It’s been another challenging campaign between the drivers this year, but fortunately we’ve finished the season with the same number of teams as we started – and with far more stability than we had twelve months ago.
Even before the opening race in Melbourne, drivers were launching legal challenges to get themselves into Formula One seats – and it looked like the financial turmoil of the previous year might haunt us again.
There’s no doubt there have been some big winners and losers up and down the field.
Despite spending 2014 complaining about Renault’s BHP deficit to Mercedes, Red Bull managed to score podiums fairly regularly and even snatched a few wins when both Mercedes were busy tripping each other over. This year the power just hasn’t been there and, with few exceptions, has been playing a supporting role this season.
It’s a similar story at McLaren who have been peddling backwards since integrating the new Honda engine. If they thought fifth in the championship last season was unacceptable, I can’t even imagine how their ninth place finish this season was received by Ron Dennis and co. around the presumably immaculately styled boardroom table.
Although the highlight of last season, Jules Bianchi’s P9 finish in Monaco, was dampened by the news of his passing this year, what remained of Marussia was admirably whipped into shape.
We may have been treated to nothing more than an empty garage in Melbourne, but come season end they had transformed into not only a stable back-marker team, but one with promising technical partnerships. Holding two of the few remaining empty seats they will surely be within the sights of many a potential suitor in the coming months.
Teams like Sauber and Force India, who were teetering on the brink at the end of last season, have found some stable footing and both climbed the constructors’ standings this year.
Surprisingly it was Lotus who looked most precarious, frequently appearing before judges across many a European High Court trying to justify their existence. Fortunately the Renault buy-out has been confirmed and Bernie Ecclestone won’t have to keep throwing down his credit card for Subway and Perrier to keep the engineers alive.
The last of the back-markers and mid-fielders is Toro Rosso who have recently been granted permission to run a modified version of Ferrari’s 2015 power unit. This not only secures their future for another season but raises an interesting proposition for next season; what if they start beating Red Bull on a regular basis?
Toro Rosso are coming off a year where their rookies (possibly the best pairing that the junior team have ever seen) where pestering their senior counterparts and proving that they aren’t simply there for show. There’s also no question Toro Rosso had a great chassis this year, and that this year’s Ferrari engine is far superior to that of Renault, so we will have a barometer for the improvement that Red Bull and sponsor Tag Heuer can achieve between now and then.
There’s still a lot of work to be done in the sport, especially addressing cost-capping and the distribution of prize money.
However, compared to the situation we had last year where two teams didn’t make the distance (and three more looked about as stable as Charlie Sheen building a house of cards), we’ve at least delayed the issue of teams folding in the short term.
Now, if only we could keep races on the calendar.
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