The Year of Mercedes
It was an interesting season in Formula 1. The Mercedes was dominant from the beginning until the end. But fortunately, the management of the team let the two drivers (Hamilton and Rosberg) battle for the title. So, speaking on behalf of all F1 fans - I believe - I would like to thank the German manufacturer which didn't give team orders as Ferrari used to do in the Schumacher era. In the following graph you can see how close the battle was...
Apart from the drivers of the silver arrows, Ricciardo made a great season. He was the only one to win a Grand Prix, besides Hamilton and Rosberg. The smiling guy from Australia, won 3 times and finished third in the drivers' championship. Another good young driver, Bottas, shined this year. The Finn finished 6 times on the podium and claimed fourth place in the championship.
Vettel was 5th overall, but the bad thing for him is that he didn't win any races. The last time that a champion couldn't win a race was back in 1998. Jacques Villeneuve who won the title with the mighty Williams-Renault in '97, was not competitive at all the following year, because the team didn't have the support of Renault any more... But in Vettel's case, the car was not so bad, or else his younger and not so experienced team mate wouldn't have won 3 (!) times.
As for the teams, the 2 big disappointments are Ferrari and McLaren. The legendary teams, instead of improving their cars, they made them even worse! The Scuderia has replaced many employees and with the arrival of Vettel, they hope they will bounce back. At Woking, this was the last year of the partnership with Mercedes, which begun in a similar poor way back in 1995. On the contrary, Williams was revived this year and thanks to the engines of Mercedes, finished third in the Constructors' Championship.
We really won't miss teams like Marussia and Caterham. There were greater teams that have vanished during the last 15 years. First of all Tyrrell, which had won 2 drivers' championships with Sir Jackie Stewart and one constructors'. Speaking of Sir Jackie, at the late '90s he entered F1 with his own decent team, but didn't last for long. The best result was a victory. Tyrrell was bought by BAR at 1999, then became Honda, Brawn GP and now is known as... Mercedes! Stewart's team was bought by Jaguar and in 2005 by Red Bull! There were also many small decent teams that do not race any more, such as Minardi, Jordan, Arrows etc
Comments