2015 Pre-season Testing

[PlatinumZealot]

Can anyone come up with 5 reasons why Mercedes might not dominate 2015?

Reasons without Bernie involved?

[NathanOlder]

What this is ignorance.
Nasr is one of the best young drivers out there. He did better than Palmer; his 2013 teamate (who became the 2014 gp2 champion in another team) despite the fact Nasr had much less experience (a season less). Nasr was way better than Ericcson too. You simply cant compare them.
One of Nasrs problems in GP2: he drove for Carlin. Thats all. He deserves a seat in F1, a good car and a good team.

Really ?

I just dont see it, I've watched gp2 for a long time and he has never struck me as a great upcoming talent. His debut season was in the DAMS (The best Team) and his team mate won the title and Nasr was 10th, also bare in mind that very season Gutierrez won 3 races that season and Max Chilton won 2 and I'd say they were in lesser teams. Nasr then left DAMS for Carlin and joined Palmer, the season ended with Nasr ahead of Palmer but didn't win a race where as Palmer won 2. Marcus Ericsson also won a race that season. Finally last season, Nasr stepped up to mount a title challenge but it never looked in doubt for Palmer who now driving for DAMS won quite easily. Stoffel Vandoorne was easily the hottest upcoming driver on the grid, Nasr is not in the same league as Stoffel.

My summary is simple, Nasr drove a total of 3 years for the best team and then Carlin who are a front running team, won just 4 races and has been out shone by the likes of Palmer, Bird, Vandoorne, Coletti, Leimer, Gutierrez, Calado, Chilton. I just cant see how you can say he is as good as you seem to think he is.

[ChrisF1]

Re Nasr - Even Johnny Cecotto has had decent races...

[Vasconia]

I (basically) agree with Blackout. Nasr isn't a future WDC but I still rate him. He will do a better job than Sutil or Gutierrez ever did, he will beat Ericsson, he just might flourish in F1.

If Ericsson doesnt make a great improvement this season it could happen, and this would not make Nasr a better driver. Anyway he deserves to try it and convince us.

[NathanOlder]

Indeed he deserves a shot, I just feel there are plenty who are more deserving that haven't and wont get the chance

[xDama]

What this is ignorance.
Nasr is one of the best young drivers out there. He did better than Palmer; his 2013 teamate (who became the 2014 gp2 champion in another team) despite the fact Nasr had much less experience (a season less). Nasr was way better than Ericcson too. You simply cant compare them.
One of Nasrs problems in GP2: he drove for Carlin. Thats all. He deserves a seat in F1, a good car and a good team.

Really ?

I just dont see it, I've watched gp2 for a long time and he has never struck me as a great upcoming talent. His debut season was in the DAMS (The best Team) and his team mate won the title and Nasr was 10th, also bare in mind that very season Gutierrez won 3 races that season and Max Chilton won 2 and I'd say they were in lesser teams. Nasr then left DAMS for Carlin and joined Palmer, the season ended with Nasr ahead of Palmer but didn't win a race where as Palmer won 2. Marcus Ericsson also won a race that season. Finally last season, Nasr stepped up to mount a title challenge but it never looked in doubt for Palmer who now driving for DAMS won quite easily. Stoffel Vandoorne was easily the hottest upcoming driver on the grid, Nasr is not in the same league as Stoffel.

My summary is simple, Nasr drove a total of 3 years for the best team and then Carlin who are a front running team, won just 4 races and has been out shone by the likes of Palmer, Bird, Vandoorne, Coletti, Leimer, Gutierrez, Calado, Chilton. I just cant see how you can say he is as good as you seem to think he is.

/ Nasr discussion =D> Could'nt agree more.

Vandoorne is the best of all the upcoming talents imo.

[ChrisF1]

As a random aside, I have always rated Dean Stoneman pretty highly, would love to see him make it to F1.

[Artur Craft]

Quite true

What this is ignorance.
Nasr is one of the best young drivers out there. He did better than Palmer; his 2013 teamate (who became the 2014 gp2 champion in another team) despite the fact Nasr had much less experience (a season less). Nasr was way better than Ericcson too. You simply cant compare them.
One of Nasrs problems in GP2: he drove for Carlin. Thats all. He deserves a seat in F1, a good car and a good team.

Nasr has poor raw speed. Ericsson got two poles in 2013, Barcelona and Silversone. Palmer got 1 in 2013, when he was team mate of Nasr, and then 3 more last year.

Nasr only got 1(in Hungary last year) despite having car for more, as his team mates showed with Palmer pole already mentioned in 2013 and the 2 poles of Valsecchi in 2012.

In terms of fastest laps, Ericsson had 1 in 2012 and 3 in 2013. Palmer had 2 in 2013 and 7 last year. Nasr have only 2, both from last year.

Now, if that wasn't bad enough, here comes the embarrassing part: Ericsson already won his first race on his first season, then won 2 more despite never being on the best team. Palmer won 1 in 2012, 2 in 2013 while being Nasr's team mate(1 of them from the pole and with the fastest lap) and 4 last year.

Nasr was easily in the best team already in his first season when Valsecchi got 2 poles, 5 fastest laps, 4 wins and the title while mediocre Felipe got nothing, nil, zero, nada, null.

Hell, in the 2012 season, even a guy like Max Chilton got 2 poles and 2 wins(from feature races) and his team wasn't even as good as Nasr's. It took until Barcelona, last year, for Nasr to manage to win his first race. And he only got 1 win from a feature race, during all his carreer despite being only on good teams due to his sponsors. Already mentioned DAMS being the best in 2012 and Carlin is a great team with top results in many series. Blaming Carlin for his lack of success if just fan excuse.

Nasr's main quality is consistency and regularity but that is not good enough for being in F1

That's why fanboyism does to people: makes them post "dumb" things

[PlatinumZealot]

Ricciardo was mediocre in lesser series too. Lets wait and see. One more week left.

[djos]

Ricciardo was mediocre in lesser series too. Lets wait and see. One more week left.

Iirc he won quite a lot of races and usually finished championships in the top 2.

E.g. 2008 Renault 2.0 = champion
2009 British F3 = champion
2010 Renault 3.5 = 2nd

Hmm, doesn't look mediocre to me!

[Vasconia]

Ricciardo was mediocre in lesser series too. Lets wait and see. One more week left.

Iirc he won quite a lot of races and usually finished championships in the top 2.

E.g. 2008 Renault 2.0 = champion
2009 British F3 = champion
2010 Renault 3.5 = 2nd

Hmm, doesn't look mediocre to me!

I would say that Ricciardo wasnt particularly spectacular when whe has in Toro Rosso, but then he came to RB with the new rules and he surprised (almost) everybody.

[f1316]

Can anyone come up with 5 reasons why Mercedes might not dominate 2015?

I like the question- it's an interesting exercise to see if it's possible that despite the speed they might not.

So here goes (bear in mind, I'm not saying any of the below is likely, only possible):

1. More collisions between drivers: if nico continues to lose out in races he might get frustrated; likewise, if he starts to consistently outperform Lewis in races, it would be somewhat unfamiliar territory for Lewis, in which case he might
2. Tyres may wear more than anticipated with faster cars in 2015: last year's tyres was consciously conservative to counter increased torque and this may have solved Mercedes' previous tyre issue for them; my understanding is that this year's are much the same but the cars are 3 secs quicker, which may uncover that Mercedes still overheat more than others (a factor which would have helped their tyre usage last year on extremely conservative tyres )
3. Mclaren may turn out to be super fast: we just don't know
4. Ferrari have an engine upgrade scheduled for Spain: if it's a big step it could conceivably make them competitive
5. Reliability: looked pretty strong in testing but they still uncovered issues

[SiLo]

Can anyone come up with 5 reasons why Mercedes might not dominate 2015?

5. Reliability: looked pretty strong in testing but they still uncovered issues

Only pretty strong?

[f1316]

Can anyone come up with 5 reasons why Mercedes might not dominate 2015?

5. Reliability: looked pretty strong in testing but they still uncovered issues

Only pretty strong?

Well they still broke down a bunch of times- albeit the reason they broke down seemed to be because they were able to put so much mileage on to begin with.

Still, not entirely bullet proof.

[SectorOne]

Break downs in testing is good. I´d be absolutely terrified if i went through testing and not a single broke.