It’s just over a week before the first race of the 2015 Formula 1 season gets underway in Melbourne, Australia, and motor racing fans across the globe are looking forward to seeing who will be up to speed this year. But those hoping for a more even contest between the top guns might find themselves a little disappointed.
Sunday saw the final day of official winter testing for all teams at Jerez in Barcelona and although each team has different priorities at this time of year – be it to eliminate certain problems or improve overall reliability – one thing we learnt for certain is that Mercedes will again be the ones to beat in 2015.
After four days of testing at Jerez, it was Nico Rosberg topping the overall times with a best of 1:22.792 and defending world champion Lewis Hamilton second just under three-tenths of a second behind. Williams duo Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa came in next, followed by Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel in a good indication of who the main challengers will be this season.
But here’s the real worry for Mercedes’ rivals – while Rosberg and Hamilton did their quickest times on soft tyres, Williams and Ferrari did theirs on “super soft” tyres which are designed to provide the best possible grip to produce fast lap times during their short life expectancy.
Perhaps the biggest question yet to be answered is how the Red Bulls will fare. For the second year in a row, their testing sessions were marred by mechanical problems so they may yet have quicker times to come. And let’s not forget that Daniel Ricciardo was the only driver other than Rosberg or Hamilton to win a race last season.
But as for the championship race, it seems we’ll again be looking at a Mercedes one-two in 2015. Oh well, at least the Rosberg-Hamilton rivalry should be fun to watch!
