MERCEDES ON TOP
WorldMags.net
ith each new year
comes new hope.
That’s what Mercedes’
rivals will have been
telling themselves after being forced
into the role of supporting cast
members in 2014 as main
protagonists Lewis Hamilton and
Nico Rosberg stole the show.
Sixteen victories and 18 poles
between them. It was dominant.
Williams came close in terms of
outright pace, but that was only
towards the end of the season. A
new year, then, couldn’t come soon
enough for most. Or could it?
Straight out of the box in
pre-season testing at Jerez, the
Mercedes W06 was quick and
consistent. The team put hundreds
of laps on the board and knocked off
countless practice pitstops in quick
succession. It was the perfect start.
Light relief for its rivals followed,
as Mercedes started encountering
minor blips. Hamilton missed a
day with high fever, while a neck
injury for Rosberg hampered his
running. And there was even a
mechanical issue to contend with
as an MGU-K failure cut short
Hamilton’s first day of the final
test. But blips were all they were.
Mercedes topped the charts in
terms of mileage with 1340 laps –
nearly 1000 more than McLaren
managed. But it was when the team
turned its attention to performance
that the world champions really
struck the killer blow. Rosberg
set the fastest lap of the test on
the soft tyre – a 1m22.792s – on
day two of the final test. Hamilton
was just over two tenths slower
the following day.
The closest anyone got to Rosberg
on the same tyre was Felipe Massa in
W
Mercedes was dominant in
testing, but can Ferrari get
this close once racing starts?
“I’m sure we will
nail it completely
in Melbourne. It
has been a great
winter for us”
NICO ROSBERG, MERCEDES
WorldMags.net
the Williams, but he was 0.7s adrift.
Even when rivals turned to the faster
super-soft, they couldn’t beat
Mercedes. Valtteri Bottas in the
other Williams got closest, the
Finn 0.25s off Rosberg.
Pirelli estimates that the supersofts are 0.8s quicker than the softs.
If that’s the case, and assuming
comparable fuel loads, Mercedes is
one second clear of its challengers
ahead of the season-opening
Australian Grand Prix.
Having spent most of the test
keeping expectations in check,
Rosberg loosened the shackles on
the final afternoon and said what
everybody else had been thinking.
“I am sure we will nail it completely
in Melbourne,” he said. “It has
been a great winter for us. We
got off to a running start with
not many reliability problems
and have been doing the mileage.
Now we are able to extract
performance from the car.”
STRONG PRE-SEASON FOR
WILLIAMS AND FERRARI
For all Mercedes’ apparent
dominance, there are others who
will be delighted with how their
winter has gone. Chief among them
is Ferrari, the team that looked
broken in 2014 as it suffered its
worst season in two decades. But
signs that the Scuderia is being
pieced back together are clear.
New team principal Maurizio
Arrivabene has spoken about how
the team is united in pursuit of glory
– and with unity comes belief. New
recruit Sebastian Vettel dumping the
SF15-T in the gravel and a few
“teething problems” are the only
blots on a testing copybook that
makes for very pleasant reading.
Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen
ensured the team topped the times
in three of the opening four days of
testing at Jerez and, while those
headline times have dropped off,
the car’s underlying pace has not.
The drivers seem happy, with
Arrivabene even joking with
reporters that Raikkonen must be
“sick” because he’s smiling so much.
And it’s not hard to see why.
The new Ferrari has a stronger
front end in mid-corner and more
support from the rear under braking
– different to last year, but a change
of direction that suits Raikkonen
and arguably team-mate Vettel.
“This year is a completely
MARCH 5 2015 AUTOSPORT.COM 13
13
ing war?
With 12 days of pre-season done and dusted,
it’s clear Mercedes has kept its place at the
top of the tree. But where does everyone
else slot in? By LAWRENCE BARRETTO