2015 Pre-season Testing

[turbof1]

Rosberg probably also need to get used to this kind of competition. In the past generally his raw speed kept him ahead of his teammate. Now that he needs to battle someone who is able to match that speed, he finds himself in a new situation.

2014 has been a good learning year for Rosberg. He'll be fiercer this year.

[nokivasara]

I wonder if there are a lot of new fans to the sport when there's so much talk about how boring it is with one dominant team? Have they seen any races during the Schumacher era. 2004 comes to mind, no overtakes, Ferrari totally dominant, Schumi winning every race (it felt like).
Go back to the 80's that people seem so fund about, lots of DNF's and only a couple of cars on the leading lap.

2014 had increadibly close racing behind Mercedes, just look at the quali lap times.
I think 2015 looks promising, the teams have learned how to handle the new regulations and have better data about fuel consumtion and such. Mercedes is not going to win every race for all eternety...

[dans79]

The only problem with him is that when things go wrong and he has to be aggressive enough to overtake a tough guy like Lewis, he failed to do it.

Imo, The sky intro song from last year kind of symbolizes what Rosberg struggles with, and why he was better in qualifying, but handy beaten Sunday. He can nail one lap, but during the race he can't "just drive" the car on feel. When something doesn't go right, he falls back into an engineers mindset of tweaking things. Austin was a good example of this, when he openly said it took him several laps to get back into a grove.

[motobaleno]

I wonder if there are a lot of new fans to the sport when there's so much talk about how boring it is with one dominant team? Have they seen any races during the Schumacher era. 2004 comes to mind, no overtakes, Ferrari totally dominant, Schumi winning every race (it felt like).
Go back to the 80's that people seem so fund about, lots of DNF's and only a couple of cars on the leading lap.

2014 had increadibly close racing behind Mercedes, just look at the quali lap times.
I think 2015 looks promising, the teams have learned how to handle the new regulations and have better data about fuel consumtion and such. Mercedes is not going to win every race for all eternety...

how many years do you remember where the title was a real fight between the two teammates?
schumacher had always a challenger from another team ....that's the real footprint of mercedes superiority.
not Ferrari neither redbull dominance era resembled that.
in my memory (but I agree that each memory differs from others) only Lotus in 1978 had the same kind of performance dominance.
but that lasted only one year...

said in other words, in recent years we have seen Schumacher+ferrari and vettel+redbull dominance.
their teammates were fast with the same car but they never seemed dominant
mercedes dominance is mercedes dominance period. It is likely that any driver would have been dominant with mercedes

[nokivasara]

I wonder if there are a lot of new fans to the sport when there's so much talk about how boring it is with one dominant team? Have they seen any races during the Schumacher era. 2004 comes to mind, no overtakes, Ferrari totally dominant, Schumi winning every race (it felt like).
Go back to the 80's that people seem so fund about, lots of DNF's and only a couple of cars on the leading lap.

2014 had increadibly close racing behind Mercedes, just look at the quali lap times.
I think 2015 looks promising, the teams have learned how to handle the new regulations and have better data about fuel consumtion and such. Mercedes is not going to win every race for all eternety...

how many years do you remember where the title was a real fight between the two teammates?
schumacher had always a challenger from another team ....that's the real footprint of mercedes superiority.
not Ferrari neither redbull dominance era resembled that.
in my memory (but I agree that each memory differs from others) only Lotus in 1978 had the same kind of performance dominance.
but that lasted only one year...

During the Schumi era his teammates weren't allowed to race him like we saw Nico and Lewis do last year. Ferrari was really dominant in those days, in 2002 they won 15 out of 17 races and in 2004 15 of 18.
We don't know if the Mercs will continue to be as dominant as in 2014, there's no reason to give up on the sport just yet.

[Jordan44]

I think 2015 will be another 2007. I can see Mercedes imploding if Rosberg manages to best Hamilton on track occasionally. Then they'll end up losing points and someone else will sneak through to clinch it at the last race. Perhaps Kimi again or Seb as the Ferrari appears (at this stage) to be a solid car.

Also, if any of the other teams are closer to Mercedes' pace this year, I think Rosberg might struggle. We know Hamilton is good in wheel-to-wheel racing but there remains a question mark over Rosberg. It would probably benefit Hamilton if another team were closer to the Mercedes.

What will be interesting will be to see if Rosberg's approach to the race weekends changes in line with Hamilton's. If Rosberg concentrates on race pace a bit more then we could be in for some fireworks - and some other teams winning races when the Mercedes repeat Spa race after race!

The 2007 McLaren wasn't a dead cert to win every race, which makes it a lot different. If Merc have one bad race then you know they'll probably win the next one. They can afford to implode for so long with such a large advantage.

[Just_a_fan]

The 2007 McLaren with Alonso + journeyman team mate would have been a very different story though. The McLaren drivers took points off each other in a way we haven't seen for a while. Kimi only won the title by a slim margin with the McLaren drivers tied on points. A bit of dominance by either McLaren driver would have seen the title go their way.

[Mesteño]

The 2007 McLaren with Alonso + journeyman team mate would have been a very different story though. The McLaren drivers took points off each other in a way we haven't seen for a while. Kimi only won the title by a slim margin with the McLaren drivers tied on points. A bit of dominance by either McLaren driver would have seen the title go their way.

Well, if I remember correctly, Ferrari also won constructor's championship, but yes, I agree.

[SilverArrow10]

The 2007 McLaren with Alonso + journeyman team mate would have been a very different story though. The McLaren drivers took points off each other in a way we haven't seen for a while. Kimi only won the title by a slim margin with the McLaren drivers tied on points. A bit of dominance by either McLaren driver would have seen the title go their way.

Well, if I remember correctly, Ferrari also won constructor's championship, but yes, I agree.

Only because McLaren got disqualified, you know one of the biggest spying controversy issues in F1 history.

[SiLo]

redacted

[GPR-A duplicate2]

I think 2015 will be another 2007. I can see Mercedes imploding if Rosberg manages to best Hamilton on track occasionally. Then they'll end up losing points and someone else will sneak through to clinch it at the last race. Perhaps Kimi again or Seb as the Ferrari appears (at this stage) to be a solid car.

Also, if any of the other teams are closer to Mercedes' pace this year, I think Rosberg might struggle. We know Hamilton is good in wheel-to-wheel racing but there remains a question mark over Rosberg. It would probably benefit Hamilton if another team were closer to the Mercedes.

What will be interesting will be to see if Rosberg's approach to the race weekends changes in line with Hamilton's. If Rosberg concentrates on race pace a bit more then we could be in for some fireworks - and some other teams winning races when the Mercedes repeat Spa race after race!

You aren't dreaming right, when you say you can see Mercedes imploding? In the first year of HUGE ANTICIPATIONS, Merc took the brave and bold path of letting their drivers race, despite making such huge investments to secure their first Championship. In the process, they did went through a lot of agony of managing situations, which wouldn't have arise, had they taken the conservative approach of team orders. No one would have liked it, but nobody would have blamed them. At Spa, although it was amateurish to have had such an open outburst on Nico, they deserve credit for ensuring that, such a bad situation didn't went on to create any more problems. Now they far more experienced to still let their drivers race, but with a better framework around how they can race.

Looking at the situation from testing, no one is even remotely convinced that any other team can mix up in the race for championship, so it is natural that it would be a two horse race between Merc drivers. For any other driver to stand a chance of winning the Championship, THEY MUST WIN or atleast be consistently SECOND, only then there is a chance and looking at testing outcome, it is not even a remote possibility.

Those who understand sports psychology, a championship win would more than double up the confidence of a driver and more often than not, whenever the car has remained competitive in immediate next season, it was always the winner of previous year who makes it count once more. It was on display to see that Lewis was very strong in races and is a much better driver in tight situations and for those who argue, it's not video game that Nico can simply go back in winter break, look at what Lewis did in races, come back and beat him. We are talking about fundamental changes that he would need to his racing techniques to get better of lewis, which is not going to be an easy thing for Nico. On the other hand, Lewis lost out in the qualifying battle last year, more due his own mistakes and that wouldn't require any change in techniques. The other important fact is also that, Lewis doesn't need to start from pole to beat Nico and that is a very strong psychological booster for Lewis.

If it was not for reliability issues and and bad luck, the championship would have been over mid season. I am just echoing what Anthony Hamilton said.

[FoxHound]

So the complainants are not disputing dominance per se, but the level of dominance?

This whole facade is moot. And the reason is the 1988 F1 season is revered as one of the greatest seasons in F1 history.
It is also coincidentally, the most dominant team performance in F1 history.
Rosberg pushed Hamilton to the last race of the season, and the team allowed a straight fight for the championship.
This in itself is by far superior to anything we have seen since 2010 with the exception of 2012, maybe.

Some people get high watching Red Bull win 9 races in a row, allied to 4 consecutive drivers championships and 4 constructors championships. Then the case becomes one not of dominance but the level of dominance?
I'm so very confused by this logic of how a team ought to carry out their dominance. It's farcical really

[ismail1991]

During the Schumi era his teammates weren't allowed to race him like we saw Nico and Lewis do last year. Ferrari was really dominant in those days, in 2002 they won 15 out of 17 races and in 2004 15 of 18.
We don't know if the Mercs will continue to be as dominant as in 2014, there's no reason to give up on the sport just yet.

I am fed up with the comments about ferrari or redbull not allowing Rubens or Webber to race with their teammates. If we remember Schumacher's time with Ferrari in 2000s, when schumacher won the race, did Rubens come second? No he didn't. He sometimes couldn't be even at the podium. There were often mclarens or williams between them. When schumacher got the pole, Rubens couldn't get the other front row like in the case of Mercedes drivers. Therefore, I think people shouldn't try to blame Rubens' or Webber's incompetence to Ferrari or Redbull. Schumacher was way better driver than Rubens and he won those races and championships fair and square

[FoxHound]

I think the entire point to the retention or acquisition of Webber or Barrichello as drivers, was that they wouldn't Pose a threat to the number 1's.

[Cale24]

Speaking of dominant cars, everyone knows during the design phase of a car what the regulations for the following year entails. I always found it interesting how Mercedes, during 2013, KNEW and were 100% convinced they were going to be a real force to be reckoned with in 2014 and publicly said as much. Not blatantly, but they certainly hinted at their confidence in the 2014 project (can recall Ross Brawn saying so, and reminded me of 2009, although even then how were they sure only they had been smart enough to have cooked up a double diffuser?).
Sure, Mercedes invested heavily in the next generation engines, but who's to say Ferrari or Renault would not be on par? The engine and aero numbers must have all looked so good in general that they simply couldn't have expected similar from the rival teams, lest we forget a dominant Red Bull for 4 years straight. I assume that it comes down to their sheer investment in general- loads of staff including 5 former technical directors and, ultimately, several design teams evaluating 3 car design directions at once. And yet Toyota proved that simply throwing money at F1 cannot assure success (One Aim...missed the target).
Ferrari even had Rory Byrne involved in a more hands-on role for the 2014 project- I remember he brushed off the design challenge of the 2013 Ferrari car as 'childs play' and yet his mentorship fell far far short in the worst year for the team since 1993. He has some face to save on that front I'd say although I prefer to blame most Ferrari failings on that hack Tombazis.

The confident Mercedes 2013 talk is slightly echoed by McLaren-Honda lately, and with their ingredients, it may well be them giving Mercedes the most hassles in years to come.