Jules Bianchi (1989-2015). In Memoriam
Mercedes completely dominated the Championship and early on Hamilton already showed that he would conquer his third title, equaling Jack Brabham (1959, 1960 and 1966), Jackie Stewart (1969, 1971 and 1973), Niki Lauda (1975, 1977 and 1984), Nelson Piquet (1981, 1983 and 1987) and Ayrton Senna (1988, 1990 and 1991). Better than that are only Michael Schumacher (1994, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004), Juan Manuel Fangio (1951, 1954, 1955, 1956 and 1957), Alain Prost (1985, 1986, 1989 and 1993) and Sebastian Vettel ( 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013)
Although the German Constructor domineered, the championship was interesting.
Analysis team by team, driver by driver:
Mercedes:
18 Poles, 16 wins, 32 podiums, 12 “one in two” and 703 points
A kind of “copy & paste” from the previous season: The same 18 poles, the same 16 wins, plus one more “one in two”, one more podium and 2 more points. Magnificent
Lewis Hamilton (1st – 381 pts). Hamilton was absolutely great: 11 poles, 10 wins and 17 podiums are very impressive figures.
Nico Rosberg (2nd – 322 pts). A nice championship (7 pole positions, 6 wins and 15 podiums), but unlike 2014, he never instilled the idea of being able to beat Hamilton.
Ferrari:
1 Pole, 3 wins, 16 podiums: 428 points
Ferrari never had enough arguments to “fight against” Mercedes, but the team improved (a lot) after the painful 2014 season. We’ll see if the trend is to continue in 2016.
Sebastian Vettel (3rd – 278 pts). An excellent championship for the German driver (1 pole, 3 wins and 13 podiums). He was the only driver outside Mercedes to claim a pole and to win.
Kimi Raikkonen (4th – 150 pts). The “ice man” is far from his glory days, but this season (where he got 3 podiums) was much better than the previous one; however, this was not particularly difficult …
Williams:
4 Podiums: 257 pts.
Not as good as in 2014, but the Frank Williams team remains very interesting
Valteri Bottas (5th – 136 pts). 2 podiums. Less exciting than in 2014, the Finn has shown, however, that he is a pilot with quality and able to stay on top.
Felipe Massa (6th – 121 pts). 2 podiums. The Brazilian did a reasonable job and at the age of 34 he continues to be a very interesting driver
Red Bull:
3 Podiums: 187 pts
A difficult year for Christian Horner’s team, with a number of problems concerning the Renault engine – Honestly, the staff did what they could and it wasn’t a disastrous season in view of the circumstances
Daniel Kvyat (7th – 95 pts). 1 podium and a very interesting championship for the Russian driver, on being given “good material” he could become a nice surprise one of those days
Daniel Ricciardo (8th – 92 pts). 2 podiums did not disguise a mediocre season. In 2014 he had been beaten by Vettel, this year he was beaten by his young teammate. Ricciardo will have to do much better in 2016.
Force India:
1 Podium: 136 pts.
The best championship ever for the team (5th place), despite having 19 points less than in 2014. Much consistency in one of the teams who go into every race to score.
Sergio Pérez (9th – 78 pts). Got the only podium for the team, retired from one single race (Hungary) and in my opinion had a great championship.
Nico Hülkenberg (10th – 58 pts). Three 6th places was the best he could do and being several points behind Pérez. The German driver was a bit of a disappointment this season
Lotus:
1 podium: 78 pts
Much better than in 2014, but (the team has now been bought by Renault) far from the glory days.
Romain Grosjean (11th – 51 pts). An interesting season for the Frenchman, who achieved a podium (Belgium)
Pastor Maldonado (14th – 27 pts). Three 7th places was his best, and he won the title “champion of dropouts”: 9 altogether – We can´t always blame the Venezuelan, but …
Toro Rosso:
67 pts
Despite having the limitations of the “b” Team of Red Bull, it was quite interesting season and their best ever in terms of points
Max Verstappen (12th – 49 pts). The revelation of the current season: He debuted in F1 at just 17 years old and it is easy to see that he is a huge talent: The overtaking of the year (according to FIA) was his (the one over Nasr at the Belgian GP) and many of the best overtakings this season were his. Of course he sometimes causes problems for himself, due to his age and inexperience, but Verstappen will probably have a great future in F1. Two 4th places was his best
Carlos Sainz (15th – 18 pts). It was a quiet and discreet debut for theSpanish driver in F1, having managed a 7th place as his best
Sauber:
36 pts
After not having scored in 2014 the team has improved a lot this year, but will have to do much more to reach higher results.
Felipe Nasr (13th – 27 pts). An interesting debut for the Brazilian driver, who claimed a 5th place (Australia). We’ll see what he will be able to do next year
Marcus Ericsson (18 – 9pts). The best we got was an 8th place (Belgium) in a very quiet season
McLaren:
27 pts
A huge disappointment was the return of Honda to F1 as an engine supplier. The history of the Japanese and English constructor did not deserve such a bad championship
Jenson Button (16th – 16pts). The best he managed was a 6th place (USA) and overall he was better than Alonso, having scored 4 times
Fernando Alonso (17th – 11pts). The best he could do was a 5th place in Hungary and scoring just once more: Great Britain. Alonso was “the portrait” of this team
Manor
The only team that did not score – Only 3 dropouts throughout the season? A fact, but the lack of competitiveness was scary
Will Stevens. Only dropped out twice, but the best he could manage was a 13th place (Great Britain)
Roberto Mehri. Participated in 13 races (only abandoned in Canada) and managed as best a 12th place (Great Britain)
Alexander Rossi. He participated in five races, a 12th place in the US GP was his best result
With the 2015 season ended we must wait for 2016, expecting 21 races, the return of Renault as a constructor and the debut of Haas (the first American team to compete in F1 after the abandonment of Lola in 1986)
So let´s wait!
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