FORMULA ONE 2015 FEATURING: TOP 5 DRIVERS OF 2015, HAMILTON VS

THE OTHER TRIPLE CHAMPIONS, FERRARIS RENAISSANCE,

SEASON REVIEW WHICH TEAM HAD THE BEST CHASSIS? AND MORE...
 TAG HEUER CARRERA CALIBRE 16 DAY-DATE
Ayrton Senna is celebrated as the most influential driver in the history of FormulaOne.
He was never intimidated by the expectations of others, because his were even
higher. He forever embodies the TAGHeuer motto Dont Crack Under Pressure.
www.tagheuer.co.uk

HOLDING OUT
FOR A CHANGE
OF PACE
Like a plane that circles an airport waiting for
clearance to land, F1 finds itself in a holding
pattern as the 2015 season comes to a close.
There are always plenty of things going on in this
most dynamic of sports, with political battles,
technical innovation and commercial power plays
constantly figuring in the mix. The sport still has
iconic brands, like Ferrari and Mercedes as well
as superstar drivers, like Lewis Hamilton, who
became a three time world champion in 2015, as
well as Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso.
But many aspects of Formula One just dont line
up at the moment; such as the unfair schedule of
payments to teams, which is the cause of many
of the sports current woes, and which in turn
undermines the current hybrid turbo formula.
The sport has certainly failed to tell the story of the
hybrid turbo technology and after two seasons
with it fans remain unconvinced. The cost became
a serious issue this year, triggering a process
whereby the governing body the FIA proposed a
budget engine to a different specification, which
brought the manufacturers to the table in search
of a cheaper and simpler version engine. As long
as the teams, commercial rights holder and the
FIA are divided rather than united, F1 will remain
in a holding pattern for the foreseeable future.
JAMES ALLEN ON F1
That said, there were some real positives in 2015,
with huge, passionate crowds at Silverstone
and Mexico City and the dramatic arrival of Max
Verstappen. The Dutch teenager looks like another
multiple champion in the making. We also saw
Ferrari winning again, led by Vettel. His victory
in Singapore was a real highlight of the season.
There was also some superb racing particularly
at venues like Silverstone, Budapest and Austin.
As long as the teams, commercial
rights holder and the FIA are
divided rather than united, F1
will remain in a holding pattern.
Among other insightful content in this review,
Verstappens impressive team-mate Carlos Sainz
answers fans questions about his own rookie
year and life alongside the teenage sensation.
We assess Hamiltons three world titles and we
run the rule over this seasons chassis in order to
determine, when power units are removed from
the equation, just who built the best platform.
5
F1 2015
IN REVIEW
P8 P11
THE POWER OF THREE TRIPLE HEADER
HAMILTON ON HIGH LEWIS TITLE STATS

P14
SAINZ IN THE HOT SEAT
CARLOS QUESTIONED

P30
RED DAWN
FERRARIS RENAISSANCE

P44 P38
FIVE-STAR FIGHTERS EVOLVING ENSTONE
2015S TOP DRIVERS RENAULTS RETURN

6 2015 F1 SEASON REVIEW


CONTENTS
8 The Power of Three
Lewis Hamiltons third title sees him join
the list of all-time F1 greats but where does
the superstar racer go from here?
11 Triple Head-to-Header
Hamilton has joined a select club of three-time
champions, but how does his performance
stack up against his fellow club-members?
14 In the Hot Seat: Carlos Sainz
At the end of a highly successful rookie season,
Carlos Sainz sits down to answer your questions
on everything from fast food to fast team-mates
18 Tale of the Tape
This seasons year-ending stats reveal
some interesting winners and losers
20 Power Struggles
How the dominance of power unit manufacturers
is threatening to upset the Formula One grid
24 Red Bull find New Motivation
Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner
on the engine crisis and finding new power
28 Car Wars
Take away Mercedes power advantage and who
won the chassis battle? JA on F1 investigates
F1 2015 IN REVIEW
Red Dawn 30
Ferrari bounced back from a turbulent 2014 to
take three wins this season. But can they rise
even higher in 2016?
Ciao Jules 36
Formula One was this year rocked by the tragic
loss of Jules Bianchi, who succumbed to injuries
sustained at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix
Evolving Enstone 38
Charting Lotus long and winding road back
to manufacturer status with Renault
Making Connections 40
Now in its second year, F1s crowdsourcing
initiative, the Connectivity Innovation Prize, again
brought out the best in fans technical knowhow
Five-star Fighters 44
From title-winners to tyros to competitors
triumphing over adversity, we chooses our
top five drivers of the 2015 season
The American Dream 46
The background behind the most anticipated
F1 debut for years that of Haas F1 in 2016
JA on F1 in 2015 50
Its been a big year for the JA on F1 website.
Here are the sites vital statistics
7
F1 IN FOCUS
IMAGES OF 2015

Max power
Teen sensation Max Verstappens arrival
into F1 was a revelation. With 49 points
on the board at the end of his debut
season and with two fourth places in
Budapest and Austin to show for his
efforts, the Dutch driver silenced the
doubters and announced himself as a
champion in the making in emphatic style.

8 2015 F1 SEASON REVIEW

9
LEWIS HAMILTON
THE POWER OF THREE
THE POWER
OF THREE
By becoming Formula One champion for the third
time, Lewis Hamilton was fulfilled. He had not only
equalled his hero Ayrton Senna, but, like Senna he
transcended the sport to enter the realms not only
of the all-time greats, but of global superstardom.
He has been F1s main box office attraction since
Michael Schumacher retired and in 2015 he took
his life outside of the race track to a new level.
Cynics say that this is more of a reflection of the
poor job done by his team-mate Nico Rosberg this
season, that Hamilton was able to criss-cross the
globe between races, partying with A-list stars and
still win the world title with three races to spare.
Hamilton had Rosberg in his pocket for most
of the season, taking an early lead in the
championship, with three wins from the first four
races, thanks to raising his game in qualifying
and then leading from the front on race day.
Last year, Hamiltons life was complicated by
being outqualified by Rosberg more often than
not and although he managed to get past the
German on occasions something Rosberg
was unable to do to him it delayed his march
to the 2014 title. It was only after their collision
in Spa, that Hamilton gained the upper hand.
10 2015 F1 SEASON REVIEW
By contrast, in 2015 Rosberg didnt get a look in
until the title was done and dusted. The German
did end the season on a high, having unlocked
more speed in qualifying, particularly in the braking
phase. Rosberg improved his touch in the final
phase of braking and hit the sweet spot, reaching
the optimum speed for the turn-in to the corner.
Hamilton gave the impression that he was
unconcerned by this turn of events and by his
team-mates return to form from Japan onwards,
even when Rosberg beat him with back-to-
back wins from pole in Mexico and Brazil.
The impression was that Hamilton wasnt working
as hard, having already got the championship
job done in Austin. The question now is whether
Rosberg can maintain momentum and build
in 2016 from where he left off this year?
There is also the question of how Hamiltons
motivation will be affected by achieving everything
he set out to achieve in life by the young age of 30.
I have now reached my lifes goal; to win three
world championships, said the Briton after the title
was sealed at the US circuit in October. Im now
in a phase of reflection, discovery and of figuring
out my next goals. I am in discovery mode.
Triple champion, all-time great, global
superstar the 2015 season took
Lewis Hamilton to new levels of success,
and some would say celebrity distraction.
James Allen looks back on the Britons
achievement and asks what next for
a driver entering discovery mode

11
LEWIS HAMILTON Fear is not what drives me.
THE POWER OF THREE There are only things to win, not
to lose. There are only things to be
learned. I have achieved everything
I always wanted to achieve.

That is a trajectory he has been on for some
time, assiduously courting celebrity in other
walks of life, attending high-profile events in
fashion and music and looking for fulfillment and
happiness beyond racing. This was one of the
most notable aspects of Hamiltons 2015 and
there was no doubt that, although tiring, the
peripatetic travel made him happier in himself
and therefore more effective as a racer.
everything I always wanted to achieve. Everything
from now on is a bonus. There will be races Im
going to lose. There will be races where I will
make mistakes. But everything will build on the
great foundation that I have as a racing driver.
It reflects the journey of the boy who entered the
sport as the most exciting driver of his generation
and who has now lived up to that billing.

There was a period, while he was at McLaren
between 2009 and 2012, when he could clearly
be seen to be unhappy in many aspects of
his personal life; he talked enviously about the
happy bubble around his team-mate Jenson
Button, of the 09 champions supportive
friends and Jensons late father John.
Hamilton addressed these feelings in a revealing
interview during the Brazil Grand Prix weekend,
where he admitted that his focus had been lacking.
There were ups and downs. There were years in
which, to me, the correct focus was lacking. Even
when I tried to get it, I couldnt find it, he said.
But fear is not what drives me, he added.
There are only things to win, not to lose. There
are only things to be learned. I have achieved
If he follows Schumacher, who achieved
his lifes goals in 2000 by winning not only
his own third title, but also the elusive world
title Ferrari had been desperately seeking
for over 20 years, then he will relax now and
be even more devastating than before.
Next year he will face not only a fired-up
Rosberg, but also a tougher battle with
Sebastian Vettel, who is looking to write his
own chapter in Ferraris history, by bringing
glory back to Maranello after eight lean years.
In all honesty, 2015 was rather a dull
season, thanks to Hamiltons domination.
But 2016 promises to be more exciting
and it will be fascinating to see what effect
being a three-time world champion has
on Hamiltons competitive spirit.

12 2015 F1 SEASON REVIEW

 LEWIS HAMILTON
THE POWER OF THREE

TRIPLE
HEAD-TO-HEADER
Lewis Hamilton has joined a select
club of three-time F1 champions,
but how does his performance
stack up against other drivers
who hold three titles or more?
Will Saunders investigates

Of the 817 drivers who have entered a Formula

One World Championship event since 1950,
only 10 have won three or more titles. After
winning his third World Championship in
2015, Lewis Hamilton is in elite company,
alongside Jack Brabham, Jackie Stewart, Niki
Lauda, Nelson Piquet, and his idol, Ayrton
Senna, in the three-time champions club.

But how does Hamilton compare to the other

drivers to have clinched a hat-trick of titles? Do
the statistics of his career show a man on a par
with his triple world champion predecessors,
or a driver destined to perhaps go on to
match the achievements of the sports very
best by claiming further championships?

While comparing driver statistics across

different eras of F1 is fraught with problems,
the fundamental ingredients of championship
success have remained constant: pole positions,
wins, podiums, and beating ones team-mate.

We have assessed Hamiltons career to date by

these metrics against the full careers of the five
other drivers to have claimed three championships.

13
LEWIS HAMILTON
THE POWER OF THREE
Hamilton v Brabham
Given the greater number of races Hamilton
has started (167126), he unsurprisingly has
higher numbers of poles (4913), wins (4114)
and podiums (8631) than Brabham, but
crucially Hamiltons ratios in each of these
categories are also significantly higher
although they are helped by his vastly superior
DNF rate to Brabham (13.8%47.6%).
While Hamilton and Brabham show similar
margins of supremacy over their team-mates
in terms of wins and points, surprisingly
Brabham only outscored his team-mate in
four of his 12 full seasons in Formula One.
Hamilton has only been beaten once across
a season, by Jenson Button in 2011, and has
never seen a team-mate win the championship
an outcome witnessed by Brabham in 1967
when Denny Hulme beat him to the title.
Hamilton v Stewart
By virtue of the number of races entered
(16799), Hamilton heads fellow Briton Jackie
Stewart on number of poles (4915), wins
(4327), and podiums (8643), but interestingly
Stewart has a higher win ratio (27.3%) than
Hamilton (25.7%), despite a 37.4% DNF rate.
While Hamilton has scored twice as many
podiums as wins, Stewart only took 16 second
or third places compared to 27 wins. Stewarts
wins compared to his team-mates (273) also
leap out, with no other triple champion enjoying
such supremacy. Stewarts record of almost
double the points of his team-mates contrasts
with Hamilton, whose team-mates have scored
1641 to his 1839, (89.2%) of his points total.
Hamilton v Lauda
Hamiltons sample size against his current
boss is highly analogous (167 171 starts)
allowing a more direct comparison.
Hamilton heads Laudas numbers across every
metric: poles (4924), wins (4325) and podiums
14 2015 F1 SEASON REVIEW
(86 53), with the respective percentages
corroborating his superior record. Any
comparison should carry the caveat of Laudas
staggering 49.1% retirement rate almost four
times Hamiltons DNF percentage (13.8%).
Lauda was also more closely matched by his
team-mates than Hamilton, and the Austrian has
the highest team-mate win rate (76%) and point
ratio (93.8%) against him. This perhaps explains
Laudas 66 career championship record against
his team-mates, a figure that contrasts starkly
with Hamiltons 81 career record to date.
Hamilton v Piquet
Nelson Piquet is the only three-time champion
to have started more than 200 races, but
despite his greater sample size, the Brazilian still
trails Hamilton in the figures for poles (4924),
wins (4323) and podiums (8660) with the
respective ratios backing up Hamiltons statistical
advantage. Like Lauda and Brabham, Piquets
career was marred by a 40%+ DNF rate,
with Piquet particularly hamstrung by volatile
Brabham-BMWs at the dawn of the turbo era.
Piquets performance compared to his team-
mates is comparatively strong. Although drivers
such as Hector Rebaque, Marc Surer and
Satoru Nakajima didnt always offer Piquet the
sternest test, Piquets team-mates win (56.5%)
and points (49.4%) ratios compare favourably
to Hamiltons figures (61% and 89.2%). Piquets
points record against his team-mates is the most
dominant of any of the triple champions.
Hamilton v Senna
Hamiltons record against Senna makes for
fascinating reading, with the almost identical
sample size of Hamiltons career to date and
Sennas full career offering a striking comparison.
Sennas 65 pole positions from 161 races
and 40.4% pole percentage are quite
remarkable and demonstrate significantly
stronger qualifying stats than Hamilton.
 The win, podium numbers and ratios are
surprisingly similar, although Senna produced
these results despite a 39.1% DNF rate
(compared to Hamiltons 13.8%), suggesting
that the Brazilian was able to maximise his race
oppotunities to a greater extent than Hamilton.
Sennas figures also demonstrate a much greater
degree of superiority over his team-mates than
Hamilton, although even Senna lost out over the
course of a season with Alain Prost beating the
Brazilian to the championship in 1989.
Hamilton v all 3+ title-winners at
the point of winning their third titles
The natural evolution for this assessment is
to consider the statistics of each driver to
have won three or more championships at
the point at which they won their third title.
Due in part to the modern calendar, Hamilton
required the highest number of races (165) to
secure his third title. Perhaps of more relevance
is the number of full seasons taken to reach the
three-championship mark, headed by Fangio and
Vettel (5). Hamiltons nine full seasons is the mode
of this metric, but only Prost (10) and Lauda (11)
took more full seasons to clinch their third title.
Equally importantly in terms of Hamiltons legacy
building is the fact that at 30 years of age he is the
second youngest driver, after Vettel (25), to reach
three world titles. While Vettel fell into Red Bull just
as the team began an era of dominance, allowing
him to achieve more at a younger age than any
driver in the history of the sport, Hamilton has
had to patiently collate all of the ingredients
needed to enjoy his own era of supremacy.

Senna (poles), Schumacher (wins) and Hamilton
and Schumacher (podiums) still head the most
numbers for all drivers at the point of winning
their third title, but Fangio, as a consequence
of devastating success and surprising
reliability across a small sample size, enjoys
substantial advantages in all three categories.
Hamiltons pole, win and podium ratios, as
well as his career performance relative to his
team-mates, compare favourably to almost
all of F1s three-time plus champions, and
demonstrate that Hamilton has the statistical
foundation to support the notion that he belongs
in any discussion of the sports greats.

3 x WORLD CHAMPION
CAREER COMPARISONS* HAMILTON BRABHAM STEWART LAUDA PIQUET SENNA

INDIVIDUAL RECORDS

NUMBER OF RACES (STARTS): 167 126 99 171 204 161

POLE POSITIONS: 49 13 15 24 24 65

POLE POSITIONS (%): 29.3% 10.3% 15.2% 14.0% 11.8% 40.4%

WINS: 43 14 27 25 23 41

WINS (%): 25.7% 11.1% 27.3% 14.6% 11.3% 25.5%

TOTAL PODIUMS: 86 31 43 53 60 80

TOTAL PODIUMS (%): 51.5% 24.6% 43.4% 31.0% 29.4% 49.7%

DNFs**: 23 60 37 84 85 63

DNFs (%): 13.8% 47.6% 37.4% 49.1% 41.7% 39.1%

*AHEAD OF 2015 ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX

**INCLUDESALL RETIREMENTS (IRRESPECTIVE OF CLASSIFICATION) AND DISQUALIFICATIONS

15
QUESTION TIME

IN THE HOT SEAT:

CARLOS SAINZ
ANSWERS YOUR
QUESTIONS

16 2015 F1 SEASON REVIEW

At the end of a successful first season in F1,
Carlos Sainz reveals his new-found appreciation
for a Nando other than Alonso, how his
longest chat with Kimi Raikkonen was almost
five years ago and why hes confident he can
come back in 2016 as an even better driver...
Q: Nosh: do you find it difficult to eat
healthily when youre on the road all
the time? Also, do you like Nandos,
now that you live in London?
A: How do they know? Im in love with Nandos!
Generally, eating healthily is tough because I am
also a very big fan of hamburgers, so my diet and
my weight have gone up a bit since the beginning
of the season because of all the travelling. Its
difficult I love eating. I could eat for a whole day
and never be satisfied, so its quite a tough thing.
Q: David Cooper: how far ahead
are you thinking on a lap?
A: I never think about a corner, it comes very
automatically. When there is a succession of
corners then you dont have time to think, you just
do it very instinctively. My first time in a Formula
One car, which was at Silverstone, was the only
time I had to think about gears and the only time
I had to anticipate a little bit, because the car
had so much downforce and so much reactivity
that I was getting up onto the kerbs too much.
Q: Stephen Taylor: which approach
to your racing do you prefer: fast and
calculated, or fast and aggressive?
A: I prefer to use all of those terms, but at the
right moments. Being calculated is more for when
you are going for a championship, while driving
aggressively is more useful when you are going
for an overtake or putting in a good qualifying
lap. But if you use all of those three approaches
in the right way, they make you a good driver.
Q: Stephen Taylor: whats the most Kimi
Rikknen has ever spoken to you?
A: The longest chat Ive had with Kimi was when
I was 16 and we had a Red Bull event together
when he was rally driving and I was in Formula
Renault 2.0. We were at the Red Bull Ring and we
did a race on the track. We had a fun battle on the
last lap and after the race we started talking. In the
F1 paddock, we havent spoken as much, [but] I
imagine its like that for all of us here youre more
focused and its not such a chilled out atmosphere.
Q: Jon Wilde: which of the calendars
circuits are you most looking forward to
racing at again next season ?
A: Suzuka has also become one of my
favourite tracks, along with Silverstone and
Spa. I really got on well with the Japanese
people and I just loved that weekend.
Q: Alan Kay: what has it been like to have
Max Verstappen as your team-mate
this season?
A: Every time we have both had the same
chance, with the same reliability, we have been
very close. This is very positive for me because
people rate him so highly and if he really is as
good as everybody says he is and I personally
think he is very good this means that I must
not be very far off. It puts a smile on my face
to see that I am on a level and up there.
Q: Tabatha Smith: are you feeling confident
for 2016 after your rookie season?
A: Oh yes! If I look at my personal performances, I
am confident and optimistic. I always do big steps
in the winter and I made another big step last year,
so Im confident. I just cannot wait to see what
car Toro Rosso has prepared for us next year.
17
F1 IN FOCUS
MAGES OF 2015

Leading lights
Mercedes might have led 936 of the 1149
laps raced during 2015 but Williams got
in on the act in Silverstone, with Felipe
Massa and Valtteri Bottas jumping ahead
at the start. Massa led for 19 thrilling laps
and Bottas for one, demonstrating that it
was possible to occasionally take the fight
to the all-conquering Brackley squad.

18 2015 F1 SEASON REVIEW

19
 2015 IN NUMBERS
TALE OF
THE TAPE
3 13
Wins for Sebastian Vettel, who was
the only man to win a grand prix apart
from the works Mercedes drivers. The
German won in only his second race
for Ferrari before going on to claim
victory in a dramatic race in Hungary
and again with a commanding
performance in Singapore.
243,561
20 2015 F1 SEASON REVIEW
DESPITE A SECOND SEASON OF DOMINANCE BY
MERCEDES, THIS YEARS YEAR-ENDING STATS REVEAL
SOME INTERESTING WINNERS AND LOSERS OF 2015
1
Podium finishes for Vettel, the most
of any non-Mercedes works driver.
The four-time world champion placed
third on his Ferrari debut and finished
off the podium only once in his first
six races for the Scuderia. Indeed, Pole position for Vettel
Vettel only finished outside the top The German was the only man to beat
three on six occasions all season. Mercedes in qualifying this season.
Kilometres were completed in total during the 2015
season by the 10 teams taking part. That figure is 32,483
fewer than in 2014, a shortfall caused by the absence of
the now defunct Caterham team and also by restricted
running during the rain-affected races in Japan and the US.
 27
Points for McLaren, which represents the
worst performance by the Woking-based
team since 1980 when it also finished ninth
in the Constructors Championship.

17-2
The margin by which Romain Grosjean beat
Pastor Maldonado in qualifying, the most
dominant qualifying performance of the season. The
only times Maldonado started ahead of his Lotus
team-mate were in Monaco where Maldonado
qualified in P9 to Grosjeans P11 and Abu Dhabi
(P13-P15). Vettel vanquished Rikknen 15-4 on
8 Fastest laps to Lewis Hamilton and five for his
Mercedes team-mate, Rosberg. Daniel Ricciardo
was best-of-the-rest with three, while Rikknen
Saturday afternoons, while Lewis Hamilton was the
and Vettel chalked up two and one respectively.
third on the list after beating Nico Rosberg 127.

16
Podiums for Ferrari, the second most successful
team after Mercedes. Vettel accounted for the bulk of
that figure but Rikknen chipped in with one second-
place finish and two thirds. Williams was third best, as
the British team made four visits to the podium in 2015.

1127
Race laps completed by Vettel, the most of any
driver across the 2015 season. Vettel only failed to
make it to the chequered flag twice, after his tyre
failure in Belgium and when he crashed out in Mexico.
Sergio Perez was second best with 1123, while world
18Points finishes for Hamilton. The only time the
Mercedes driver failed to finish in the points was when
he was forced to retire from the Singapore Grand
champion Hamilton came third third with 1120.
Prix when his car suffered a freak engine failure.

21
POWER PLAYS

POWER
STRUGGLES
James Allen analyses how the
dominance of two power unit
manufacturers is threatening to
unbalance the Formula One grid

22 2015 F1 SEASON REVIEW

23
POWER PLAYS
The bald facts of 2015 were that Mercedes
and Lewis Hamilton steamed to the most
dominant season in Formula One history. The
story was familiar from the season before.
Although the chassis was class leading, the secret
once again lay in the Mercedes hybrid turbo power
unit, which has been peerless since the new rules
were introduced at the start of 2014. Across two
seasons the Mercedes engine only failed to take
pole position once in Singapore this year, when
Ferrari grabbed pole courtesy of Sebastian Vettel.
The hybrid turbos continue to have strong critics
inside and outside the sport for three main
reasons: due to the way that the competition
has been so heavily skewed towards one team,
due to the lack of noise, and also due to cost.
The smaller teams were crippled by engine
bills well in excess of 20m euros per season.
After keeping a low profile in 2014, this year the
FIA stepped in to try to get prices lowered and
this led to the seasons major confrontation.
FIA president Jean Todt, a former team principal
and General Manager of Ferrari tackled the
24 2015 F1 SEASON REVIEW
Scuderia head-on in a battle of wills. Ferrari has
the right of veto over F1 regulations it doesnt like
and it used this to block a cost cap on engine
supply to customer teams. The FIA was asking
the manufacturers to drop the price from well
over 20m euros a season, to 12m euros for
new engines and 8m euros for year-old units.
After Ferrari exercised the veto the situation
escalated in November as the FIA issued a tender
document for a commercially available alternative
engine for F1 from 2017 onwards. It would be
available to all teams for around 6m euros, but
would be based on a V6 2.5 litre engine, without
Energy Recovery System, of the kind commercially
available and running today in other series. This
would effectively create a two-tier F1, as there
would need to be additional rules to balance
performance across the two classes of engine.
Many considered this a slippery slope for F1.
There were a few interested parties, one of which
was Mario Ilien, who originally set up the Ilmor
firm in Brixworth, England, that has since become
Mercedes High Performance Powertrains.
Ilien worked with Red Bull in 2015, trying to
 F1 cars go nowhere
without power units.
But at the end of
2015, the sport
remains locked in
a power struggle.
improve the Renault engine, which let the
team down so badly on both performance
and reliability. In the end, Renault chose its
own development path, but the firms updated
engine, used by Daniel Ricciardo in Brazil,
was something of a disappointment.
Red Bull and Renault had already fallen out by
then and the engine debate was further polarised
in the second half of the season by the refusal
of Ferrari and Mercedes to supply Christian
Horners team with an engine for 2016.
In essence, F1 had a situation
where two of the most
powerful teams were deciding
whether another rival could be
competitive or not, which was
clearly a failure of governance.
The contrasting view was that Red Bull had acted
arrogantly and their decision to seek a new engine
partner after they had decided to split with Renault
was akin to a man jumping out of an aeroplane
expecting to buy a parachute on the way down.
Meanwhile, the FIA and Bernie Ecclestone,
the sports commercial supremo, had
an ulterior motive for challenging the
might of the existing manufacturers.
The power of the power unit manufacturers
had already become an unexpected and
significant threat and over the coming
years looked set to become a bigger one if
unchecked. The current bilateral agreements
with the teams are to the end of 2020.
Among the sports stakeholders there was a
common feeling that the powerbrokers needed to
clip the wings of Ferrari and Mercedes and that
it needed to be done sooner rather than later.
Meanwhile, Honda endured an excruciating
return to the sport, suffering multiple failures
and often embarrassingly poor performance.
The rules mandate four power units only per
driver for the season. In Brazil, the McLaren
Honda drivers were both on their 11th.
F1 cars go nowhere without power
units. But at the end of 2015, the sport
remains locked in a power struggle.
25
POWER PLAYS

HORNER CONFIDENT
RED BULLS CAN MOVE
FORWARD IN 2016

26 2015 F1 SEASON REVIEW

Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner tells
James Allen that F1s rules need to be changed
in order to avoid a repeat of the engine supply
woes that dogged the team this year
Q: Given Renaults history as an innovator in
F1, you had every right to expect that theyd
perfect hybrid turbo technology and improve
from 2014 to 2015, as Ferrari did with theirs.
But of course they didnt. So now you
have Ferrari and Mercedes telling you they
wont supply you and thereby controlling
who is and who is not competitive in F1.
How can that be allowed to happen?
A: Good question. Its been an interesting
journey these past two years. The situation we
find ourselves in now and the question of where
the sport is heading are going to be subject
to intense scrutiny over the closed season.
Q: On the other hand, its your job to channel
Red Bulls considerable resources into
putting together a winning team. And not
having a competitive engine is like a football
manager failing to sign any defenders.
A: From a team perspective we have one of the
strongest teams on the grid. You can see that,
as a chassis constructor, weve done a great job,
as have all the departments at the racetrack.
Now, as an independent team we dont make
our own engine. So we are beholden to the
supplier. When you have a big engine change,
like the one weve seen over the last couple of
years, some will get it wrong and unfortunately
we were on the side that didnt get it right.
Q: And that led to the dissolution of
your partnership with Renault and
then a difficult period in which there
was the possibility of the team exiting
the sport. Now youve worked out a
temporary solution with them?
A: All eventualities were considered and we
hope that our conclusion will help us to move
forward next season. The good thing is that we
are committed to be in F1 next year and for the
future and we are working hard to put forward as
competitive a proposition as we can for next year.
Q: You are not a motor manufacturer;
you are an energy drinks company that
owns a Formula One team. But surely,
looking ahead, you must want to take
the situation under your own control?
A: It goes beyond that. You can see that there
is a situation with the governing body, which
wanted to introduce a cost-effective engine,
but thats not happening at the moment. So
they are looking at extreme measures.
You also have a situation where certain
manufacturers do not want to supply
certain teams and there is nothing in the
regulations that says they have to.
So you have several different factors going
on here. The commercial rights holder and
the governing body recognise that they
have to protect the sport for the future,
otherwise it could force teams such as
Red Bull Racing out of Formula One.
When the regulations were written it was omitted
that [the manufacturers] had to supply a certain
minimum number. And when these engine
rules were put together nobody remembered
to think about the price and that is what is so
crippling for the smaller teams. Engines are
being quoted at 30 million euros per season
thats an enormous amount of cash.
27
F1 IN FOCUS
IMAGES OF 2015

28 2015 F1 SEASON REVIEW

Seb shines on
Sebastian Vettel had already won twice
in 2015 by the time the F1 circus swung
into Singapore, but the Ferrari drivers
victory under the floodlights was the pick
of the bunch. After taking a sensational
pole position, Vettel controlled an incident-
packed race to hold off Daniel Ricciardo
after Lewis Hamiltion retired from the race.

29
TECH FOCUS
CAR
WARS
The three best chassis in Formula One in 2015
were the Mercedes W06, the Ferrari SF15T and
the Red Bull RB11. Each of them obviously used
different Power Units, but if they had possessed
equal motivation which would have been the best?
The relative merits of the PUs are well known:
Mercedes remained the benchmark, Ferrari
were much improved in 2015, especially in race
conditions, and Renault continued to struggle.
Speed trap data is not always the best measure
of power output, as small changes in drag play
a part and power is also about acceleration,
but consistently over repeated measurements
the Renault was 7-10 km/h adrift of its rivals.
This is a significant chunk of horsepower and
combined with less refined torque delivery it
could regularly have cost more than 1s per lap.
At mid-season the statistics showed that Ferrari
were around 1%, (8 or 9 tenths of a second on
average), per lap adrift of Mercedes in qualifying,
whereas for Red Bull this figure was a little over
1.5%. Over the second half of the year Ferrari
and Red Bull edged a little closer, but not by
much, leaving the overall order unchanged.
30 2015 F1 SEASON REVIEW
Mercedes may have
dominated, but take away
the Brackley squads power
advantage and who won
the battle of the chassis?
Dominic Harlow goes
in search of a winner
In designing their cars for 2015 the teams
were challenged by the fact that there were
actually relatively few changes to the Technical
Regulations from the previous year and so
improvements had to be incremental rather
than revolutionary. There were, however, three
elements that played a part in the way the
teams got to grips with their new packages.
The most visually obvious was the change
that forced a more aesthetically pleasing
nose, eliminating the proboscis-like impact
structure solutions seen in 2014.
This suddenly placed the nose and front wing
pillars in a volume that conflicted with the
Y250 vortices, flow structures shed from the
transitions between the prescribed section of
front wing and the lift generating outer sections.
This had a knock-on effect on the aerodynamics
of the bargeboards, floor and diffuser.
Teams dealt with this problem in a variety of
ways, but probably the most successful was
the trend, started in 2014 by Mercedes, for
shortening the nose as much as possible.
Subtler, but occasionally spectacular was the
mandatory use of titanium alloy skids for the plank.
Ostensibly to enhance the show and supported by
some teams more than others prior to adoption,
this rule change hurt Red Bull considerably.
Titanium alloys, although extremely strong, are
nowhere near as hard as tungsten, which was
previously used to make the skids. The end
result was the need to raise the front ride height
of the car, where the skids contact the ground,
by 1-2 mm to avoid finishing the race with an
illegally thin plank. For Red Bull, who typically
rely on a higher rake angle than other teams, the
resulting loss of aerodynamic performance meant
they had to work much harder to recover the
downforce and the front-end grip that was lost.
Compounding these issues at the front of the
car was the final change made by Pirelli to its
tyres for the 2015 season. As well as more
conservative compounds, Pirelli altered the rear
tyre construction to enlarge the contact patch
and therefore deliver more rear grip. Until they
began to mandate higher tyre pressures later
in the year this made life difficult for Red Bull
and was a bonus for Mercedes and a driver like
Hamilton who could use this surfeit of rear grip
by carrying masses of speed to the apex and
using the traction to drag him out of the corner.
In order to make a conclusion its worth looking
at how things played out at the Hungaroring,
probably the most chassis sensitive circuit of the
season. In 2014 Red Bull qualified within 0.5s of
the Mercedes and went on to win the race. This
year Ferrari (who eventually won) and Red Bull
only managed to get within 0.75s of Mercedes.
The Red Bull was probably the best chassis
of 2014, but this season perhaps on balance
the RB11 was only ever the equal of the W06.
Hungary was the culmination of Red Bull Racings
biggest in-season development push and in the
way it used tyres the RB11 was arguably the car
a race-strategist would most like to work with.
Both were just a fraction ahead of the SF15T
especially at the higher downforce circuits that
constitute the majority of the Championship; when
low drag was a requirement and with harder tyres
the Ferrari, particularly in Vettels hands, came alive.
31
THE REBIRTH OF FERRARI

RED
DAWN Ferrari bounced back from a troubled and
turbulent 2014 to take three wins and second
place in the 2015 Constructors Championship.
Alex Kalinauckas looks at how an injection
of new blood reinvigorated a sleeping giant

32 2015 F1 SEASON REVIEW

33
THE REBIRTH OF FERRARI
I am the leader of the orchestra, but
we have our president who is writing
the music. We try to have a theatre that
is happy with what we are doing!
Maurizio Arrivabene
For Ferrari, 2015 was mission accomplished.
At the start of the campaign recently appointed
team principal Maurizio Arrivabene set a target of
two race wins as the minimum his outfit should
achieve and with three victories and second
place in the Constructors Championship, the
team surpassed the new boss modest goal.
Arrivabene arrived at the helm of the Scuderia
shortly after the end of the teams disastrous
2014 season, which yielded just fourth place
in the team standings. As a result, Arrivabene
immediately set about shaking up the teams
management, with several senior engineers
leaving the team before Christmas.
With technical director James Allison given
more control of the engineering department,
results improved almost immediately. First, new
signing Sebastian Vettel won in Malaysia and
then Kimi Rikknen returned to the podium in
Bahrain, narrowly missing out on victory. Vettel
also won a dramatic race in Hungary as the
34 2015 F1 SEASON REVIEW
team achieved Arrivabenes minimum target
before the summer break. The German driver
then won again in superb style in Singapore
before pushing Nico Rosberg hard for second
place in the drivers championship.
Arrivabene is quick to point out that he feels the
Ferraris improvement is down to the whole team
from company President Sergio Marchionne
to the factory employees pushing each other
on to better results, which largely stemmed
from producing a better engine for 2015.
I am the leader of the orchestra, Arrivabene said
earlier this year, but we have our president [Sergio
Marchionne] who is writing down the music and
we try to do our jobs in the best way and to have
a theatre that is happy with what we are doing!
Last year we were struggling a bit, but this
year the guys are doing a good job, he
added. We are all together doing a good job
and we have gained a lot of horsepower.
 If we do a good job over the
winter, its believable that we
could come back next year and
fight from the start.
James Allison
Its not only related to investment, its also
related to knowledge, to the people that were
investing their hours and passion and their
technical abilities to solve the problem.
As with Ferraris resurgence, Vettel seems to have
rediscovered his form and is clearly enjoying life at
Maranello. Arrivabene noted that the three wins
have galvanised the four-time world champion
and that the team appreciates his efforts.
Sebastian has enthusiasm, he said. And with
the results that he was able to get, together with
the team, he has even more commitment.
In a move that surprised many observers,
Ferrari opted to retain Rikknen for the
2016 season, but although the decision gives
the team the consistency it craves, it will
expect the Finn to up his game next year.
Vettels Malaysian win and consistent results
elsewhere brought hopes that the team would
be a factor in the 2015 title battles, although
it proved too much to topple Mercedes at the
head of the F1 field. But at the penultimate
race of the season, the Brazilian Grand Prix,
Vettel finished 15 seconds adrift of race-winner
Nico Rosberg with a deficit of just 0.2s per lap,
a small enough gap for Allison and his team
to be confident of bridging over the winter.
If we do a good job over the winter, its
believable that we could come back next year
and fight from the start, said Allison, and
thats what were all focused on doing.
Theres a lot of people working on it. Luckily
Ferrari is a team with a lot of power and a lot of
engineering skill. We hope that we can bring that
car next year and that we can fight from the start.
The 2016 Ferrari will be the first car on which
Allison has had full technical control and if the
Scuderia can close the gap to Mercedes, F1 can
look forward to an exciting battle for supremacy.
35
F1 IN FOCUS
IMAGES OF 2015

36 2015 F1 SEASON REVIEW

Magical Mexico
The return of the Autdromo Hermanos
Rodrguez to the calendar after a 23-year
absence was a stunning, celebratory
reminder that when the series visits
locations with a strong racing constituency
and a historic connection to grand
prix racing, then there are few sports
than can match F1 for pageantry and
passion. It was a truly memorable
weekend, for all the right reasons.

37
JULES BIANCHI REMEMBERED

CIAOJULES
James Allen reflects on the
tragic loss of Jules Bianchi, who
in July succumbed to injuries
sustained nine months earlier at
the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix

38 2015 F1 SEASON REVIEW

Mercifully the obituary writers have had a
lean time of it over the past 20 years where
Formula One drivers are concerned.
So it was all the more distressing to this year lose
Jules Bianchi at the age of 25, nine months after
he sustained terrible head injuries in an accident
during the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix. It was the
first time a driver had died from injuries sustained
in an F1 race since Ayrton Senna in May 1994.
This in itself shows how far the sport has come
in making the cars and drivers as safe as
possible. But it also served as a reminder that
a sport such as F1 can never be completely
safe. There is always that element of risk.
This generation of F1 drivers have luckily
had little experience of death among its
peers. As a measure of how much safer the
sport has become, Sir Jackie Stewart lost
57 colleagues during his 11-year career.
Most of the leading drivers attended Bianchis
funeral in Nice, including Lewis Hamilton, Nico
Rosberg, Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button,
Daniel Ricciardo,Romain Grosjean, Daniil Kvyat,
Nico Hulkenberg, Roberto Mehri and Marcus
Ericsson, while Felipe Massa and Pastor
Maldonado, who shared Nicolas Todt as a
manager with Bianchi were also present.
Bianchis former Marussia team-mate Max Chilton
was also there, as were GPDA stalwarts Alex Wurz
and Pedro de la Rosa. Adrian Sutil, whose car was
being recovered by the mobile crane that Bianchi
hit and Jean Eric Vergne were also present.
After the ceremony the drivers got together
for a drink in Bianchis memory.
In a moving ceremony at the next race in Hungary
the drivers formed a circle on the grid, placing
their helmets around his on the ground. Many
drivers struggled to balance their emotions
when the race started a few minutes later.
Bianchis chosen race number, 17, has been
permanently retired by the FIA as a mark of respect
to the enormously talented young French driver.
39
LOTUS RENAULT

EVOLVING
ENSTONE
Lotus long and winding road is reaching
an end as Renault prepares to once again
take over at Enstone. Alex Kalinauckas
charts the venerable outfits often tortuous
route back to manufacturer status

40 2015 F1 SEASON REVIEW

Team Enstone. The squad has been involved in
Formula One for 34 years and has gone through
four iterations: Toleman, Benetton, Renault and
Lotus. In 2016, the Oxfordshire team is set to
revert to Renault ownership after the French
manufacturer announced its intentions to buy back
the outfit and revive its works F1 programme.
Its been a whirlwind five years since a majority
stake in the team was sold to Genii Capital,
with arguably its best year being 2013 when it
finished fourth in the Constructors Championship
and ended the season with the second fastest
car in F1. First technical director James Allison,
who produced the squads race-winning
cars in 2012 and 2013 departed for Ferrari,
then Renaults 2014 V6 turbo was not up to
scratch and the team languished in eighth
place in the constructors championship with
just 10 points and three top-10 finishes.
Lotus switched to Mercedes power units for 2015
and it has moved up to sixth in the teams standings
as well as returning to the podium thanks to Romain
Grosjeans heroic drive in the Belgian Grand Prix.
But behind the scenes, things have been tough.
This year the team has frequently found itself
locked out of its hospitality units because of
unpaid bills; wages have been delayed and the
team faced a HM Revenue and Customs court
order over an outstanding income tax payment.
The most visible sign of its woes is that the E23
is largely the same car as in Melbourne,.
Despite these problems, the engineers at
Enstone have found ways to make a difference
on a shoestring budget according to Lotus
trackside operations director, Alan Permane.
You always have to adapt and learn from the
situation, he explained earlier this year. At first it is
very frustrating. You want to improve the car and
it does not happen. But you adapt quickly, find
new ways of working and you try to find lap time
in other areas. For example, we had a new front
wing, which did not work as expected. Previously,
we would have said forget the wing, its not
doing what it should. Now we are forced to really
understand it. And so we found the time in the end.
Grosjean is departing the team at the end of the
season, but Enstone will have some continuity as
Pastor Maldonado and 2015 reserve driver, Joylon
Palmer, have already been confirmed for 2016.
But Grosjean had fond words to say of the only
team he has driven for in his F1 career so far.
Enstone is quite a particular team, the people
stayed united and very strong, he said. The people
at Enstone are the strongest group of people ever to
keep pushing, no matter what the circumstances.
Renault has also faced a turbulent time since F1
adopted the V6 hybrid engines. The breakdown
of its relationship with Red Bull was acrimoniously
played out in public and in September Renault
revealed its intention to buy back Lotus.
It was not always an easy path, however, and
prior to the Abu Dhabi GP, Renault CEO Carlos
Ghosn had still not signed off on the deal, with
sources indicating that the decision still hung in the
balance right up until the 11th hour in Abu Dhabi as
disagreements over the finances involved dragged
on, though a resolution was eventually reached.
Despite the delays, Renaults former F1 boss
Bob Bell was already back at Enstone and set
to become the teams technical chief, while
ART GP boss Frederic Vasseur is tipped to
be team principal. Once all the elements are
in place, the manufacturer aims to recapture
its championship heyday of 2005-2006.
41
INNOVATION

Now in its second year,

F1s crowdsourcing

MAKING
initiative, the Connectivity
Innovation Prize, again
brought out the best in
fans technical knowhow

CONNECTIONS

42 2015 F1 SEASON REVIEW

 The Signals and Streams
app stood out for its creative
yet viable approach to data.
Paddy Lowe, Mercedes
Its always great when fans get to interact with
the sport. One of the most exciting initiatives,
which JA on F1 has been proud to support,
is the crowdsourcing challenge know as the
F1 Connectivity Innovation Prize, which poses
real-world challenges to engaged fans around
the world and gives them a chance to make
a difference within the F1 ecosystem.
That was especially true this year, the second for
the F1CIP. A three-way initiative from Formula
One Management, the Mercedes F1 team
and Tata Communications, it asked F1 fans to
submit ideas for two challenges with a $50,000
grand prize on offer for the overall winner.
A wide range of entries was received from across
the world and three of the winners found out about
the Challenge from the JA on F1 site, including
the overall winner, Paul Clarke from Australia.
Ravi Sawhney and Svetlana Sawhney from the
UK made up one of the three winning teams in
the first challenge with their data visualisation
app, Databricks. Predictive analysis and gaming
app, The Formula 1 Virtual Championship
(F1VC), designed by American duo, Sandrine
Partridge and John A Vasilakos, was one of
three winning entries in the second challenge.
A judging panel made up of a number of racing
drivers and F1 technologists including John
Morrison, chief technical officer of Formula
One Management; Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
technical chief Paddy Lowe, James Vowles,
Mercedes chief strategist, David Coulthard,
Martin Brundle, and Mehul Kapadia, managing
director of F1 business at Tata Communications,
assessed the six winning entries.
The panel selected Paul Clarke (top left with
Martin Brundle), an IT specialist from Australia
as the grand prizes winner. Clarke developed
a novel way for Mercedes to make faster
decisions between factory and racetrack.
The solution, called Signals and Streams,
combines traditional web technologies
with state-of-the-art protocols that
consolidate data insights in real time.
The opportunity provided by
the F1 Connectivity Innovation
Prize to combine my technology
expertise with my passion for the
sport was a dream come true.
Paul Clarke, overall winner
Ive been a huge F1 fan since the late 1980s,
said Clarke. So the opportunity provided
by the F1 Connectivity Innovation Prize to
combine my technology expertise with my
passion for the sport was a dream come true.
My aim was to use modern approaches to
data visualisation to provide clear, intuitive and
instant information to engineers and drivers.
Morrison hinted that Clarkes idea could soon
become reality, while Lowe was also impressed.
We received incredibly strong entries this
year from around the world, said Lowe. The
Signals and Streams application stood out for
its creative yet viable approach to harnessing
the huge volumes of data we generate during
each Grand Prix and during practice sessions.
www.tatacommunications.com/f1prize
43
F1 IN FOCUS
IMAGES OF 2015

Sitting it out
McLarens 2015 woes were perfectly
captured in Fernando Alonsos resigned
response to his car expiring at the start
of Q1 at the Brazilian Grand Prix. The
Spaniards decision to relax and watch
the rest of the action from a marshals
deck chair became an overnight
internet meme, with hundreds of fans
photoshopping Alonso into unlikely
locations he might enjoy more.

44 2015 F1 SEASON REVIEW

45
TOP 5 DRIVERS OF 2015

FIVE-STAR
FIGHTERS
From title-winners to tyros
to competitors triumphing
over adversity, James Allen
chooses his top five drivers
of the 2015 season.

1 LEWIS HAMILTON
For the second year in a row Lewis is world champion and fully deserves to be considered
the best driver of the season. Unlike last year, he started the 2015 season on the front foot,
with three wins from pole position in the opening four rounds. Thereafter, he built the points
gap to Rosberg with apparent ease. Highlights were the wins in Silverstone and Suzuka,
lows were Monaco, where he lost out on victory due to a strategy mix-up with his team
and Hungary, where he made a hash of the opening lap. Now feeling fulfilled as a three-
time champion, he may hit a comfortable sweet spot in 2016 and go up another level.

46 2015 F1 SEASON REVIEW

2 SEBASTIAN VETTEL
Not a perfect season for the four-time champion, with off days in Bahrain and Mexico, but
otherwise he was outstanding, leading Ferrari back to the winners circle. As always, his
qualifying was class leading, with 11 top-three grid slots and a pole position in Singapore,
Ferraris first since 2012. Ferrari love Vettel for his seriousness, his work ethic and his
enthusiasm. The signs were clear at the end of the year that they are closing up on Mercedes.
Vettel knows what it takes to win and if anyone can lead Ferrari back to glory its him.

3 MAX VERSTAPPEN
This may be a bit controversial, but Id argue that Verstappen should be in the Top 5 because
he faced a unique challenge. No one has ever come into F1 at the age of 17, with one year
in single seaters and had to deal with the pressure of hype associated with that. Verstappen
truly made his mark in his debut season and delivered some outstanding drives, especially
in Hungary and Austin, where he scored breakthrough fourth-place finishes. Although there
were some errors, his peaks were as high as anyones this year and his overtakes on Ericsson
in China and Nasr in Spa were among the best seen in recent times. Hes the future of F1.

4 DANIIL KVYAT
After a patchy start to the season, in transition from Toro Rosso to Red Bull Racing, the young
Russian really came good, managing to outperform 2014s star driver Daniel Ricciardo on
numerous occasions. Its hard to judge both drivers, as the Renault engine was unreliable as well
as underpowered and the Red Bull chassis only really came good from Silverstone onwards.
But stepping up to the top team after only one season with Toro Rosso put Kvyat under a lot of
pressure and he acquitted himself very well in both qualifying and races. His career-first podium,
with second place in Hungary, and a stunning drive to fifth in Russia were among the highlights.

5 NICO ROSBERG
A tough call between Rosberg, Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas for the final spot. Nico put in some
brilliant drives in 2015, but the problem was that he didnt deliver them often enough and that
allowed Hamilton to run away with the championship. Qualifying gave Nico a chance last year, but
at the start of this season his touch deserted him, which began with two second places and two
thirds in the opening rounds, twice beaten by a Ferrari. He maybe lost his edge around the time of
his daughters birth in the summer, but once he rediscovered his touch in qualifying, from Suzuka
onwards, he gave Hamilton something to reflect on over the winter. Which Nico will return in 2016?

47
THE ROAD AHEAD

48 2015 F1 SEASON REVIEW

THE
AMERICAN
DREAM
The Formula One grid, the harshest
of sporting environments, has long
been a graveyard for passionate
ambition, but has Gene Haas found
a new way of turning wide-eyed
F1 fantasy into competitive reality?
Alex Kalinauckas investigates

49
HAAS, WHAT TO EXPECT

We came up with a different

plan that has a strong focus on
collaboration with established
[companies], and therefore we
dont start from zero. You cannot
do more of the same if the recent
past has shown that more of the
same doesnt work.
Guenther Steiner, team principal

50 2015 F1 SEASON REVIEW


Formula 1 has tried to crack America 10 times,
with races being held at various different circuits
across the US throughout the history of the
championship. American teams have been thinner
on the ground, but next year, the first American
team for a generation will join the grid: Haas F1.
Gene Haas eponymous outfit secured its F1
slot back in 2014 (eyeing a grid slot the following
season), but opted to defer for an extra year in
order to ensure it is fully ready to hit the track
running competitively in 2016. It secured power
units from Ferrari and a technical partnership with
the Scuderia, leaving the US outfit to build only
its chassis, which is has undertaken via another
partnership, with Dallara. Its a unique approach
and one that is extended further by the team being
split across three countries: its headquarters,
CFD technology and machine tooling is in North
Carolina, the race team is based in the UK and
the design and aero departments are in Italy.
We believe we have such a good plan in place,
said Haas F1s team principal, Guenther Steiner.
We came up with a different plan that has a
strong focus on collaboration with established
[companies], and therefore we dont start from zero.
You cannot do more of the same if the recent past
has shown that more of the same doesnt work.
Haas reckons that his team will be competitive
on its F1 debut. Although the team has stopped
short of saying it will be fighting at the sharp end
of the grid, he firmly believes it will make a better
We have [Ferraris] material,
we make use of their wind
tunnel, which was refurbished
three years ago, and we can
count on their technicians.
Romain Grosjean
entrance than recent F1 debutants. The American
recently said he feels his squads chassis could
even be better than Ferraris own 2016 design.
I think our chassis is going to be substantially
different in construction to the Ferrari one,
because were just doing it separately, he
said. We think our chassis in some ways will
be better than a Ferrari chassis because were
using some more, I wont say state-of-the-art,
but were taking a different approach to Ferrari
and we think its probably a better design.
Many expected Haas F1 to sign an American driver
to boost its standing at home, but instead the
team has poached Romain Grosjean from Lotus
and will partner him with former Sauber driver,
and 2015 Ferrari reserve, Esteban Gutierrez.
[Haas F1] doing this agreement with Ferrari,
is a great move, said Grosjean. To work with
one of the two best teams on the grid should
help us to start at a level of good continuity.
We have their material, we make use of their
wind tunnel, which was refurbished three years
ago, and we can count on their technicians.
Haas wanted an experienced driver to lead
his team in 2016 and he pulled off something
of a coup in signing Grosjean. The 29-year-
old clearly has ambitions of replacing Kimi
Rikknen in 2017 and signing with Haas means
Ferrari has access to all the data it needs to
determine if the Frenchman has what it takes
to replace the Finn in the years to come.
51
JA ON F1.COM
ABOUT
JAMES ALLEN
ON F1.COM
The James Allen on F1 website is one of
the leading sites for F1 insight, analysis and
interaction with fans, with over 120,000
comments left each year by some of the
2.4 million active unique users world wide.
It is an influencer in both the mainstream
media and the Formula One Paddock.
The site brings fans closer to the sport via
content strands such as the UBS Race Strategy
Report as well as behind the scenes stories on
Thanks for help and support throughout the season to:
Dominic Harlow, Pip Calvert, Bill Allen, Alex Kalinauckas, Justin Hynes,
Declan Quigley, Susan Williamson, Alex Salter, Mike Hendon, Darren
Odam, Jamie Mason, Ali Peate, Russel Batchelor at XPB Images, Darren
Heath, Holly Samos, Sara Linney at GP Legends, Mandy Scott Johnson,
Ian Leigh and Iain Taylor, Tim Bampton, Zak Brown, Simon Drake, Aled
Rees, Robin Fenwick, Steve Wright, Rob Biagioni, Andrew Hirsch, Mehul
52 2015 F1 SEASON REVIEW
F1 personalities, technology and business.
Principal audience markets are the UK, USA,
Australia, Canada, Spain, Germany and India,
but there are active users from 232 countries.
Site traffic grew at 22% for the year 2015.
The main development of this 2015 season
was the launch of a new mobile-responsive
version of the site, responding to the growing
shift towards mobile users online behaviour.
Kapadia, Amit Sharma, Bijaya Basu, Nav Siddhu, Bjorn Waspe, Jonas
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How can we
win three in
a row?
What do we have to change?
Can we stay focused as a team?

Congratulations to Lewis Hamilton and all of the

MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team.

For some of lifes questions, youre not alone.

Together we can find an answer.

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 WERE PROUD
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OUR PARTNERS
TO THE PODIUM
Congratulations to the MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team
on their second consecutive FIA Formula One World Constructors
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