A brief look into the revolting start of the V6 era

           HIGHLIGHTS OF THE V6 ERA (2015)

         

So, The 5 season has come to an end with Mercedes-Benz and their lead driver Lewis Hamilton again dominating the championship. They were on a roll from the re-start of turbo V6 era in 2014 and the flow continued in 2015 where they just improved the car slightly in areas like reliability and high speed cornering.

                     While teams like Ferrari had to completely re-design their car from start as they got it wrong in-terms of aerodynamics and the power unit itself was a disaster. The car couldn't simply provide enough boost from its ERS unit and the positioning of the unit itself was weak. Totally the engine was downby atleast 70 horsepower and hence this year, Ferrari had made a brilliant comeback by making things much better on their side. Also, kudos to the Italian team for employing Sebastian Vettel as the four time world champion provided all the energy that the team required. Along with Kimi Raikkonen who always did his thing no matter what, The driver selection was aced.

                     This year, Ferrari scored second in the constructors championship placing ahead of Williams Racing which was farely balanced but needs to strive hard if they want a championship winning car and also scored ahead of the all important Red-bull racing which almost collpased admist trying to stop themsleves quit F1 at one stage. In contrast with Ferrari, Red-bull and Mclaren struggled this year with their engine partners Infiniti Renault and Honda taking the blame. As  a result next year, Red-bull will race with rebranded Renault engines as TAG-Heuer Renault and Honda will improve their engines drastically to survive in F1 with Mclaren.

               Talking of Mclaren-Honda, This once was one of the most renowned succesful and dominant teams in F1 ever. The end of 80's era was famed for Mclaren-Honda combo being the team to beat with turbo four cylinder, V12 and V10 engines and fantastic chassics provided by Mclaren, This team won 4 constructors championships and drivers championships from 1988 to 1991 consecutively with infamous driver who arguably known as The God of F1 Ayrton Senna winning 3 of them. When Honda tried to create a similar story by making a comeback with Mclaren instead of trying the failed records of the works team, It didn't result in the way they would have wanted. Not even Remotely. The combo fared very badly in 2015. They were battling for a single point instead of a podiums and wins. The competition they were up against wasn't upto their standards and levels.

          The rival teams like Force India, Sauber and Toro Rosso infact  showed better improvement in performance and their chassics which also had nothing to blame. They mainly skills from their rookie drivers who were the show stealers of 2015. Especially a guy who was just 17 years of age when he entered F1 raised questions among many about his driving and the danger he might cause to others on track. But Max Verstappen from Toro Rosso showed great levels of maturity and absolute raw talent as he did great overtakes and moves all around different races of season. "Yes, he did commit some mistakes like in Monaco and Great Britain but he has miles to go where he could learn and show great signs of becoming a future world champ." Eddie Jordan commented. Therefore, he won the driver of the year 2015! Other rookies, not to mention also did a stellar job namely Felipe Nasr, Carlos Sainz Jr and even Alexander Rossi having driven only a few races for Marussia showed amazing talent which he carried on to GP2.

                      However, The Enstone based team faced the worst season interms of financial issues after not being able to pay any amount of money for pirelli tires and several other terms which ended up by the staffs being locked in their hospitality unit in Suzuka, Japan. And the tire supplier also refused to provide tire heaters on a Friday. They later had it borrowed from other teams! The team also later opened up that they had around £114 MILLION in debt. So, the podium by French driver Romain Grosjean in Spa meant a lot to them. But Pasto Maldonaldo despite attracting various sponsers showed less than average inconsistent performance this year. By the end of the year, Renault has agreed to buy Louts and solve their issues. So for 2016, Renault will be running it as a works team and we ll miss the iconic black-gold livery.

There has reportedly been a steady drop in the audience watching F1 since the cars have become slower and silent. The officials are supposedly into this and ensuring us that 2017 F1 cars will be around 5 seconds quicker a lap and lot louder. we have to wait till the time.   But, till then F1 2015 was still exciting like the races in Austin, Great Britain, Italy, etc... Personally F1 is still going the way it   should be except it needs some improvements according to Me.

                Certainly, WEC and DTM racing have caught up and provide more fun and entertainment. But, F1 is still and will remain the ultimate pinnacle of Motorsport and in the battle for the Ultimate Championship.

                                                                    - S.Vishal Aravind.