2015 Formula One World Championship: Difference between revisions

2015 FIA Formula One
World Championship

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2016

• Races by country
• Races by venue

Support series:

• GP2 Series
• GP3 Series

Lewis Hamilton, the defending World Drivers' Champion.

The Mercedes F1 W06 Hybrid, the car entered by Mercedes, the defending World Constructors' Champions.

The 2015 Formula One season is the 66th season of the Formula One World Championship, a motor racing championship for Formula One cars which is recognised by the sport's governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), as the highest class of competition for open-wheel racing cars. Twenty drivers representing ten teams will contest each of twenty Grands Prix, starting in Australia on 15 March and ending in Abu Dhabi on 29 November as they compete for the World Drivers' and World Constructors' Championships.

Lewis Hamilton is the defending Drivers' Champion after securing his second title at the 2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. His team, Mercedes, will begin the season as the defending Constructors' Champion, having secured its first championship title at the 2014 Russian Grand Prix.

Signed teams and drivers

The following teams and drivers are currently signed to take part in the 2015 Formula One World Championship.

Team	Constructor	Chassis	Power unit	Tyre	No.	Drivers	Rounds
Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari	SF15-T	Ferrari	P	5 7	Sebastian Vettel Kimi Räikkönen	1 1
Sahara Force India F1 Team	Force India-Mercedes	VJM08	Mercedes PU106B Hybrid	P	11 27	Sergio Pérez Nico Hülkenberg	1 1
Lotus F1 Team	Lotus-Mercedes	E23 Hybrid	Mercedes PU106B Hybrid	P	8 13	Romain Grosjean Pastor Maldonado	1 1
Manor Marussia F1 Team	Marussia-Ferrari	MR03	Ferrari 059/3	P	28 98	Will Stevens Roberto Merhi	1 1
McLaren Honda	McLaren-Honda	MP4-30	Honda RA615H Hybrid	P	20 14 22	Kevin Magnussen Fernando Alonso Jenson Button	1 TBA 1
Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team	Mercedes	F1 W06 Hybrid	Mercedes PU106B Hybrid	P	6 44	Nico Rosberg Lewis Hamilton	1 1
Infiniti Red Bull Racing	Red Bull-Renault	RB11	Renault Energy F1-2015	P	3 26	Daniel Ricciardo Daniil Kvyat	1 1
Sauber F1 Team	Sauber-Ferrari	C34	Ferrari	P	9 12 TBA	Marcus Ericsson Felipe Nasr Giedo van der Garde	1 1 TBA
Scuderia Toro Rosso	Toro Rosso-Renault	STR10	Renault Energy F1-2015	P	33 55	Max Verstappen Carlos Sainz Jr.	1 1
Williams Martini Racing	Williams-Mercedes	FW37	Mercedes PU106B Hybrid	P	19 77	Felipe Massa Valtteri Bottas	1 1
Sources:

Team changes

McLaren will renew their relationship with Japanese manufacturer Honda, twenty-three years since they last competed together. Pictured is the McLaren MP4/6, one of the last cars built by McLaren to use a Honda engine, racing at the 1991 United States Grand Prix.

• Honda returned to Formula One as an engine supplier, providing McLaren with a V6 engine and Energy Recovery System package, ending the team's 20 year partnership with Mercedes-Benz. Honda had previously supplied McLaren from 1988 until 1992, when they ended their involvement in Formula One. Honda returned to the sport in 2000, again as an engine supplier, providing British American Racing and Jordan Grand Prix with engines until they purchased the former in 2006 and competed as a constructor until 2008.
• Lotus changed engine suppliers, ending their association with Renault in favour of a deal with Mercedes. This ended a 20 year involvement of Renault with the Enstone based team, after being an engine supplier to Benetton since 1995, and being the owner of the team from 2002 to 2010.
• Following the 2014 Russian Grand Prix, Marussia went into administration, missing the final three races of the 2014 season. The team appeared on the provisional entry list under the name "Manor F1", and in November 2014, administrators announced that the Marussia team would cease trading and close down, while parent company Manor retained the entry. In February 2015, new investment was secured and the team left administration after an agreement with creditors was reached.
• The assets of the Caterham team were scheduled for auction by the company's administrators beginning just days before the opening round of the season, and the team was not included on the final entry list published ahead of the opening race.

Driver changes

Sebastian Vettel left Red Bull Racing—the team he won four World Drivers' Championships with—at the end of the 2014 season to join Ferrari.

• Fernando Alonso will replace Kevin Magnussen at McLaren, returning to the team seven years after he last raced for them. Following an accident during pre-season testing, Alonso withdrew from the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, and Magnussen was named as his temporary replacement.
• Sebastian Vettel left Red Bull Racing at the end of the 2014 season after fifteen years with the team and its wider junior development programme to join Ferrari in the place of Alonso. Daniil Kvyat was promoted to Red Bull from Toro Rosso to fill the seat vacated by Vettel.
• Toro Rosso overhauled their lineup after Kvyat and Jean-Éric Vergne left the team, signing reigning Formula Renault 3.5 Series champion Carlos Sainz Jr., and European Formula Three third place finisher Max Verstappen, who will become the youngest driver to make his Formula One début at the age of 17 years, 164 days when he starts the 2015 season.
• Esteban Gutiérrez and Adrian Sutil were released from Sauber, where they were replaced by Caterham's Marcus Ericsson and GP2 driver Felipe Nasr. Giedo van der Garde made successful legal challenges against Sauber in both Swiss and Australian courts, with the latter passing down an order for the team to field him at the opening round.
• Manor F1 hired former Caterham driver Will Stevens to drive for his first full season in the sport, and signed former Caterham test driver Roberto Merhi to a one-race deal for the opening round.
• Kamui Kobayashi left Caterham to race in the Super Formula series in Japan.
• Max Chilton left Marussia to join Nissan Motorsports in the FIA World Endurance Championship.
• Marussia driver Jules Bianchi suffered a brain injury in an accident at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix and remained in an indefinite coma as a result.

Season calendar

The following twenty Grands Prix are currently scheduled to take place in 2015.

Round	Grand Prix	Circuit	Date
1	Australian Grand Prix	Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit, Melbourne	15 March
2	Malaysian Grand Prix	Sepang International Circuit, Kuala Lumpur	29 March
3	Chinese Grand Prix	Shanghai International Circuit, Shanghai	12 April
4	Bahrain Grand Prix	Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir	19 April
5	Spanish Grand Prix	Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Barcelona	10 May
6	Monaco Grand Prix	Circuit de Monaco, Monte Carlo	24 May
7	Canadian Grand Prix	Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal	7 June
8	Austrian Grand Prix	Red Bull Ring, Spielberg	21 June
9	British Grand Prix	Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone	5 July
10	German Grand Prix	To be announced	19 July
11	Hungarian Grand Prix	Hungaroring, Budapest	26 July
12	Belgian Grand Prix	Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Stavelot	23 August
13	Italian Grand Prix	Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Monza	6 September
14	Singapore Grand Prix	Marina Bay Street Circuit, Singapore	20 September
15	Japanese Grand Prix	Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka	27 September
16	Russian Grand Prix	Sochi Autodrom, Sochi	11 October
17	United States Grand Prix	Circuit of the Americas, Austin, Texas	25 October
18	Mexican Grand Prix	Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Mexico City	1 November
19	Brazilian Grand Prix	Autódromo José Carlos Pace, São Paulo	15 November
20	Abu Dhabi Grand Prix	Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi	29 November
Source:

Calendar changes

Returning races

• The Mexican Grand Prix is scheduled to return to the Formula One calendar for the first time since 1992. The race is to be held at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez circuit located in the centre of Mexico City, which also was the location of all of the Mexican Grands Prix in previous decades. The circuit will be substantially reconfigured to accommodate the sport's return.

Pending changes

• The German Grand Prix was set to return to the Nürburgring, in accordance with the event-sharing agreement established between the Nürburgring and the Hockenheimring in 2008. The Nürburgring had previously hosted the race in 2013 and so was scheduled to host it again in 2015, but the venue was left off of the provisional calendar, leaving the event-sharing agreement at a stalemate.

Failed race bids

• The Grand Prix of America, originally aimed for a debut in 2013 at the Port Imperial Street Circuit in New Jersey, was again delayed for a third straight year.
• The Indian Grand Prix was canceled for the second consecutive year following tax disputes between the FIA and the Uttar Pradesh government.
• The Korean Grand Prix was scheduled to return to the Formula One calendar after being removed in 2014, but the plan was ultimately abandoned.

Regulation changes

Technical regulations

• The number of power units that a driver may use in a season will be reduced from five in 2014 to four in 2015.
• The rules regarding engine development that were introduced in 2014 will change, with the manufacturers allowed to perform half the development permitted in 2014; the development will be halved again in 2016.
• Following the backlash over "ugly" nose designs in 2014, the FIA moved to amend the rules surrounding nose designs for the 2015 season. Noses will now be lower than in 2014, retaining a minimum cross section, but they must taper to a point at a fixed linear rate, effectively outlawing the dramatic finger shapes seen in 2014 in favour of a more gradual shape. Furthermore, the design of the nose must be symmetrical and consistent with the centreline of the car, thereby banning the more exotic designs, such as the "twin-tusk" approach used by Lotus on the E22 chassis.
• The minimum weight of the cars at all times during an event was increased to 702 kilograms (1,548 lb).
• The ban on Front-and-Rear Interconnected suspension systems (FRIC) implemented in the middle of the 2014 season was formalised, with the regulations stating that the front and rear suspension must be designed in such a way that any change in performance must be a direct result of a change in load applied solely to them.
• The anti-intrusion panels on both sides of the survival cell have been extended upwards to the rim of the cockpit and alongside the driver's head.
• Following the financial struggles faced by Marussia and Caterham in 2014, the FIA approved the use of 2014-specification chassis in 2015 provided that teams showed cause and received an individual dispensation to compete with their old chassis. However a request by Manor F1 to use their 2014 car was later rejected by the other teams. Subsequent regulation changes allowed the team to use the 2014 model of Ferrari power units in their 2015 chassis instead of the 2015 specification power units used by Ferrari and other customer teams.

Sporting regulations

• The replacement of a complete power unit will no longer result in a penalty. Penalties will continue to be applied cumulatively for individual components of the power unit, and if such a grid place penalty is imposed and the driver's grid position is such that it cannot be applied in full, the remainder of the penalty will no longer be carried over to the next race, but will instead be applied in the form of a time penalty during the race corresponding to the number of grid spaces remaining in the penalty.
• In addition to the existing five-second penalty that may be served during a driver's scheduled pit stop, a new ten-second penalty that will have to be served in the same manner, will be introduced.
• If a car is deemed to have been released from its pit stop in an unsafe manner, the driver will receive a ten second stop-and-go penalty. Further penalties will be applied if the stewards believe that the driver is aware of this and attempts to drive the car regardless.
• The qualifying procedure has been further clarified to cater to different sizes of starting grids: if twenty-four cars are entered for the race, seven will be eliminated after the each of the first two qualifying segments; if twenty-two are entered, six will be eliminated after each qualifying segment and so on if fewer cars are eligible.
• The partial ban on pit-to-car communication introduced at the 2014 Singapore Grand Prix will be extended to include a blanket ban on sharing technical data between team and driver, such as specific fuel consumption settings.
• Double points will no longer be awarded at the final event of the championship.
• In light of a regulation introduced in 2014 dictating that a race can not run for more than four hours and following recommendations from the report into Jules Bianchi's accident the previous season, the start times of five Grands Prix have been moved one hour earlier, so that races do not start with less than four hours until dusk. Thus, the Australian, Malaysia, Chinese, Japanese and Russian Grands Prix will start an hour earlier than in 2014.
• In the aftermath of Bianchi's accident, a new procedure called virtual safety car (VSC) will be introduced, obliging drivers to reduce their speed to match the one indicated on their displays on their steering wheels. The procedure may be initiated when double waved yellow flags are needed on any section of a circuit where competitors and officials may be in danger, but the circumstances are not as such to warrant deployment of the actual safety car.
• The safety car procedure was amended. Once the last lapped car has passed the leader, the safety car will return to the pits at the end of the following lap. This is a change of the previous practice which required the unlapped cars to have caught up with the back of the pack before the safety car could return to the pits.
• If a race is suspended, the cars will no longer line up on the grid but will slowly proceed to the pit lane instead. Pit exit will be closed and the first car to arrive in the pit lane will proceed to the exit with the other lining up behind the first one.
• If any team personnel or team equipment remain on the grid after the fifteen-second signal has been shown before the start of the formation lap, the driver of the car concerned must start the race from the pit lane. If the driver concerned fails to obey this, they will receive a ten second stop-and-go penalty.
• Drivers are no longer permitted to change the design of their helmet in-season.

Season report

Max Verstappen is set to become the youngest driver to ever compete in a Grand Prix.

Pre-season

Sauber's early season preparations were disrupted by a series of legal challenges from former Caterham driver Giedo van der Garde, who claimed that the team had reneged on a contract to race that was signed in June 2014. Van der Garde filed a motion with the Supreme Court of Victoria in Australia in an effort to force the team to replace one of their drivers with him at the opening round in Melbourne, with the court finding in his favour.

McLaren's Fernando Alonso was involved in a pre-season testing accident that saw the two-time World Drivers' Champion hospitalised. On doctor's advice, Alonso elected to sit out the opening round in Australia, prompting the team to replace him with Kevin Magnussen for the race.

External links

• Official website
• Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile