th 23pts, Maldonado 14th 12pts)
On-paper the E23 Hybrid is a solid and speedy chassis. However, the results gleaned thus far into the season by the Enstone team don’t indicate that. Even with the switch to Mercedes-Benz power, seventh is the highest the team have finished.
The results or lack thereof, weren’t helped largely by the run of five consecutive retirements endured by Pastor Maldonado in the first five races. To be fair to the Venezuelan, there were some occasions were the tides were against him.
Rather comically, in Hungary Maldonado accumulated three drive-through penalties. Even before that, Lotus have made it public that his position at the team is no longer safe if the results cannot be achieved.
Romain Grosjean on the other hand has done most of the points scoring for Lotus, but a potential season-best result of fifth in Canada went begging, after the Frenchman’s run in with Manor’s Will Stevens.
It’s clear who holds the upper hand in the team at the moment, but it’ll take both drivers to compete against the Force Indias and Red Bulls for fourth in the standings.
Sauber – (Nasr 12th 16pts, Ericsson 18th 6pts)
For Sauber, the Australian Grand Prix may be a distant memory. With the team having been dragged to court by Dutchman Giedo van der Garde who claimed he was under contract. That aside, Melbourne saw the best results for the Swiss team thus far.
Fifth for Felipe Nasr made him highest points-scoring Brazilian on debut, whilst Marcus Ericsson claimed eighth which were his first points in Formula One after the sole season with Caterham.
The lack of development has allowed rivals such as Force India to get ahead, but the C34 is one of the most reliable cars on the grid.
Toro Rosso – (Verstappen 11th 22pts, Sainz 16th 9pts)
Much was made during the pre-season about Toro Rosso’s youngest recruit at the tender age of 17; Max Verstappen. However despite his current position in the standings, the Dutch teenager has shown a mature head and intellect during the races, as well as some spectacular overtakes.
However, there should be no credit taken away from Carlos Sainz either, who on occasion has been quite speedy. This is especially the case during qualifying where he’s bettered Verstappen 6-3, including a career best fifth at his home race in Barcelona.
Toro Rosso’s chassis has proved thus far to be quite reliable and fast. The same cannot be said about the hybrid horse-power being churned out by the Renault power-unit in the back, which has been the cause of the team’s downfalls.
Verstappen has even gone as far as saying that they have the second best chassis on the grid.
Whether or not more points can be extrapolated in the second half of the season, the team are in a good place going forward. Verstappen’s career best fourth in Hungary shows that on occasion, a podium could be there for one of the young, but mature drivers.
McLaren – (Alonso 15th 11pts, Button 17th 6pts)
What can be said about Honda’s first season so far back in Formula One with McLaren? It was always a fact that much of the campaign would be demoted to being glorified test sessions, however it must be detested that some of their unreliability is questionable.
With the FIA having granted new engine manufacturers an extra power-unit, the push for a reliable Honda one goes on. The gist is that the McLaren chassis itself is quite handy through the corners, but a lack of power is what’s continue to lock the latent ability.
The team’s ultimate line-up of world champions Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button have been up and down too in terms of the comparison. Alonso missed the first race due to his pre-season concussion, but has caught up with in Button in the qualifying battle to go 6-4. Race wise, its 4-3 in the Spaniard’s favour.
All that can be said for the rest of the season is that they will continue developing, with the optimism that the RA615H Honda unit can be extracted for maximum power at some point in the season, without the threat of reliability.
Manor-Marussia – (Merhi 19th 0pts, Stevens 20th 0pts)
Albeit at the bottom of the table, the resounding fact of the matter is that this team is even present in 2015 championship. It’s a stellar effort that can be attributed to the outfit’s new owners and indeed the ex-Marussia management in John Booth and Graeme Lowdon.
Running their 2014 chassis and Ferrari power-unit, with a 2015 spec nose, the team have ruled out any likeness of an upgraded package for the rest of the year. The focus then would be to have a brand new car for 2016, once all facets of the team are stable.
Between the teammates, qualifying has been in favour of Will Stevens 5-4, whilst in the races it’s 5-4 to Roberto Merhi who’s been able to get the better of his teammate in the past few races.
All the Manor-Marussia outfit can do, will be to keep putting their consistent finishes and look forward to the next season where potentially an all-new car awaits.
There concludes then this rather lengthy mid-term report. It is fair to say that whilst the first part of the season was fairly processional, the mid-field on all occasions delivered some juicy, wheel-to-wheel racing.
It is only in the more recent races, have we seen the lead be threatened by cars not being driven by Hamilton or Rosberg. Emphasis will greatly be upon the revised starting procedures come the next event, can it mix things up further?
Formula One is set to resume on August 23 at the Belgian Grand Prix.
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