So it's all over bar the testing and a long, cold off-season beckons. But how was it for you? Did your hopes, fears or predictions come true? And what can we take from the season we've just seen that point to next year's battles? As it stands, it would take a brave man to predict anything other than another Mercedes dominated 2015 but every season throws up surprises: who saw Williams's renaissance coming? Not me, that's for sure. And will anyone do a Williams next year? *I don't know whether one of the mods wants to move some of the latest posts from the Abu Dhabi thread over here because they'd make a good starting point and they were what made me think the thread might be a good idea.
What, not watches?! So who is this guy anyway? I can't say that Mattiaci was given a fair chance but it was a poison chalice anyway. I'm not even sure who Mattiaci is, I hardly saw him on TV at least. More knee-jerk panic from Ferrari, I'd say. I understand the dream of driving for Ferrari but I have to question Seb's judgement.
To Take your post literally how was it for you? Was an alright season really, yes it was a one team battle but unlike previous years that team had two drivers going at it. Plus I got to see a Williams resurgance. The fact is was all new drivers at the front (mostly) was a nice change, although closer next season would be nice. Did your hopes, fears or predictions come true? Was hoping for another title for Hamilton so yup, feared it would be a one man race (thanks Rosberg for adding excitement ). Half worried for another Red Bell walk over but winter put that fear to bed. Was also worried we'd be struggling for finishers, which is starting to come true due to money issues rather than reliability... And what can we take from the season we've just seen that point to next year's battles? Rosberg will come back stronger, Hamilton has something to defend now and I too believe that it's always easier to be the chaser. Hopefully Williams can push on next season, and hopefully we can have 5+ winner next season. Struggling to find support of McLaren these days, they just spend to much time shooting themselves in the foot like Ferrari these days. who saw Williams's renaissance coming and who will do a Williams next year? Not me, that's for sure. Never saw it coming, long may it continue. Lotus hopefully can step up next season, and as much as it pains me, I hope Red Bull does to. Ricciardo is exciting to watch, I want to see that excitement battling for wins.
There's been a lot of moaning about Mercedes' dominance, with some justification, but one positive consequence of this has been the Lewis-Nico intra-team battle. Only time can confer the kind of legendary status of the Senna-Prost rivalry, and in comparison it has been quite good-natured , but, still, it was the kind of rivalry we haven't seen for a long time. Seb won with Webber as back-up, Alonso had Massa doing the same for him and Lewis and Jenson were never really in contention. So, I'd say that this has been the upside of Mercedes' crushing season.
I think Williams will slide a bit next year, they're changing fuel supplier from Petronas to Petrobras (a commercial tie up rather than a technical one). Petronas is surely the way to go given it's developed alongside the engine with Mercedes. Lotus could be back next year though, with the change to Mercedes engines. They were way behind this year because of their crippling financial issues, but I imagine they'll already be in better shape with development of next year's car. Grosjean's had an excellent season too in my opinion. I think the only person who could possibly challenge Mercedes is Ricciardo, but they're really at the mercy of Renault, they need a better engine. It's almost certainly going to be another Mercedes-Hamilton cakewalk though. With improved reliability they might be even more dominant next season.
Few myths got busted this season. Hamilton is the fastest driver but Rosberg is smarter, Rosberg would win more in this new complex PU era. Rosberg had 11 poles, 3 converted to wins (could have been 4 due to Britain), Hamilton had 7 poles, 6 converted to wins (maybe could have been 7 due to Australia). People wondered how good Vergne was, was often around Ricciardo's pace (who's just well beaten Vettel) and despite being out of a drive next season he's well beaten Kyvat, who's off to Red Bull? Alonso would struggle against a better team mate... well, ehem Then some thing's fuelled the fire. Vettel's ability, and overtaking skills in not the best car. Ricciardo with 3 victories and 5(6) more podiums, Vettel with 0 victories and 3 podiums. Ricciardo was often seen slicing through traffic, Vettel, less so. Hulks ability got another boost, Perez had a good season but Hulk still well trumped him. Button still has storming race pace, but his qualifying is still a weak link. He well beat kMag in the races but was often out qualified by him. Feel free to call me out, making these up as I go along
Seeing the Lotuses in the mix at the US Grand Prix made me realise how much I've missed them being up there. Surely the new engine will give them a boost but from the look of this, I'm guessing that they're not totally brassic. Someone here, I don't remember who, suggested that there are "deeper problems" beyond money and the dodgy engine that would make it unlikely for them to bounce back. Any ideas what these may be? I also want to see Force India able to sustain themselves better through next season. I suspect it was because of money that they were unable to improve over the course of this year following a positive start. I mean, Hulk is a championing in-waiting if only he had the car; he even overtakes at Monaco, FFS! Now that was a move. But I don't know where things stand regarding finances. There was an announcement of an extra £100m from CVC for the smaller teams but then Bernie said they were getting nothing. Personally, I'd disqualify RBR from the WCC for cheating and let that money flow down through the teams below them. It may sound harsh but they were caught twice this year and both times they were beyond unrepentant.
Good point about Vergne* and this pisses me off a bit, actually It's not that I've anything against Kvyat, who has shown flashes of brilliance, nor even that Toro Rosso are dumping him (their raison d'être is to promote new drivers) but JEV ended the season way above his team mate and was on a par with Ricciardo when they were team mates yet no one wants him. And he's great fun to watch. Back to Kvyat, I am looking forward to seeing what he can do in the big car. It'll be interesting to see how he fares against Ricciardo, given his record against Vergne and Vergne's against Ricciardo.. *I thought your other points were good too, incidentally
To be fair to Jenson, the big reason KMag was signed was his "Lightning pace", He's not exactly destroyed Button in that department, sure he edged Jenson in Quali over the season, but edging somebody on what should have been his big trump card versus Jensons apparent big Achilles heel wasn't good enough IMO. Rookie or not, KMag didn't quite show enough over the season. As harsh as that may be, Button showed him that he has a long way to go before he's at that level. I still maintain this years Lotus was a decent car. They just tried to be too clever and it went into the season totally under developed because of their financial issues and missing test mileage, then it was saddled with that Renault power unit. Even so, during pre-season, it looked very decent on track in the brief moments it wasn't on fire and/or on the back of a truck. When they finally did start to get on top of the problems around Spain, again the car looked very promising (Remember Grosjean Qualifying 5th in Spain?, back to back points finishes?) Then they hit more technical issues, then FRIC got banned. Lotus had the most complex setup and were probably getting the biggest benefit from it given the relative placing of their car, without that they went back to struggling again. Long story short, the car wasn't that bad, they just got off to a bad start, the complexity of the car made the already fragile Renault even more fragile and also hurt by mid season rule changes to a part of the car they had been using for something like 6 or 7 years (at least). Oh, And Maldonado binning it at strange times etc. Bit of an unfortunate season made to look worse than the car really was, with the Mercedes engine in it, despite the development issues i reckon they'd have been fighting the Red Bulls and Williams early on with FRIC and still the McLarens and Force Indias no problem without it
He didn't even beat JB in qualifying, Button outqualified KMag in the final four races to turn a 9-6 deficit into a 10-9 win in quali.
Did anybody get to the secret of why Hamilton used less fuel. I think this is the major secret to his success. He could sit back and wait for Rosberg to weaken then bring on 'hammertime'. Getting pole didn't matter which was rosbergs tactic. This is the area he needs to work on over the winter.
Good point, for some reason i thought it was 10-9 the other way! That combined with Buttons points haul and the fact he really delivered when the pressure was really on and KMag had a horror show.... It's an even clearer choice. I've said before i rate KMag, but my gut feeling watching him is that he's perhaps not quite as good as McLaren believed?, i mean, he 100% deserves a second season to really prove himself so in that respect it'd be harsh to drop him, but he hasn't shown enough to displace anybody of the class of Button. It's a strange one, but after all the hype of Magnussens raw pace, i can't help but feel he's been a slight let down? Not that he's been bad by any means, just not really shown himself as a superstar in the making.
Was always sold as some sort of mastering of lift and coasting. Did it for 5m or whatever every corner which cost virtually no time and all adds up since it would be full throttle otherwise. No idea how accurate that is.
