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he's suffering the "this is my year" disease that struck David Coulthard for a long time

he's suffering the "this is my year" disease that struck Fernando Alonso for a long time

he's suffering the "this is my year" disease that struck Ferrari for a long time

With little changes in the rules, other than small sporting and detail changes, I sense next season will be somewhat similar to this one, pecking order wise. Unless one of Ferrari, McLaren or Red Bull ceased work early and focussed on 2015 very early, Mercedes will still be the dominant team.

Maybe Honda will be mega, and 2015 will be Alonso's year!


No?

which they all did.

This won't be enough, though. Ferrari and, especially, Red Bull already had a very good car in 2014. Just a guess(so, as bad/good as pretty much anybody else's) but I think the pecking order would have been: RB, couple of tenths behind Mercedes, and Ferrari very close behind , if they all had matched PUs.

If Ferrari and Renault can't catch up on their side, it will be useless what Red Bull and Allison's team do

PS: I base my guess on Monaco and Singapore quali results, as they are the tracks where engine power has the least effect in the calendar. In Monaco, Red Bull was 0,4s off Mercedes and Ferrari 0,7s. In Singapore, Red Bull was 0,2s off Mercedes and Ferrari 0,25s

We'll see come Melbourne if the other teams have caught up

‘We need to look at something different 2016. In terms of power unit and in terms of regulation. 2015 is clear we will have to – at the moment – accept the status quo but definitely we are not going to accept the status quo for 2016. The cost of the power unit is a problem. The fact that we cannot enhance our power unit during the season is a cost for us, for not performing. So, the difficulties that that the small teams are facing is an issue on the table – so I think all these problems are very well connected’ added former Ferrari boss Marco Mattiacci.

Maybe Honda will be mega, and 2015 will be Alonso's year!


No?

Red Bull fears it cannot catch F1 rival Mercedes in 2015
By Jonathan Noble Tuesday, December 9th 2014, 16:20 GMT

Red Bull fears that it will not be able to close the gap to Mercedes in 2015 and is worried its Formula 1 rival could be even further ahead.

As efforts to relax F1's engine freeze appear to have failed, with Mercedes refusing to concede ground, Red Bull's engine partner Renault now has a narrower window in which to improve their power unit than it may originally have hoped for.

And although Red Bull and Renault have restructured their partnership to try to ramp up their development, team chief Christian Horner says he is not expecting to be able to overhaul Mercedes next season.

"We are not writing off next year but, for sure, there is a gap there," he said. "And, from what we hear, the performance gains that Mercedes are bringing next year, it is going to be a massive challenge to reduce that

"Renault can make an inroad but I think it would be unlikely to match this year's [Mercedes] engine.

"I think we can get closer to it, but Mercedes are not going to stand still and Ferrari are in a similar situation. It is very tough when the engines are frozen at the end of February."

There are also mounting concerns that Mercedes could even step further ahead of Renault and Ferrari next season, with improvements expected to come from its energy recovery systems and exhaust areas of the car.

Horner says that he has heard suggestions Mercedes' 2015 power unit will be much better than this year's, which would leave Renault and Ferrari still playing catch up.

"I think if you believe the numbers that are floating around, the gap could actually grow rather than diminish," he said, in reference to speculation Mercedes could find around 70bhp more.

"That would be rather depressing if that was the case."

So on my way to India, I had a 9 hour layover at Heathrow and decided to relax at the BA T5 executive lounge when a few hours in who walks in...Felipe Massa himself!

I couldn't believe it my eyes as he seemed so inconspicuous and unassuming. He sat down at a table right in the open next to me and started eating & texting and still no one noticed him. So decided to go up and say hi and chatted with him for a bit. He was super friendly and even agreed to take a few photos. His first comment to me though was "Hey you're wearing the wrong jacket!". Said he had just come from the factory and was taking a flight back to Sao Paolo. Thanked him for his time and wished him well for next season and a return to the top step of the podium.

Another day, another much-of-the-same moan from Christian Horner...