F1 2015 Review - Part 1 (Rounds 1-7)

Mercedes headed into 2015 as defending champions, with Hamilton (now double world champion) and 2014 runner up Rosberg. Ricciardo, best of the rest in 2014, remained at Red Bull, whilst Vettel had moved to Ferrari to join Raikkonen. Alonso moved to McLaren to partner Button, and both Sauber and Manor fielded all-new lineups. Winter testing showed that Mercedes were potentially even stronger than in 2014, with Ferrari and Williams fighting over 2nd and 3rd. It was hard to judge how well...

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October - November 2014 review: Mercedes and Hamilton are Champions, Bianchi reminds us how dangerous F1 can be

After once again proving that they can win on very contrasting circuits (Monza and Singapore), Mercedes went to Japan with a small chance of being constructors champions. Ferrari were keen to regain on Williams, and McLaren wanted to move ahead of Force India. Caterham were struggling just to make it to Japan, after reports emerged that bailiffs had visited their headquarters in Leafield. Before FP1, the biggest concern was how Typhoon Phanfone could affect the race weekend, as well...

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Singapore GP Review and Japanese GP Preview: Rules, Retirements and Rewards

Heading into the Singapore GP weekend, the main question was whether Mercedes could continue their dominance, or if other teams could challenge them on the much slower and tighter Marina Bay Street Circuit. After Free Practice, Red Bull and Ferrari appeared to be a lot closer than in the previous race at Monza, and Toro Rosso looked relatively strong - especially with Jean Eric Vergne, who doesn't even have a contract for 2015. In Qualifying, after the usual suspicions that Mercedes...

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Italian GP Review and Singapore GP Preview: Speed, Saves and Sanity

In the Italian GP, the biggest questions were whether the Mercedes pair would crash into each other again, and how the new asphalt run off at Parabolica would affect proceedings. The former was relatively easy to answer as they never came within half a second of each other during the whole weekend, and the latter wasn't as bad as it could've been due to everyone having at least two wheels on track for pretty much the whole weekend - but at least it was there to collect any GP2 or GP3...

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Belgian GP Review and Italian GP Preview: Tricks, Trips and Triples

As with most races so far this year, the Belgian GP gave us more questions than answers. After a fairly typical wet qualifying, barring a below par session for Hulkenberg, a car problem for Gutierrez and André Lotterer replacing Kobayashi, almost everyone was roughly where they should’ve been based on 2014 form. The big stories in Q3 were the two second margin Mercedes had over their rivals and Vettel beating Alonso for third. In the race, Mercedes initially scampered away and two...

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Gold beats Silver to Germany win as Vettel and Lotus fill the podium, Mercedes overcome Hungary heat, Mr Blonde / Goldfinger thrashes the field in Belgium

After the tyre problems at Silverstone, Pirelli gave the teams a different specification of tyre for the German GP only, with a view to 2012 construction and 2013 performance from Hungary onwards. Whether the tyres could hold on or not was the big question on everyone's mind, along with the relative performance changes for each team. From practice it seemed that Mercedes could have trouble coping with the heatwave at the Nurburgring, but McLaren appeared to have moved forward and Force...

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2013 British GP: Testing Times for (Pirelli) Tyres

After the tragic events both in and out of Formula 1 (the deaths of Mark Robinson and several drivers since the Canadian GP finished), the teams set up at Silverstone (although Force India are just across the road so it wasn't exactly difficult for them!). On Thursday it was announced that after months of speculation, Mark Webber would be leaving F1 at the end of 2013 to drive for Porsche in their 2014 World Endurance team. It was later confirmed that Kimi Raikkonen, Jean Eric Vergne...

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