Gap to Mercedes is a worry for Formula One in 2015

Matt Majendie 04:49 16/03/2015
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  • Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg claimed a one-two finish in Australia.

    One race down with 19 to go. So where does it leave F1 in 2015? In terms of the front of the grid, there was a hefty case of deja-vu as Mercedes dominated the entire weekend from start to finish.

    Niki Lauda described it as “absolutely perfect” and it was probably the most apt and succinct description. The two drivers parked their cars on the front row of the grid in qualifying and their positions remained the same all the way to the chequered flag, with neither being threatened by the chasing pack.

    What is worrying is their sheer advantage. Lewis Hamilton was nearly 35 seconds clear of third-place finisher but that could have been infinitely more had Mercedes pushed harder.

    The qualifying pace said it all. Hamilton produced a blistering lap to be 0.6 seconds quicker than Nico Rosberg but more crucially for the rest of the season was the fact that the Briton was 1.4 seconds clear of the next best team in Williams.

    Both drivers at Mercedes have talked about their car being better than their world championship winning year. So where have they made the gains?

    The inference in the aftermath is that much of that improvement lies with aerodynamic revisions on the F1 W06 Hybrid.

    So who are the best of the rest? Winter testing appeared to show that Williams, as at the end of last season, held that particular accolade but at the Australian Grand Prix, which has in the past had a propensity to throw up misleading results for the rest of the season (just think McLaren’s two podium finishes at Albert Park a year ago), it was Ferrari.

    Ferrari’s engines have lacked the oomph of their rivals in the past, the general perception being that former driver Fernando Alonso had flattered its capabilities with a litany of superb drives.

    But if anything, Ferrari appear to have got the jump on Renault in terms of raw pace and that was not just highlighted by the team itself but the Ferrari-powered Sauber.

    Ferrari have clearly boosted performance on their hybrid power plant with further gains made on their aero package and chassis from the James Allison-designed car. It was in contrast to last year when the team had just one podium finish although Australia was not all plain sailing.

    Felipe Nasr shone on Formula One debut for Sauber.

    Pitstop howlers for Kimi Raikkonen were understandably met with frowns after an estimated 2,000 pitstop practices on the car during the winter.

    Sauber had their very worst season last year, sandwiched alongside the likes of Caterham and Marussia, and had a dire build-up to the race with the legal case with Giedo van der Garde. But yesterday both drivers ended up in the points: Felipe Nasr fifth and Marcus Ericsson eighth.

    It will be interesting to see if they can maintain that and if van der Garde’s battle to be given a race seat gets him anywhere. The attritional nature of this race – with only 15 starters – perhaps over-exaggerated the strides forward Sauber have made but it was telling that Nasr could keep Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo at bay.

    Red Bull looked thoroughly down all weekend long. Their usually affable drivers aired their frustration on the race radio while the team’s design guru Adrian Newey painted a bleak picture. His take is that there is “no light at the end of the tunnel”.

    Winter testing has seen six major failures and Newey has grown frustrated about the lack of engine development which is staggering considering their earlier domination of F1.

    Newey would dearly love the FIA to rewrite the rule book and allow a more creative approach to the current cars as in the past.

    When changes were made for the 2014 season, the fear was race one in Oz would be no more than survival of the fittest. A year ago, that didn’t materialise, this time around it was as if there was a delayed effect.

    Manor never made it to the start, Valterri Bottas was declared unfit to drive because of a muscle tear, and both Kevin Magnussen and Daniil Kvyat’s cars packed up before the start.

    So what of the rest of the grid who took part? Williams ought to be quick in Malaysia and will challenge with Ferrari for second spot in the championship.

    And it proved a good start to the year from another Mercedes-powered car Force India with their drivers in seventh and 10th. Lotus pair Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean made positive noises despite managing merely a lap between them and then came the backmarkers McLaren, for whom Jenson Button finished the race in 11th place.

    That McLaren could have ended in the points rather disguised their problems with the team nearly four seconds a lap off the pace of the Mercedes in qualifying.

    To partially use the words of Arnold Schwarzenegger, who performed the post-race driver interviews, they’ll be back but it’s a case of when? It doesn’t look like any time soon.

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