First impression of F1 2015

[Andres125sx]

I have some questions for this season....

How many races will be in excess before Hamilton win the WDC? I´d say 3-4 at least

Will McLaren fight with Ferrari and Williams at some point of the season, at least on final races? I hope so but....

Williams will be able to win Ferrari despite their drivers?

Maldonado will crash more or less than all the rest of the grid togheter?


And basically that´s all

[Moose]

Assuming that Mercedes is as dominant as they look, and their reliability is flawless, and Hamilton is as dominant as he looked this weekend, then the earliest he can win the season is with 4 races remaining:
HAM: 375
ROS: 270
Max points remaining: 100.

Given that, I expect that the season won't be won until the last couple of races. That said, it will be "all but" won much earlier. In the above scenario, after race 10, it will be impossible for Rosberg to come back without Hamilton retiring from most of the remaining races.

Of course, this all relies on the assumption that Hamilton will beat Rosberg in *every* race. Which is probably somewhat unlikely.

[Andres125sx]

Ok then it will be with 2 or 3 races remaining, depending only on how many mistakes Lewis do during the seasson

Yes I don´t think Rosberg can fight with Hamilton, IMO Lewis is far superior

[PlatinumZealot]

MY first impressions:

1. Wow Ferrari really improved!
2. Dayum! Renault engine even worse than before!
3. Sauber looking good, looking good..could be be regular points scorer.
4. Hey Mclaren... I thought you were joking about how really off the pace you are!
5. These are some damn good rookies!
6. Oh... Mercedes! Wow, another runaway championship?! Get me some McDonald's coz i'm loving this!

[SectorOne]

Ok then it will be with 2 or 3 races remaining, depending only on how many mistakes Lewis do during the seasson

Yes I don´t think Rosberg can fight with Hamilton, IMO Lewis is far superior

Hopefully it´s a good fight at the front, otherwise it´s 2010-2013 all over again..

[strad]

another even more boring season... .. imo

[Manoah2u]

impressions F1 2015:

* Title will go to Hamilton, he's insanely confident, controlled the entire weekend, whilst Rosberg started out insecure and has become even more visually bummed about being 2nd already.
* WCC goes to Mercedes
* 2nd WCC spot will be a battle between Ferrari and Williams, with Ferrari probably winning it.
* 3rd/4th WDC spot will be between Vettel or Bottas
* 4th WCC spot will be between Sauber, Lotus and Toro Rosso
* Kimi is back to his powerfull form.
* Max Verstappen is a great driver but i have a feeling he'll continue the curse of his father Jos; car breakdowns hampering results. He could be even worse off if Renault decides to buy the team and ditch him.
* Felipe Nasr is the saviour of Sauber and will soon find himself a seat at a topteam
* Alonso will get frustrated with Mclaren midseason when results stay out due to increase in performance but terrible reliability
* RedBull-Renault saga will come to a huge spat of argument, results will stay out as Toro Rosso will be better this season
* Manor will survive
* Vettel will win with Ferrari this season
* Bottas still won't
* Rosberg will become frustrated and go for another team in 2016, Alonso to Mercedes in 2016 due to performance clause in Mclaren contract.
* Hamilton to Ferrari in 2017

4 engines a season is too little and have teams go up against FIA halfway the season.

RedBull steps away from F1 at the end of 2015 come in Audi 2016 with Domenicali and Ross Brawn

[Vettel Maggot]

My impressions? Looks like I will be playing a lot more golf on Sunday afternoons. I think I will just tape the races and flick through them if they keep going the same way.

Having said that I am glad to see Ferrari improve and Vettel up there again, but Merc has improved again too so they are untouchable.

Pray for lots of rainy races!

[alan5514]

Looks like another season dominated by Mercedes, this will soon get boring to watch.

[Phil]

I'm all good with the season opener. Sure, I like it when we have a close battle at the front, but that's more of an extra than an expected certainty. As long as we have a format where qualifying brings the quickest cars to the front of the grid, we will logically see those quickest cars disappear down the road as the gaps between the train of cars increase. The only thing that can sort of bring those quicker cars into the traffic, is essentially by the two seperate tyre compounds teams have to use. Perhaps the difference between option and prime tyre needs to increase. But that the fastest driver/car combo wins the race after a flawless execution? Anything other than this outcome would be due to artificial circumstances. No thanks.

So Mercedes still has a huge advantage. Someone always will. We've been fortunate to have had some good seasons (namely 2010 and 2012) for different reasons. 2010 was just close due the parity of many teams, each taking each other points. 2012 was a bit artifical due to crazy tyres no one understood for half of the season. Apart from that, 2011, 2013 and 2014 were years where a singular team or driver dominated. That's just racing. I don't expect the pinnacle of motorsport to be the pinnacle of entertainment.

[dren]

Melbourne has always been excruciatingly boring, every year we look forward to getting our first F1 fix since November and every year some are disappointed. I'm sure people switch on and hope for a Moto125 race when historically the first race of the year has been bloody boring, strewn with mechanical DNF's and DNF's through brain fade and ring rust.

If anyone genuinely expected 18 cars to be separated by 1 second in qually and a tooth and nail scrap between 6 drivers for 1st place then either a) you are new to the sport, b) F1 isn't for you, or c) you've followed F1 for 30 years and you're as thick as pig ---, how you remember your log in details is as mysterious as it is disappointing.

So far I have been surprised by Ferrari's progress, I was expecting Vettel to trip over his bottom lip because the Ferrari was an unruly as last year's car but it looks like Ferrari and Williams will be in a tooth and claw fight for the entire season. Sauber are also a revelation both on and off the track, off because the team principle is a lawyer who has been caught with her knickers down, and on track because they were competitive on merit.

The Force Indias were a huge surprise, they seem to have gone backwards relative to the field.

The big draw for me was Mclaren, I thought Ron was surprisingly dignified in his post race interviews as his rate card disintegrated as quickly as Kevin's engine. He must be regretting the days he was hanging out for a $40m sponsorship deal.

I'll still get up early for Malaysia and it's pre race build up, the only disappointment I am expecting are the usual suspects lamenting time moving on from 1986 and not wasting a minute to bitch, snipe, piss and moan that 'f1 is dead' for the 32nd year in a row.

Ha! Couldn't have said it better myself. There are going to be some good 3rd place battles and midfield battles as well. When Mclaren figuers "it" out, they will be in the front mix. This should shape up to be a good season.

[Jonnycraig]

2014 F1, 2016 F1, 2017 F1.

[Del]

Ferrari are not catching up Mercedes... They are however,catching up everybody else

2014 Australian Grand Prix, Alonso's Ferrari was 35 secs off the pace of the Mercedes,and last sunday,Vettel was 34.5secs off the pace so... no significant change in my opinion. You have to keep in mind though,that Kimi is a lot better , so if the car really improved that much - bad news for Vettel... I'm still keen to believe that Mercedes keeped the gap the same,rather than looking Vettel as a driver that can't extract the best out of his car.

[Andres125sx]

Ferrari are not catching up Mercedes... They are however,catching up everybody else

2014 Australian Grand Prix, Alonso's Ferrari was 35 secs off the pace of the Mercedes,and last sunday,Vettel was 34.5secs off the pace so... no significant change in my opinion.

Very interesting comparison I´d not realiced yet

[evered7]

Ferrari are not catching up Mercedes... They are however,catching up everybody else

2014 Australian Grand Prix, Alonso's Ferrari was 35 secs off the pace of the Mercedes,and last sunday,Vettel was 34.5secs off the pace so... no significant change in my opinion.

Very interesting comparison I´d not realiced yet

Wasn't there a safety car last year around lap 19 which bunched up the field? That would have certainly added 19 secs at the least to the total if not more.

Shows that finishing 'only' 34 secs behind the Mercs is indeed an improvement, a big one at that.