Top 5 championship contenders for the 2015 F1 season

The Formula 1 2014 season was completely dominated by the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team with Lewis Hamilton (Winner) and Nico Rosberg (Runner Up) sharing 16 titles between them.While fans would be hoping for a tougher and closer contest this year, teams like Ferrari and Williams have made good progress in the constructor’s standings. Fernando Alonso’s injury made all the headlines with doctors predicting, that he might never even return, after an unexpected accident in the pre season test at Barcelona.Sebastian Vettel’s switch to Ferrari, after a 15-year association with Red Bull would be interesting to see.The championship will start on 15th of March in Australia and will be contested by 20 drivers.

#5 Valtteri Bottas (Williams Martini Racing)

Bottas had six podium finishes in the previous season. (Source : BBC)

After achieving six podium finishes Valterri Bottas finished 4th overall in the championship finishing better than the likes of former world champions Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso.

In the pre season test, Bottas completed 491 laps driving 2255 kms and came third in the Barcelona test.

The 25-year old Finn will have his advantage in the faster racing circuits with FW37 retaining the low-drag characteristics of FW36. The Williams has also said that it has made good progress in addressing the tyre degradation concerns.

Bottas, who completed the last season with , would have to start off with a podium finish in the Australian Grand Prix (On 15th March) which would help him push for championship this year.

#4 Sebastian Vettel (Scuderia Ferrari)

Vettel replaced Alonso in Ferrari (Source : BBC)

After years of domination, Vettel’s run finally came to a halt last year.

Blaming less reliability towards his former Infinity Red Bull team, the German racer’s best finish was 2nd in Singapore Grand Prix and he was forced to retire on three occasions.

But by achieving his dream move to Ferrari, something on, which he had set his sights from 2008, he would be raring to go with Ferrari appearing to have made good progress over the winter.

Vettel, the four time world champion between 2010 and 2013, had satisfactory pre season test finishing 4th overall and completed 602 laps covering 2,768 km.

#3 Daniel Ricciardo (Infiniti Red Bull Racing)

Ricciardo will look to continue the good form he showed last year. (Source : motorsportinpubs)

Daniel Ricciardo will be looking to carry on with the good form he showed last year.

The Australian, who replaced Mark Webber in Infinity Red Bull in 2014, finished third with 281 points in his first year.

His quickest lap at Circuit de Catalunya was 1:24.574. A positive sign for the red bull driver is that the RB11‘s chassis and aero package is one of the best. The only concern for the RB11 would be that it still has to depend on top speed, accounting to both engine power and down force/drag trade off.

With his first race at home, Ricciardo will be looking for a podium finish this year unlike in 2014 without exceeding the fuel flow rate like last year.

#2 Nico Roseberg (Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team)

Nico Roseberg surprised everyone by finishing 2nd last year (Source: houston60f1)

Team Mercedes’ other strong favorite.

Roseberg surprised F1 world by his unexpected 317 points and runner up finish in the previous year.

After winning 5 titles in 2014, the German would be restarting his rivalry with co team mate Lewis Hamilton this year. Even Sebastian Vettel has predicted that it would be a two man race for the driver’s championship and gave 50-50 chance to either of them to go on and win.

The Mercedes - AMG driver had a pretty good Barcelona test wherein he finished first. But the only concern for the Mercedes team would be excess over steer on the medium tyres that could be an issue isolated to cold track conditions,

He would be hoping to start his title challenge with a win in the Australian Grand Prix like last year.

#1 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team)

Lewis Hamilton is expected to dominate the championship in 2015 too (Source: formula1.com)

Lewis Hamilton is the outright favorite among fans and pundits to win the 2015 F1 drivers championship.

Last year, the 30-year old British racer won 11 titles and only his team-mate Nico Roseberg gave him some sort of competition.

While hoping that the Mercedes team would be even more dominant this year, the two time f1 championship winner talking to Laureax.com said, "The cars are going to be evolutions of last year’s, so it’ll be the same people that we were racing with last year; Red Bull, Williams, and then you’re hoping that it’s a bit of a better year for those like McLaren and Ferrari so that we have more people to race.”

After finishing second pre-season test in Barcelona, the former McLaren man will be looking forward to the Australian Grand Prix, where he finished 2nd behind Nico Roseberg last year.