Formula One 2015 Season Preview

As the Formula One World Championship opens this weekend in Melbourne, Australia, a lot has happened over the winter and for the first time in years, many new faces are in, and many familiar drivers will be in unfamiliar cars.

The big surprise over the winter was the transfer of Fernando Alonso from Ferrari to McLaren, trying to make up for the 2007 disaster he had to encounter with Lewis Hamilton, who now is at Mercedes. Sebastian Vettel, who many thought would be at Red Bull forever, decided he had enough being beaten by former teammate Daniel Ricciardo and has departed for Fernando Alonso’s old position at Ferrari. Russian Danii Kvyat takes Vettel’s old seat, and Jean-Eric Vergne, who was tipped for that seat, gets rejected by the men with wings, and heads to Ferrari to train on a computer.

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New seats form with new drivers at Toro Rosso, where Max Verstappen becomes the first and perhaps last driver rookie to begin his career under 18. Sauber has new drivers as well, but Guido Van De Garde claimed that he was left out and still figured that he had a remaining one year deal with the team.—wrong. He went to court, won and still does not have the drive. Stay tuned for this one.

Pirelli on the rubber front, claims they have harder tire compounds, Mexico has a race at last, and it is still unclear whether or not Germany will host a grand prix. So, with all this excitement and others that were not mentioned as of yet, here is the predictions and previews that might go on for this season.

MERCEDES– No doubt this is the team to beat. Outside of having lost three races mainly because of their own errors, Mercedes should have no trouble continuing their winning ways. But watch out—engine changes with tune ups are now in effect, and even if the others could catch up later in the season, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg will battle it out to a point where it might get nastier than last season. Keep in mind, Hamilton does not yet have a renewed contract.

RED BULL– Could be a better season for the wing men?? But the question lies if the Renault engine can work better or will Red Bull give up on them? There has been rumors of the French company to go on their own, but their purpose is to let this team win. This would be accomplished if they win five races or more. Tough prediction for them. Ricciardo could continue being good, and Kvyat might get a few podiums.

WILLIAMS – Definitely the team that could win a race or two if they can put it all together. Certainly with Pat Symonds at the helm as technical director, both Felipe Massa and Valterri Bottas have good chances to win. It has to take a little luck to go with all this, and it just might work.

FERRARI– It certainly can’t get any worse, and it has to get better. Vettel now comes in, and many new faces follow. Up to seven old guards have departed, and seven new ones replace them. It seems that only Kimi Raikkonen survived all the excitement. Team has improved though, with good showings in the recent pre-test, the prancing horse just finally might be the team back on the road to recovery.

FORCE INDIA– Back again, with a late built car. Fair results, but do not expect too much from this team except midfield results, nothing more. Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg return, so nothing really happened here. This was not the team to hang around this winter for excitement.

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SAUBER– Like Ferrari, it was even worse. Not one point was scored by the team and this year new drivers and a new paint job. Kind of reminds you of the days before BMW took over. But one problem: Dutchman Guido Van De Garde thinks he is still on the team. This problem needs to be solved because the team did well in winter testing and they have a few chances to place up in the front of the grid. Marcus Ericcson comes over from the defunct Caterham team and Felipe Nasr comes over from GP2. Could be interesting here.

TORO ROSSO– Difficult to say here. Both Verstappen and Carlos Sainz Jr. are rookies and it will be interesting on how they will adapt to formula one and its politics. If they do well, they have something going for them. If not, they will cause wrecks by their inexperience. The car is reliable otherwise.

LOTUS– The team ended their relationship with Renault after so many seasons, and now they go to Mercedes power because of the low French one. Both Pastor Maldonado and his oil money and Romain Grosjean, who has total sponsorship, that is so little you can barely see it, are back for another year. The car is better as well, but it is really hard to see if they will be on the podium regularly as they were two years ago. Expect midfield and a few higher places and maybe a couple of podiums.

MCLAREN-HONDA– I just forgot about this one—how could I have?? This team has Fernando Alonso back, Jenson Button alongside him, thanks to Honda, and a new engine by the Japanese giant. But as all the new things go, it will take some time for this team to get back to the front as they teeth with the new engine. But Honda is no pushover, they will be back but will need quite some time to get it all right. But they have the resources to do so, so see good results at the end of summer and maybe a better season next time around.

MANOR– Who?? Yes the ones that are now entered in the world championship. All is known is that the team still has Ferrari power, and John Booth still owns the team. Maybe. Will Stevens comes in from Caterham and just recently Roberto Mehli was taken in as the second pilot. Mehli also was with Caterham recently as a first practice driver during grand prix weekends. No predictions here, as long as they are on the grid.

HAAS FORMULA ONE TEAM– Oops, will get back to this one next season or just later.

So this is it. There will be many things happening this season as it always does every formula one year. So sit back and enjoy in what could be a very interesting time in the sport of formula one.

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